Breaking the Waves

source: Breaking the Waves

The film is ugly from the beginning to the end, or lets say alpha and omega to sound a little bit more spiritual. By the way: Spiritualiy: Something this piece of dung has absolutely nothing to do with. Obviously in the world of Von Trier a woman is way more glorious, even holy in the end, if she indulges herself in humiliating, destructive acts that ultimately drive her to committing a gruesome murder on herself, just to please her mentally instable husband, who can not cope with his current situation. I intentionally call it murder, since suicide is an act of "selfdesired" death, which in this case does clearly not apply. Thats what happens if you neither use your heart, nore your head and fanatically and blindely follow another persons distructive mindset. There are tons of example in history like the Charles Mansons "Family". In the end somebody always dies. Nothing beautiful in that, at least not for a sane person!!

With Breaking the Waves , Lars begins to write and film a new trilogy called the golden heart, whose characteristic is the drama of characters who present themselves defenseless in the face of life's adversities. Here an extraordinary Emily Watson, impersonates a fragile young woman, with psychic problems who extremes her love for the only man who falls in love with her without compromise. The dramatic ending is decidedly Christological, with his sacrifice for the redemption-healing of his man destined to die from a very serious accident. This time the technique used by the director is less experimental, compared to previous films, with mdp on his shoulder and few grains although the shots are often out of focus. But this involves the spectator with a chronological effect which identifies one of the stylistic forms of the director, again awarded in Cannes with the Jury Grand Prix.

This film is beautiful and beautifully acted, but ultimately celebrates and sanctifies a woman abusing her body by allowing herself to be raped repeatedly (and ultimately to death)by strangers, to appease the ego of her hurt and depressed husband. Celebrating such "simple, all-giving, all-loving, female saints" promotes the idea that women should allow themselves to be abused in the name of love. It's female subjugation veiled as virtue.

It is hard to believe that others love this film. I found it to be awful. The camera work was bad; the story was crazy. The woman was retarded and the man was cruel. It seemed like a three hour film, but I watched it to the end just to see how silly it would get. I have to admit that the story line was original, but that does not make it good.

I love love LOVE Lars Von Trier films. This is a bit of a sleeper in his canon though, as there are films I like better (Antichrist, Dancer In The Dark, and the AMAZING Zentropa) but even then, this film is brilliant. All about a bit of a messed up in the head woman who marries a oil rigger. When he is critically injured, one of his requests is to have her take men on, and tell him about it to make him better. When he gets worse, she feels she's not doing enough. Even though this film is stark and ugly at times, there is some amazing points of beauty. I really did love the chapter intertitles, with it's scenery and music, so amazing. Emily Watson, my god, just blows me away, and that ending, for some dumb reason (I've seen this about 4 times now) made me weep in how beautiful it was.

First off, I must say I agree 100% with the praise of Emily Watson here. She has an emotional nakedness few established actresses get to, and this is only her first film. When she feels an emotion, it's like her entire body acts on it, and you never catch her "acting." She's shown in later movies like THE BOXER and HILARY AND JACKIE that her performance here is no fluke. HOWEVER... I didn't like this film. Admittedly, though a Catholic, I'm a skeptic, and any film which takes seriously the mystical parts of religion makes me duck for cover, but this film is ridiculous. Not only that, it's smarmy in how it asks Bess, the heroine, to * herself for her husband, and claims that she's doing it for God. I'm sorry, but I found that offensive. I wasn't bothered by Lars Von Trier's technique (though I'm amused at the Dogma he and other filmmakers have created from this and similar films), just the subject matter.

This movie is terrible. There are a few points that lift it from a zero-rating to 1: 1. The chapter-markers. When the viewer has fallen asleep he is awaken by some good old rock music, before he is set upon by another boring chapter. 2. The naitivity of Bess. She's so far-out that you have to laugh - and you'll not be touched by her. I believe you're supposed to be moved by this film and be crying tears when you leave the cinema. This is *not true*. The actual effect is you'll have a few quick laughs that the movie is so terrible and you'll be enraged that you just wasted about 3 hours that could have been put to good use (like watching C-Span).

Ever since I saw the Nymphomaniac movies I've been fascinated with Lars Von Trier. But then I watched Antichrist and The House That Jack Built and almost gave up. This movie has made me enjoy him a little bit more again. Emily Watson was great. I've actually never seen another one of her movies. This never gets boring (even tho it comes in at 2:39 which is a bit commitment for me!) You feel for the characters, not just the main ones; and it keeps you interested until the end. I won't say much more, but I almost wasn't surprised at the ending. Very LVT. I will be watching more of his older movies now!

Of every of Von Triers projects I've seen so far (Riget, Dancer In The Dark, Europa and Idioterne) I could sense something happening... until it slowly faded away to end up in 'just an ok' movie. Take Dancer In The Dark for instance. It's interesting, acted superbly, but also overblown and out of proportions. It's like that with Breaking The Waves. We follow the life of Bess, a naive woman who marries the 'oilman' Jan. When he's seriously injured in an accident, Bess believes that she can make him better, by sleeping with other men and telling him about it. What should be a tragedic story is turned into something silly when in the end, with Bess dying, Jan is getting back his strength. Strength enough to burry his wife into the ocean, while bells from heaven (literally!) sound for her... I'm sorry, but it's just too much for me. Von Trier has overdone it again I'm afraid... 6/10.