REVIEW: BREAKING THE WAVES (1996)
James Berardinelli
BREAKING THE WAVES
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 8.5
Alternative Scale: ***1/2 out of ****
Denmark/France, 1996
U.S. Release Date: beginning 11/13/96 (limited)
Running Length: 2:39
MPAA Classification: R (Violence, sex, nudity, profanity)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr,
Adrian Rawlins, Udo Kier
Director: Lars von Trier
Producers: Vibeke Windelov, Peter Aalbaek Jensen
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
Cinematography: Robby Muller
Music: Joachim Holbek
U.S. Distributor: October Films
According to writer/director Lars von Trier, BREAKING THE WAVES is
"a simple love story", but "simple" hardly begins to describe this
deeply disturbing, multi-layered drama. In fact, nowhere is the
picture's complexity more evident than in its study of contrasts -- it
is highly spiritual yet anti-religious, triumphant yet tragic, and
personal yet universal. Love forms the film's core, but rather than
approaching the subject from a cliched perspective, BREAKING THE WAVES
examines no less than six facets of the emotion: transformative love,
sacrificial love, redemptive love, destructive love, romantic love, and
sexual love. And, despite a slightly disappointing conclusion, this
movie still rates among the best of the year.
To date, von Trier's best-known international effort was the 1991
release, ZENTROPA (called EUROPA outside of North America). Those whose
familiarity with the director dates to that movie will find BREAKING THE
WAVES a surprising experience. Gone are the artistic, stylized flairs
that dominated ZENTROPA. The nearly-antiseptic perspective has been
replaced by something far more involved and intimate. It's easy to view
the characters in ZENTROPA from a detached vantage point; a similar
approach is impossible for BREAKING THE WAVES.
This epic-length film is divided into nine sections: a prologue,
seven "chapters", and an epilogue. BREAKING THE WAVES transpires
sometime during the 1970s in Scotland. (The exact year is irrelevant
since there's a timeless quality to the material -- it could be taking
place today if the music, clothing, and automobiles didn't argue for an
earlier decade.) Most of the action occurs in a closed village with
deeply-rooted fundamentalist Christian beliefs. According to the elders
who rule with an iron fist, life isn't for enjoyment; it's for serving
God. Sex isn't for pleasure; it's for procreation. Outsiders aren't
welcome; they're consigned to hell. So when meek, kind-hearted Bess
(Emily Watson) announces that she intends to marry oil-rig worker Jan
(Stellan Skarsgard), an unbeliever, the entire community is stunned.
Despite the stern disapproval of all the elders, the marriage goes
ahead, and Bess finds herself happier than she ever could have imagined.
She enjoys sex almost as much as she does the simple joy of lying in her
snoring husband's arms. But heartbreak looms ahead. Jan returns to his
rig, leaving a lonely Bess behind. Even her best friend and sister-in-
law, Dorothy (BEFORE THE RAIN's Katrin Cartlidge), can't lift her out of
her profound depression, but when a local doctor (Adrian Rawlins) is
called in to evaluate her mental state, he proclaims her sane. Then
tragedy strikes as a freak work accident renders Jan paralyzed from the
neck down.
Central to the narrative is Bess' relationship with God. For most
of the movie, von Trier keeps it ambiguous whether she is psychotic or
truly involved in some kind of special communion with the Almighty.
Does she really hear God's voice, or is she exhibiting signs of a split
personality? Is she His instrument of salvation, or is she merely
experiencing potentially self-destructive delusions? Unfortunately, in
a late scene, von Trier tips the balance in favor of one interpretation,
and this dilutes the film's overall impact.
That said, there's little doubt that von Trier is using BREAKING
THE WAVES as an opportunity to contrast the elders' rigid, unforgiving
attitudes with Bess' gentle, giving spirit. Because her unorthodox
attempts to save her injured husband involve breaking the Law, she puts
her status within the community at jeopardy. To further emphasize the
strength of her position's spiritual foundation, von Trier parallels
Bess' sufferings with those of Jesus -- she is condemned by the holders
of the Law, suffers for the sake of those she loves, and, ultimately,
offers a path to salvation.
