The Culture Enthusiast

Maybe it’s a little soon to say this, but Babette’s Feast is the best movie I’ve seen this year.

I don’t want to over sell it, but there’s a reason most people never heard of this movie.

It’s a Danish film with little action and a powerful message that goes directly against everything modern man believes and pursues.

And yet… the photography is stunning, the dialogues are moving and certain scenes are amazingly simple and philosophical. The characters are role models who would put George Bailey to shame.

Actually, Babette’s Feast seems to pick up where It’s a wonderful life left off. Both deal with the beauty (and the dullness) of everyday, ordinary life but whereas George Bailey constantly sacrifices himself for his family, the three main characters in Babette’s Feast sacrifice themselves for God and their fellow human beings.

Babette is a French refugee who lives with two elderly women, Filippa and Martine, in a small Scandinavian town. The three live very simple, humble lives: Babette working as a maid/cook and the two women helping the elderly, the poor and the sick of the village.

Problems arise when Babette, a Catholic, offers to make a typical French dinner in celebration of the birthday of Martine and Filippa’s father. The two sisters, strict Protestants, view the French dinner with utter horror and an occasion for sin and vice. Will they be charitable and allow Babette to go on with her luxurious French dinner?

The background stories of the two sisters are very interesting and their attitudes towards the pursuit of marriage and carrier are shocking to modern eyes. 

It is noteworthy that it was said that they live “impoverished lives". For our Age, where the pursuit of all interests other than our own has been dismissed, yes, their lives are boring. But for the characters themselves and those who share their Christian worldview, they live very rich lives.

I won’t say more about the story because I don’t want to spoil the movie’s beautiful surprises, but watching this movie now is just so refreshing.

The last time I went to the movies I saw 5 trailers that dealt, one way or another, with the destruction of the world as we know it. 

Five.

These movies, with fitting names such as After Earth, Oblivion, Escape from Planet Earth (can you guess which one is a children's movie?) had a lot in common. All portrayed more or less apocalyptic scenarios where Earth or part of it is destroyed and people are left alone to fight for survival, their futures bleak and not promising.

Funny how these movies are far from the reality of (relative) peace and prosperity in the Western world. So, where does this need to watch bleakness and despair come from? What is it mirroring? Since it doesn’t mirror the outward reality, it must be expressing our inner reality. 

The question is: do these movies offer a sense of meaning or belonging in the end? Or are they fueling our dissatisfaction with violence and destruction, deepening an inner void?

Think of The Hunger Games. The main character offers to die for others, which is a much bigger and courageous sacrifice than the ones in Babette’s Feast or It’s a Wonderful life. But the presence of action, violence and competition in the movie end up glamorizing this sacrifice.

What Babette, Martina, Fillipa (and George Bailey) do is not glamorous at all. 

But what is more readily available: to give away your life or to eat a coarse, unseasoned soup without complaining like Babette does?

Babette’s Feast reminds us that our lives, no matter how much they are filled with seemingly ordinary, repetitive actions, can be very meaningful and rich. 

That's something we easily forget, specially with so many movies teaching us otherwise. Which is why I wish more people would watch and learn to appreciate Babette’s Feast.

I’d say that very soon, movies like this and It’s a wonderful life will be considered outdated. I consider them counter-culture.

Have you seen Babette's Feast or It's a Wonderful Life? What do you think of these new movie releases?

Images: 1, 2 (Dvd still), 3

Once I wanted to buy a dictionary of rhymes. Yes, a dictionary of rhymes. Let's leave it at that. Anyway, I went to a used book store and happily said: "Good morning, do you have a dictionary of rhymes?”. The salesman laughed and I blushed. This sentence actually rhymes in Portuguese.

3. Nutty librarian 

I briefly worked as a hospital librarian. One day a woman who worked at the hospital came to the library, and asked if we had any books by Nostradamus. I said no, but if she liked prophecies, I recommend Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. She took the book out.

5. Chez Balzac

I love visiting writer's houses. I guess it's the closest thing to meeting them in person. I've been to Balzac's and Poe's houses. I'd love to go to Jane Austen's and Flaubert's house someday.

6. Hospital follies

Once I went to hospital, can't remember why, must have been an asthma attack or something. But it wasn't anything serious. After seeing the doctor, I had to wait for the results of the exams which would take a long time.  I didn't want to just sit there doing nothing. So, I sneaked out of the hospital and went to a bookstore. I ended up buying the book I was reading at the time, Brothers Karamazov. When I went back, my exams had long been ready and that's why I have two copies of Brothers Karamazov.

7. Scouting for treasures

Over the years I've found so many incredible books in used bookstores. You can see I was particularly happy to find a cheap collection of art books with one of my favorite paintings:

8. Rat de bibliotheque

I'm also a big fan of libraries. Even during school and college I took out books from local libraries and I still have my first library card.

9. Stealing memories

I never met any famous author but I really wished I had met David Foster Wallace. Since that's no longer a possibility, I'll just borrow other people's memories then. Here's Ben Casnocha's and Evan Fleischer's.

