Stockholm Film Festival

Using very mobile camerawork, a grainy image, an indiscrete sound track we meet the leading characters Bess and Jan in the toilet at their wedding. Bess loses her virginity in the same toilet. The viewer gets to follow everything through the very forward camerawork; it is almost as if it were glued to her eyes - her face. Her face is extremely expressive and alive. The camera is as alive and mobile. It shakes, leaps, moves all the time -a quick cut to expose the couple full-length, another cut and we see a close up of the dress, the next second the camera is back to where it started and we examine Bess' face. It looks as though the camera cannot decide what it wants to show (or see). The camera has become a subject, personified. The film's form suggests that what we see is more than fiction, that the film bears a truth. The use of the mobile and lively camera is reminiscent of Lars von Trier's TV-series The Kingdom. As with The Kingdom, Breaking the Waves is about humanity and its enormous need to believe in something. The fiIm opposes positivist scientific thought to humanity and emotions. The contrast between the archaic myths and the religious (or cultural) dogmas is exaggerated by allowing Per Kirkeby's tableau-like works to act as a sort of artificial dividing line for each chapter. In this way, the living is explicitly contrasted by the artifactual and artificial. In Breaking the Waves, the original Christian myth plays a central role, a myth which is as narrative as it is fantastic and emotional. In the film we meet the virginal Bess and the more worldly Jan. Soon after, Jan has an accident and their love is put to the test. Bess prostitutes herself for him and for the sake of her own love. But when she does this, she is subjected to punishment from the church. This culture allows no departures from the rules. It is a cultural discourse where conventions of language and human practice are heavily regulated. There is no room for emotions. The essence of the myth, its meaning, has been lost, the film appears to be saying. But it is something that humanity needs. Without love, without faith, there is no humanity left. Breaking the Waves wants to touch you, it wants to make the audience feel. RL 

Medverkande

Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge

Producent

Vibeke Windeløv & Peter Aalbæk Jensen

Manus

Lars von Trier

Foto

Robby Müller

Musik

Various

Talat språk

English

 

Andra filmer från sektionen Northern Lights

Se alla festivalfilmer från 1996