BREAKING THE WAVES is presented as an excursion in cinema verite.
Von Trier, in collaboration with cinematographer Robby Muller, uses a
handheld camera throughout. In addition, in order to obtain a grainy
image with muted colors, the film makers took the original widescreen
print, transferred it to video, then brought it back to film. So, while
there are times when BREAKING THE WAVES may threaten to induce nausea
(especially to those who sit close to the screen), this style
effectively creates a faux documentary environment that breaches
invisible barriers and brings us into painfully close contact with the
characters.
One area where von Trier errs is in his use of artistic "chapter
breaks". Each chapter has a title that's presented during a brief
intermission from the action which features a richly-hued, painting-like
image on screen while '70s rock tunes (like Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road" or David Bowie's "Life on Mars") play in the background.
The biggest problem with these inserts is that, while they offer a brief
respite from the film's unrelenting intensity, their interruption of the
mood becomes an unwanted intrusion.
As the deeply disturbed Bess, British stage actress Emily Watson
turns in an award-worthy performance. Since Bess must endure a number
of physically and mentally degrading events while her volatile
personality veers from emotional calm to complete hysteria, Watson's
task of creating a believable character becomes more difficult as the
movie progresses. To her credit, she never falters. The supporting
players, including Stellan Skarsgard and Katrin Cartlidge, do fine jobs,
but none captures the lens the way Watson does.
There's no denying that BREAKING THE WAVES is a difficult motion
picture to endure, yet, despite its length, it holds the viewer's
attention for the full one-hundred fifty-nine minutes. Excepting the
chapter breaks, there isn't a wasted moment. And, if not for a somewhat
forced catharsis during the epilogue (the weakest segment of the movie),
BREAKING THE WAVES would have been more wrenching than it is. This
achievement announces that von Trier's aptitude for fashioning
characters equals, if not exceeds, that which he has previously
displayed for images.
- James Berardinelli
e-mail: bera...@bc.cybernex.net
ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
Bryant Frazer
BREAKING THE WAVES
A film review by Bryant Frazer
Copyright 1996 Bryant Frazer
Directed by Lars von Trier
Written by von Trier, Peter Asmussen,
and David Pirie
Cinematography by Robby Mueller
and Jean Paul Meurice
Edited by Anders Refn
Starring Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgaard,
and Katrin Cartlidge
Denmark/Netherlands/Sweden/France, 1996
(English language)
GRADE: A
BREAKING THE WAVES, the powerful new movie from Danish
director Lars von Trier (ZENTROPA, THE KINGDOM) is as
daunting as it is satisfying. The satisfaction comes from von
Trier's audacious and ever-deepening sense for filmmaking --
BREAKING THE WAVES is his most ambitious and skillfully drawn
narrative so far, and it offers the pleasure of undertaking
an uncertain journey, unsure of where it might all end.
That's also what's daunting. BREAKING THE WAVES is epic in
scope, careering wildly from warm and fleshy love story to
grim tragedy to something else entirely over the course of
its 158 minutes. It's a film that demands your rapt attention
bit by bit, plumbing ever-deeper corners of the soul and
plunging at one point into the abyss. Finally, once it's
over, it will return day by day to haunt its audiences. This
is seriously nervy filmmaking.
BREAKING THE WAVES derives its truest power from Emily
Watson's fevered performance in the lead. Watson makes her
film debut as Bess, a young woman in a small Scottish village
who's getting married to Jan, a strapping oil-rig worker, as
the movie begins. The union is looked on with disapproval by
the Presbyterian village elders, who muzzle women's voices in
church and take their greatest apparent satisfaction in
consigning sinners to damnation. To the villagers, Bess is a
suitable case for treatment, an emotional basket case in a
community that prides itself on restraint. But Bess is
determined to marry, and the post-wedding scenes detail her
giddy sexual awakening in explicit yet gentle detail. With
Jan, she has found happiness.
