Babette’s Feast is a film directed by Gabriel Axel. It is a story of two "worldly" men, two devoted sisters, a humbled French servant named Babette, and the impact they have on each other and a fellowship of Puritan followers. It is a story of sacrifice, reconciliation, mercy, and theological contrast.

Both sisters, Phillipa and Martina, sacrifice more grandiose lifestyles to remain with their father and continue to serve their community’s spiritual needs in the Puritan way of life. Babette sacrifices a small fortune in order to treat the sisters and their followers to the celebration feast. Except for the General, the dinner guests all agree to risk sacrificing their purity in order to grant Babette’s wish.

Throughout the whole film, the characters and settings are ominously gray and devoid of color until Babette wins the lottery. She is seen on the shore contemplating her future underneath a bright blue sky. It is here that Babette decides to make the "French dinner." A similar image is also given with the plain and unappealing mush that the sisters are seen eating and then later serving the old people. This food greatly contrasts the lavish feast that brings the quarreling "flock" to reconciliation.

There were some interesting and effective uses of symbolism in the film. The dream sequence of severed animal heads, hellfire, and spilt wine flowing across the table like blood, gave a foreboding and suspenseful apprehension towards the impending possible damnation of the sisters and the others. Several other obvious Christian symbols made subtle appearances in the film. For instance, Babette wore a dangling cross around here neck, there were fish everywhere, and their were twelve guest seated at the table for what was possibly to be Babette’s last supper.

The contrasting elements within the film were successful in providing a dramatic and ironic twist to the conclusion of the film. Both the General and Papin the opera singer confront the past as older men to discover that "all is vanity" and that fame and ambition have ultimately gained them nothing. At the dinner table, the General is the representative of "worldly" experience. This is reinforced by the bright colors of his uniform in contrast to the dark and drab clothing of the other participants. The Puritans, who believe that humility and poverty in this life will guarantee richness and glory in the next life, come to realize that God’s "mercy imposes no conditions." It is in this compromising of theologies that "righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another."