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Film & TV on DVD - John Doe Film News & Reviews

 
Greetings Film Fiends and welcome to John Doe's Film Blog. 30 years of dedicated celluloid obsession has meant that I have seen a few films. Drawing attention to some of the lesser discussed gems that I love. Cult classics, obscure curios and quality genre pictures. This blogs purpose is to translate some of my passion for these films and with luck, inspire you the reader to go check em out.

Breaking The Waves (1996)

September 18th 2007 01:47
Category: Drama
Breaking The Waves
I first saw Lars Von Trier’s Breaking The Waves by myself at the Wellington Film Festival in New Zealand after it was first released. It was the final film of the festival with a festival party scheduled directly after the screening. It was a full house in the Embassy cinema (around 800 people), and during the last fifteen or so minutes I was sobbing. So were the people to left and right of me. In fact I believe most of the audience was in tears.


Straight after the screening I staggered out into the foyer and ordered a straight whiskey from the bar, then wondered around in a daze. Someone asked if I was alright and I replied that I had just seen Breaking The Waves and was an emotional wreck. From memory I didn’t last long at the after party I was too fragile.

Breaking The Waves Emily Watson Stellan Skarsgard
Watching the movie a second time, eleven years later, it still packs a huge emotional wallop, perhaps not quite the sledgehammer I was anticipating, but then I knew what to expect. Part of the movie’s incredible strength and potency lies in not knowing what happens and with this in mind I am very reluctant to provide any kind of detailed synopsis. Still, half an hour in I turned to my fiancé and said somberly, “This is going to ruin me again.”


I shall be brief; it is the mid-70s and Bess McNeil (Emily Watson) is a naïve young woman living in a very strict Calvinist community in northern Scotland. She has met a Danish man, Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), who works on an oil rig, and the two of them are married at the beginning of the movie.

Bess’s older sister-in-law Dodo (Katrin Cartlidge) looks out for Bess (Dodo has been hardened by the death of her own husband, Bess’s brother), as she knows Bess to be a very impressionable and emotionally vulnerable woman. Some would say Bess is stupid, but her psyche is more complex than that. Bess’s parents are deeply religious and are concerned about her union with an outsider.
Breaking The Waves
Writer/director Lars Von Trier, a true maverick, known for his revolutionary take on filmmaking with the experimental Dogma manifesto, started pushing the boundaries of mainstream filmmaking with this movie. There are many elements in Breaking The Waves which he would use when formulating the Dogma rules; the use of entirely handheld camera (apart from the chapter cards), the extensive use of improvised acting, using only available light, and the reliance on a raw, uncompromising presentation of the narrative.

Von Trier applies a Brechtian approach to the filming with the character of Bess frequently breaking the fourth wall (the camera) by gazing into the lens at various moments during the course of the movie. This can be interpreted as Bess’s contact with God, along with her almost “saintly” aura reflecting an inner voice which guides and cajoles her.

Playwright Bertolt Brecht also used tableaux in his plays and Von Trier employs a similar convention with the chapter cards which punctuate the movie. There are eight of these over the course of the two-and-a-half hour film, each one a stunning landscape composition which looks like a painting, until you notice the subtle movements of water, cloud and light. These chapter stops are accompanied by an excerpt of music from the period, each one loaded with passion and melancholy for maximum emotional impact (I remember tears rolling down my cheeks whilst Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and David Bowie’s Life On Mars were used).

Breaking The Waves
Stellan Skarsgard as Jan and Emily Watson as Bess
Breaking The Waves is a film of devastating power. The themes of love, grief and hope are treated in a most unique and extraordinary way. The movie is one long beautiful tragic poem but presented like a cinematic novel. The performance of Emily Watson is astounding. Quite possibly one of the most brilliantly sustained performances of the past twenty years or more (interesting to note that Helena Bonham Carter was first cast as Bess, but as great an actor as Carter is I doubt she would’ve been able to capture the unbridled innocence that Watson does). Stellan Skarsgård (who would go on to a successful Hollywood career) and the late Katrin Cartlidge are excellent, as is Adrian Rawlins as Dr. Richardson.

Apart from Emily Watson, the other star of the movie is my favourite director of photography Robby Muller. His cinematography on this movie is outstanding. Curiously though the movie was shot on video, but unlike conventional editing where a movie is transferred onto video for editing, then the negative cutter matches the cut to the video edit, for Breaking The Waves they simply recorded the video edit back onto 35mm, which gave the film its striking grainy look. The chapter cards however were obviously treated in a more deliberate, painterly fashion.