It's not long before Jan is called back to sea, and Bess
lives in dread of the day that he will leave. She can't help
herself -- just before Jan's airborne, she cries out in pain
and rushes the helicopter, pulling the hatch open to take one
last look at her beloved. In another scene, Bess waits all
day beside a country road in the rain, under cover of the
telephone booth where she has arranged to receive Jan's phone
call. The erotically charged conversation is testimony to her
newfound comfort and maturity. She's a woman who takes the
most profound and life-affirming satisfaction in sexual
pleasure, and she prays to God for Jan's swift return. The
prayer is answered -- Jan is clocked on the head by a piece
of heavy equipment and returns to the village on a stretcher,
paralyzed.
Bess blames herself, believing that her prayers are
responsible for Jan's horrible misfortune. Upset that he
can't make love to her, Jan instructs his wife not to dress
in tight clothing, lest he be too aware of her body, out of
reach. And then he tells her she must have sex with other men
so that she can return to his bed and recount her lovemaking
to him -- in this way, he insists, he can be reminded of her
sexuality and his otherwise worthless life can be saved.
We get the distinct feeling that while Bess is nothing but
sincere in her devotion to her husband, Jan's motivations are
at best misguided and at worst downright malevolent.
Ostensibly, he's trying to give her life back to her, but how
could he be unaware of the pain his demands cause her?
Moreover, how can he stand to direct his beloved to debase
herself by, say, sitting next to a 50-year-old stranger at
the back of a bus and giving him a hand job? Or by making a
clumsy, naked pass at Jan's doctor? Still, Jan's condition is
seen to improve as Bess puts out, and that's reason enough
for her to clothe herself in the borrowed trappings of a
cheap whore.
Is this beginning to sound ridiculous, like the thinly
constructed plot of a softcore porn movie on late night cable
TV? Von Trier dares to walk that line, and such is his skill
and conviction that he staves off the inherent tawdriness of
such a concept and invests it with a fierce gravity.
Stylistically, BREAKING THE WAVES has a lot in common with
the director's television project, THE KINGDOM. In his
breakthrough, ZENTROPA, von Trier used every optical trick in
the book to create a highly stylized world -- replete with
rear-projection effects and process shots -- that was more
memorable for its visual impact than for its overreaching
characterization and narrative. But THE KINGDOM was a marvel,
a four-and-a-half hour ghost story that seemed to pass in
little more than a moment. Propelled by a fitful documentary
film style and a picture drained of most color and detail,
THE KINGDOM's supernatural pretensions were validated and
even amplified by a mood that felt like cinema verite.
BREAKING THE WAVES takes much greater risks, and
cinematographer Robbie Mueller (PARIS, TEXAS) was obviously
directed to take a similar approach. The film's bleak look is
reminiscent of THE KINGDOM's -- both were shot on film,
transferred to video and then back to film again, which
leeched out color and detail and imbued the image with an
odd, nearly ethereal quality -- but where THE KINGDOM took
place mostly within the institutional confines of a single
building, BREAKING THE WAVES allows that highly processed,
unnatural patina to infect a village, a countryside, and
indeed the whole world. In this bleak context, Muller, whose
extensive work with Wim Wenders is justly admired, showcases
the fine naturalistic portrayals of the characters peopling
that dim vista. If the bleak imagery represents von Trier's
intellectual guidance, in the rhythm of the camerawork and
the editing we can feel the movie's heartbeat.
And when Mueller's camera hovers for long moments in front of
Emily Watson's face, it finds the movie's soul. Hers is one
of those rare performances that it's impossible to
overpraise. The relationship between Watson and the camera is
reminiscent of nothing so much as the cold and exacting gaze
that delineates Renee Falconetti's monumental performance in
Carl Theodor Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (perhaps
significantly; like Saint Joan, Bess is more or less accused
of heresy). The character of Bess becomes inarguably flesh,
and Watson inhabits that flesh with preternatural aplomb.