10. Vintage mementos

One of the best things about used books is that you never know what you'll find inside them. I always keep whatever comes in them. Inside my copy of Life of Christ (just finding this book is a special memory) I found many this images of Saint Joseph and many others. Recently, I bought A Patriotic History of the United States and found this inside it :

While I'm writing I am encouraged to start leaving beautiful pictures and mysterious notes inside my books, so that one day a person will find them and have their own memories.

Well, these are some of my memories. I'd love to hear yours!

Images via

1 We Heart It

2 The Bowler Press (watch out, the letter contains spoilers!)

Granted, it wasn’t that great of an exhibit, but this feeling of bafflement is quite common. ll never forget when a friend of mine told me the thing she enjoyed the least in Italy were the museums. 

The thing is: it doesn’t have to be this way.  Art can be very moving and uplifting, if we know how to approach it.

Here’s what I’ve done over the years that allowed me to enjoy art more:

1) Keep it simple, sugar

If you feel like you don’t “get” art, you should stay away from modern art. There is a lot to “get” in modern art, so we might as well go for artists from the Renaissance or the Classical period. The beauty and the technique from these paintings will have a much more instantaneous effect on you, so there is no feeling of “not getting”  what the hell is going on in the painting.

  

2) Look for the real thing

I try to see paintings live in museums whenever I can. Reproductions in books and the internet are ok, but you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to see the original painting live.

3) The more that you learn…

Once in the museum, fight laziness and read those small explanations next to the paintings and the big ones in the beginning of the exhibitions. Plus, if the museum offers audio guides, use them. I know you have to pay for them, but they are incredibly helpful and interesting. I used one in every big museum I went to and I don’t regret it.

4) Be the king of the pen

5) Take your time

You’ve probably seen this: people enter the exhibit and they form a line. Everybody moves at the same pace - the standard 30 seconds on each painting. That’s crazy. When you like a painting, spend more time observing it. When you don’t, walk away. 

Artists are so passionate about their creations. Why not approach art with the same passion, or at least with some curiosity? 

Now that we are all set, we just need to decide what museum to visit this weekend!

What are your tips for enjoying art? 

Images:

1 - Syndex
2 - People in museums (great idea for a Pinterest board!)
3 - Photobella

I hope you had a blessed Christmas and that you haven’t broken all your New Year’s Resolutions yet. (I myself am only slightly delayed on my To Be Read list).

This is going to be a killer year, I can feel it. I’m working on exciting new features for The Culture Enthusiast and I’ll tell you more about it soon. To have more time to work on them I’ll be posting once a week now, every Wednesday.

Quality before quantity – that’s my motto. Unless we’re talking about cookies.

Now that business is out of the way, let’s catch up.

During my blog break I watched a bunch of movies and it felt… pointless. What was I supposed to do? Write comments about the movie and email them to people?

I did that. Most of my friends probably blocked my email.

But December seemed like the perfect time to go to the movies, didn’t it? It’s the holidays, just before the Oscars, time for some serious blockbusters.

I’m telling you, I must have stood 15 minutes staring at that huge wall of movie posters figuring out which would be less disappointing. 

Had I known  Lee Pace was in Lincoln and The Hobbit that decision would have been much faster.

Luckily I could rely on Dvds and since we last spoke I’ve seen Midnight in Paris, The Thin Man, It’s a Wonderful Life, and all Cary Grant movies I could find.

As for reading… well, in 2012 I didn’t read four books a month as I intended to. That’s why for 2013 my goal is 3 books. And an audio book. 

I’ve recently finished Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and I am beginning Guy the Maupassant’s short stories.

But enough about me. What have you been up to? What are your cultural resolutions for 2013?

And remember:

A little bit of history

Date: 1926

Location: National Museum of Fines Arts, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Georgina de Albuquerque is a Brazilian painter from the 20th century. After marrying the painter Lucílio Albuquerque, she went to Paris where she studied in the Académie Julien and in the École de Beaux Arts. She was the first Brazilian to attend the latter. In 1912, she returned to Brazil where she had many exhibits (she also had some in the U.S.)

A little bit of technique

Georgina is considered an impressionist painter. In  Summer Day, she uses loose brush strokes and soft colors which are impressionist characteristics often used in her paintings. 

She truly managed to set herself apart from other Brazilian artists with her delicate paintings and motifs.

A little bit of enthusiasm

I first saw this painting as a child in a museum in Rio. A couple of years ago, I remembered it somehow but didn’t remember the name of the painting, or of the painter or of the museum! I asked my mother and searched my childhood journals. I also didn’t remember the year of my visit to Rio, so the search took a long time – too bad there’s no ctrl + F command in journals.

A couple of weeks after that I was at a dinner party and I saw at the host’s house a book with this painting in the cover. Talk about coincidence.

This comes to show how strong an impression this painting had on me. I love the warm light and colors. It reminds me a little of Renoir’s portrait of Jeanne Samary. Both knew perfectly well how to convey femininity in the delicate gestures. 

What paintings have made a great impression on you?