Pope Francis considered "Babette's Feast" (1987) to be "One of the best movies he had ever seen" & it was one of his top 3 movies of all time. About the film, he said,
"The story takes place in a very strict Calvinist community in Denmark. The protagonists, two sisters, daughters of a Protestant pastor, had each fallen in love but rejected this feeling because it was wrongly considered contrary to the very strict morals they had inherited. They lived a life of renunciation, not only in love but in everything, including food and clothing. A kind of continuous self-flagellation.
The French cook Babette, a ‘foreigner’ in this context, after winning a rich lottery prize, decides to cook a sublime meal for the whole community, and by this gesture she manages to make everyone feel and see human beauty. She manages to make them perceive this divine pleasure that has been wrongly suppressed for too long.
Choosing one’s own food is one of those choices. It is a powerful mechanism for change: it means rewarding one productive and economic model rather than another."
P.S: On this day, 39 years ago, Gabriel Axel's "Babette's Feast" (1987) was released in Denmark.
"I've been cursed since the day I was born"
Bicycle Thieves 1948 dir V.DeSica
It follows the story of a poor father searching in post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle.
Lamberto Maggiorani
August 28,1909-April22,1983
Angela Lansbury, Charles Boyer BOTD August 28, 1899 - August 26, 1978.
and Ingrid Bergman take a break during production of GASLIGHT (George Cukor, 1944).
René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Man Ray BOTD The legendary modernist photographer Ed van der Elsken captured them together at the opening retrospective exhibition for American artist William N. Copley in 1966
Emak-Bakia (1926) - Emak Bakia is a Basque phrase meaning "leave me alone" or "give peace".
1926 French surrealist short film directed by Man Ray,BOTD
With Kiki of Montparnasse
René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Man Ray BOTD The legendary modernist photographer Ed van der Elsken captured them together at the opening retrospective exhibition for American artist William N. Copley in 1966
Emak-Bakia (1926) - Emak Bakia is a Basque phrase meaning "leave me alone" or "give peace".
1926 French surrealist short film directed by Man Ray,BOTD
With Kiki of Montparnasse
Yayoi Kusama at the age of ten, 1939.
BOTD Yayoi Kusama 22 March 1929
she works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction.
Kusama is considered the most successful living female artist.
Yayoi Kusama RIP
22 March 1929 – 14 August 2026
She has said that every dot she paints is an expression of love - for the viewer, for the world, for life itself.
"I want to send love to the entire world from my heart."
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama dies at 97
22 March 1929 - 14 August 2026 RIP
“More and more, I think about the role of the arts, and as an artist, I think that it's important that I share the love and peace.
Yayoi Kusama