With wide, round eyes and slim lips the dark shade of blood,
there's nothing vague about Watson's emoting. Her feelings
are communicated with a precision that can be charming, as
when those lips curl near the cheek to puff a strand of hair
out of her eyes, or wrenching, as when her shriek suddenly
pierces the movie's uncommon quiet. Her marriage has
transformed her suddenly from virgin into a woman of full
sexuality whose very essence seems saturated with pleasure by
the act of lovemaking. (Helena Bonham Carter, who could
hardly be so unspoiled a presence, reportedly won the role of
Bess and then turned it down.) Even when she's carrying on a
two-way conversation with God -- or on those occasions where
she glances directly at the camera -- the character is never
overplayed, and our understanding of Bess is key to our
willingness to follow her on what seems to be rather a
dispiriting journey.
The performances are, in fact, uniformly excellent. The beefy
Stellan Skargaard plays Jan as an imperfect yet admirable
husband, the kind of robust fellow who can truly demand your
sympathy when he's laid up in a hospital bed. His playful
physicality in the early scenes is key to the rest of his
performance, since we need something to remember him by once
he's supine and under the influence of drugs and depression.
And Katrin Cartlidge as Bess's loving sister Dodo, who's at
all times wary of Jan's influence, is the essential
intellectual bridge between the outcast Bess and the rest of
this fundamentalist community. Von Trier's heroine is a Good
Woman, but Dodo helps remind us that her selflessness isn't
wholly admirable, or rational.
That having been said, the real crux of BREAKING THE WAVES is
a circumstance which can't be revealed in a movie review.
Let's just say that once the narrative concludes, von Trier
gives us an "epilogue" that confounds all expectations. The
last moments of this film are by far the most challenging,
and after some reflection I've decided that without them --
the final shot in particular -- BREAKING THE WAVES would
simply be an extraordinary film. As is, it's a great one.
Without resort to mere words, von Trier breaks the bounds of
narrative and presents a resolution that's as troublesome as
it is fulfilling. In a bold refutation of its own grim,
nearly sardonic logic, BREAKING THE WAVES cuts to the quick
of religious faith, personal sacrifice, and human existence.
--
DEEP FOCUS (Movie Reviews)
http://www.panix.com/~bfrazer/flicker/
"Go ahead, mum -- treat yourself."
Steve Rhodes
BREAKING THE WAVES
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
I saw this Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner at the press screening.
I know of two people in the movie industry that claim it is the best
film they have seen this year. It has already opened in Europe and is
just now starting to open around the United States. Locally in the San
Jose area, it will be coming to the Camera Three this Wednesday,
November 20, and they actually moved up the opening date because of all
the positive buzz in the press.
_______________________________________________________________________
BREAKING THE WAVES
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"I thank you for the greatest gift of all - love. I thank you for
Jan (pronounced Yah'n)" says newlywed Bess McNeill (Emily Watson) to
her God. Bess lives on the desolate Isle of Skye in Scotland, and she
is a member of a very strict Calvinist church. Thus begins a tragic
story of faith and love by Danish director Lars Von Trier.
Trier's first English language film and his first love story is
BREAKING THE WAVES. Trier is an intense director whom you may remember
from his film EUROPA. People in Denmark will remember him for his 1994
TV miniseries "The Kingdom" since as the press kit said, the streets
were empty when it was playing. It was the hottest show ever on Danish
television.
I could not set up the film better than the quote from actor
Stellan Skarsgaard (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER) who plays Bess's outsider
husband Jan. He said of the film that "it's melodrama's answer to
INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE because the emotions are constantly
given free rein." The epic length and the risk taking emotional scenes
by Emily Watson got the film the Grand Jury Prize this year at the
Cannes Film Festival.
"We do not need bells in our church to worship God," says The
Minister (Jonathan Hackett). This is a church that views seriousness
and rules as a virtue and frivolity and fun as a sin. "I would say to
you that if there is one of these commandments you do not love and do
not obey, you have no business at the Lord's table," preaches The
Minister. When the men (women are not allowed) bury people they can
and do pronounce, "for your sins you are confined to hell," so the
sermons are taken quite literally by the congregation. The church
elders rule the community and are not to be taken lightly. Bess loves
her god and her church and strives to be faithful to them both. Many
scenes have her in the church alone with her angry God talking back to
her through her voice.