Breaking The Waves
If you’ve never seen Breaking The Waves prepare yourself for a journey of emotional intensity. Resist learning too much of what happens before you watch it. It is a film that demands an open mind, an empathic heart, a curious soul. In one light a revisionist melodrama, but more emphatically I’d champion Breaking The Waves as a masterpiece of modern cinema.
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14 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

September 18th 2007 05:06
A film that movie the heart of the master of horror?
Excellent review.


Comment by Bryn

September 18th 2007 06:24


Horrorphile
Damo, cheers my good man! Yes, my heart, mind, body and soul was greatly moved indeed ...

Comment by Chic Critique

September 18th 2007 13:35
Bryn this is really well written, lovely post, and I always love reading your reviews.

So please don't take what I'm about to say personally.

I saw this film when it came out in 1996 at the cinema. I am not averse to emotionally charged films, or being pushed outside my comfort zone, or being cinematically confronted in a movie.

But I hated this movie with a passion. It irritated the crap out of me and it was way too long.

My boyfriend at the time and I moaned about it for years afterwards. We used to nickname it Breaking The Wind.

I hope that hasn't upset you.

Cheers
CC

Comment by JohnDoe

September 18th 2007 16:12


Film & TV on DVD
IMO the best Lars Von Trier movie, great selection Bryn,

Powerful, moving and affecting a must see for those wanting a cinema experience that will stay with you for life.

Loving your work.

Comment by Lilla

September 18th 2007 23:10


From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Bryn,

There are many elements in Breaking The Waves which he would use when formulating the Dogma rules; the use of entirely handheld camera (apart from the chapter cards), the extensive use of improvised acting, using only available light, and the reliance on a raw, uncompromising presentation of the narrative

A painter myself, I will look out for it on the strength of this alone.

...not to mention the other pluses of good acting and story plot, landscapes and artistry...sounds like a treasure, worthy of time... in these days of mine, when time is too short for the average transient 'Wallywood' flick.

Thanks for the heads up.

Lilla ...

Comment by Bryn

September 19th 2007 00:44


Horrorphile
Chic, that's what makes cinema so rich and uncompromising, is that it is so subjective to each person's own aesthetic sensibilities, just as a painting or photograph is.
I do understand about hating a film with a passion. My pet hate is Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. But don't get me started.
Thanks for your honesty ... who knows, perhaps you'll choose to watch it again one day and you'll find, you've changed, the movie hasn't, and you'll realise just how brilliant it really is ...

JD, cheers mate.

Lilla, this is the kind of movie Hollywood could never make.

Comment by Chic Critique

September 19th 2007 03:16
That's very true Bryn - I probably should give it another go...

And The Fifth Element is one of my favourite all time films - but I can understand how it would irritate some people.

You're a good bloke Bryn you are

Cheers!

Comment by KylieW

September 19th 2007 06:46


Celebrity Obsession
Bryn,

I have never seen this movie. Heard a lot about it. But never been game to run the emotional gauntlet.

One day when I'm in the mood I will sit down and watch this film. I can't remember the last time I cried in a movie!

Kylie

Comment by Bryn

September 19th 2007 07:43


Horrorphile
Chic, y'know, in some strange little way I'm not surprised you'd come back at me with Fifth Element being a fave of yours ... each to their own of course. Cheers for the props!

Kylie, make sure when you do watch the movie you watch it uninterupted, and with either by yourself or someone whom is like-minded. And have a box of tissues near by ...

Comment by Cibbuano

September 25th 2007 23:22


Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
them Dogma 95 cats know how to deliver emotion on film... perhaps it comes out of that film style?

Looks good - I'll try to keep an eye out...

Comment by Bryn

September 26th 2007 00:43


Horrorphile
Cibby, it's an astounding film, in every department. Demanding, but rewarding.

Comment by ShaunK

May 12th 2010 00:36


Screen Adventure
Brynn, it's always great to hear how affected people were by films - I think the only film to ever make me bawl my eyes out and ruined me emotionally was John Cassavetes' Love Streams.

I salute you for your passion

Comment by Bryn

May 13th 2010 03:00


Horrorphile
Cheers Shaun ... passion and film go hand in hand, and yet one person's passionate embrace is another's cold rejection

Comment by JohnDoe

May 13th 2010 03:05


Film & TV on DVD
When film geeks bond...you saw it here first at jdmfilm reviews....news at 11...now a word from our sponsor

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