The acting is incredibly beautifully all around, but none is in
the same league as that of first time screen actress Watson. Her
naivete, her mother (Sandra Voe) calls her "a feeble girl," places her
in incredibly vulnerable situations. Through her innocence she goes
from intense physical and emotional love down to the depths of
depravity and insanity. Through it she has incredible faith in her
husband and her God, but it is this very faith that becomes her
undoing.
As the show starts, the sex is so intense and frequent, I began to
wonder if this was going to be a low budget and more realistic NINE 1/2
WEEKS. Until Jan has to go back for another long stint on the oil
drilling rig, they are one of the most joyous young couples you are
likely to meet. Of the many scenes of special beauty, my favorite was
when virginal Bess sees her husband naked for the first time. Looking
on a his male nudity puts her into a state of giggles. The human body
is kind of funny when you think about it.
Bess becomes so obsessively attached to her husband, that she
confesses to him, "everyone says I love you too much." This part of
the film is full of simple pleasures and reminds you of all the
inherent beauty in the world.
The picture is filmed in sepia by Jean Paul Meurice and Robby
Mueller. They use a handheld camera so that the actors can walk all
around the set without being confined to playing just in from of the
camera. This sounds better than it turns out. Sometimes I thought the
title referred to the waves on the screen, and I felt as if I was going
to get seasick. My home videos are more stable, and with only a single
camera, it was pan here and then pan there resulting in many a sequence
being out of focus. At any rate, the sepia color was an effective
choice. Before each chapter they have a computer enhanced full color
video clip that is reminiscent of a Bierstadt landscape painting. An
interesting juxtaposition.
In sharp contrast to the bleak outdoor openness, the drilling rig
is a happy, but claustrophobic place to work. The job's physical
endurance makes the environment dangerous. As shown in the trailers,
Jan is paralyzed in an accident. The scene where Bess gets her friend
and nurse Dodo McNeill (excellent actress Katrin Cartlidge from BEFORE
THE RAIN and NAKED) to knell down and pray with her outside the
operating room will elicit tears in even the toughest movie goers. If
you do not empathize with poor Bess throughout the film, then you
probably need to have your emotions checked at your next physical.
Watson's performance is Oscar quality throughout.
The script by Peter Asmussen, David Pirie, and Lars Von Trier and
the direction have such a naturalness that it feels less like a movie
that a home video of someone's life. Bess becomes all the shy and
innocent women that you have ever known. When Jan is hurt, Bess's
brain begins to snap as she explains, "what happened on the rig was my
fault. I prayed to God to send him home."
When he regains consciousness, Jan places a single demand on Bess
that sends her over the edge trying to fulfill it. I will not give
this key plot twist away even if the trailer does. Jan's command is
the subject of the entire last half of the film. The very last scene
of the picture is something special and not one you will guess so hang
in there even if you think your bladder is going to burst.
There is not a bad performance in the show. Besides the actors
already mentioned, Jean-Marc Barr plays Jan's friend Terry, Adrian
Rawlins plays young and handsome Dr. Richardson, and Udo Kier is a
sadistic sailor.
The film was way too long and the camera work drove me crazy, but
Emily Watson's performance and her childlike acceptance of faith was
something it would be an absolute shame to miss. A brilliant if
somewhat flawed picture.
BREAKING THE WAVES runs 2:38. The film is rated R for explicit
sex, full male and female frontal nudity, some profanities, one drug
usage scene, and some violence. Teenagers should be mature to be able
to go. I recommend this touching picture to you and award it ***.
______________________________________________________________________
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film.
*** = Excellent show. Look for it.
** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable.
* = Poor show. Don't waste your money.
0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: November 18, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
Scott Renshaw
BREAKING THE WAVES
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
(October)
Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgaard, Katrin Cartlidge, Adrian
Rawlins.
Screenplay: Lars von Trier.
Producers: Vibeke Windelov, Peter Aalbaek Jensen.
Director: Lars von Trier.
MPAA Rating: R (nudity, sexual situations, profanity, drug use,
violence).
Running Time: 166 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Early in Lars von Trier's shattering new drama BREAKING THE WAVES,
there is a scene in which Bess MacNeill (Emily Watson), an innocent young
woman living in a coastal Scottish town, is deflowered by her husband Jan
(Stellan Skarsgaard) in a bathroom at their wedding reception. It is the
kind of situation you might have seen before played for laughs in low-brow
comedies, usually because one of the parties in the bathroom is not the
bride or the groom. In one astonishing moment, however, von Trier shows
that he is not going to take you anywhere you have been before, allowing
his hand-held camera to linger on the face of a woman whose reaction is
nothing as simple as lust or anxiety. It is nothing less than awe at the
overpowering emotions of making love for the first time which plays out
before us, and introduces us to one of the most utterly fascinating film
characters I have ever seen, played by an actor of unbelievable range.
Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Emily Watson, and do yourselves the
favor of remembering that name. It is true that she has been given the
kind of role which most actors (particularly women) would commit several
felonies for -- a fragile, unstable woman who risks the censure of her
strict Calvinist community in pursuing her love for lusty outsider Jan --
but Watson brings to it the kind of performance which doesn't so much
impress you as transport you. When we first see Bess kneel in prayer to
God, only to hear her play both roles in a dialogue, it is startling and
disturbing, and makes her somewhat pitiable; later, when Bess finds
herself unable to summon God's voice, it is somehow just as terrible.
Watson is as gloriously innocent touching male genitalia for the first
time as she is anguished when Jan leaves to return to the offshore oil rig
on which he works. There is not an emotion she does not touch, or which
does not leave you fumbling for superlatives.
Watson is so good that her performance might overwhelm a lesser story
made by a lesser film-maker, but BREAKING THE WAVES is no simple love
story. Much of the action takes place after an accident on the oil rig
renders Jan paralyzed, a tragedy to which he responds by asking Bess to
have sex with other men and describe the encounters to him. That
storyline alone would make BREAKING THE WAVES a risky venture, but von
Trier takes it to another level of audacity by making it an exploration of
love and religious faith at its most extreme. As Bess gradually descends
into a world of degraded sexuality she can't possibly understand, von
Trier begins to build up imagery which suggests Bess as a Christ figure.
She experiences her own agony in the garden as she pleads to have her
burden taken away; she is condemned by the religious elders of her
community; she is first betrayed, then shunned, by those closest to her;
she even undergoes her own Way of the Cross, pelted with stones by a group
of kids. It is powerful, resonant, and not a little bit sacrilegious.
And BREAKING THE WAVES is nearly as likely to offend those of a
liberal sensibility as those more conservatively inclined. It would be
easy to recoil against the idea of a woman with a history of mental
illness subjected to violence and indignity by her own husband and,
perhaps, even God. Those whose knees would jerk at the mere notion of a
woman who would sacrifice anything for her man are going to have major
problems with BREAKING THE WAVES, yet the film's indescribable final shot
may address outrage on both sides with wordless daring: our earthly
notions of good and evil, of right and wrong, may be burdens that only a
simple mind motivated only by love can overcome in order to know the will
of God.
BREAKING THE WAVES, at once intellectually challenging and
emotionally draining, is presented by Lars von Trier in a visual style he
also used in THE KINGDOM, a film-to-video-to-film trick which renders
everything a dirty brown. The day-to-day world is a bleak thing in
BREAKING THE WAVES, but between the chapters in the film are hypnotic
motion-postcards (computer manipulated by artist Per Kirkeby) which
provide surges of hope. That structure, along with the jittery
photography, are as much a key to the title of BREAKING THE WAVES as
anything which occurs in the film. Lars von Trier takes his audience for
a ride on a sea of emotions which cannot leave it unmoved. Love it or
loathe it, you will not be able to ignore BREAKING THE WAVES, or the work
of Emily Watson as a woman who proves that love is a mighty power.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 permanent waves: 10.
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