Breaking the Waves
| Breaking the Waves | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Lars von Trier |
| Produced by |
Peter Aalbæk Jensen Vibeke Windeløv |
| Written by | Lars von Trier Peter Asmussen |
| Starring |
Emily Watson Stellan Skarsgård Katrin Cartlidge Jean-Marc Barr Udo Kier |
| Cinematography | Robby Müller |
| Edited by | Anders Refn |
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Release date
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Running time
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158 minutes |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7.5 million |
| Box office | $3.8 million (USA) |
Breaking the Waves is a 1996 film directed by Lars von Trier and starring Emily Watson. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1970s, it is about an unusual young woman, Bess McNeill, and of the love she has for Jan, her husband, who asks her to have sex with other men when he becomes immobilized from a work accident. The film is an international co-production led by Lars von Trier's Danish company Zentropa. It is the first film in Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy which also includes The Idiots (1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000).
Breaking the Waves has been described as "perhaps von Trier's most widely acclaimed film".
Bess McNeill is a pretty young Scottish woman with a history of psychological problems. She marries atheist oil rig worker Jan Nyman, despite disapproval from her community and her Free Scottish Presbyterian Calvinist church. Bess is steadfast and pure of heart, but extremely simple and childlike in her beliefs. During her frequent visits to the church, she prays to God and carries on conversations with Him using her own voice, believing that He is responding directly through her.
Bess has difficulty living without Jan when he is away on the oil platform. Jan makes occasional phone calls to Bess in which they express their love and sexual desires. Bess grows needy and prays for his immediate return. The next day, Jan is severely injured in an industrial accident and is flown back to the mainland. Bess believes her prayer was the reason the accident occurred, that God was punishing her for her selfishness in asking for him to neglect his job and come back to her. No longer able to perform sexually and mentally affected by the paralysis, Jan asks Bess to find a lover. Bess is devastated and storms out. Jan then attempts to commit suicide and fails. He falls unconscious and is readmitted to hospital.
Jan's condition deteriorates. He urges Bess to find another lover and tell him the details, as it will be as if they are together and will revitalize his spirits. Though her sister-in-law Dodo constantly reassures her that nothing she does will affect his recovery, Bess begins to believe these suggestions are the will of God and in accordance with loving Jan wholly. Despite her repulsion and inner turmoil to be with other men, she perseveres in her own sexual debasement as she believes it will cure her husband. Bess throws herself at Jan's doctor, but when he rebuffs her, she takes to picking up men off the street and allowing herself to be brutalized in increasingly cruel sexual encounters. The entire village is scandalized by these doings, and Bess is excommunicated. In the face of being cast out from her church, she proclaims, "You cannot love words. You cannot be in love with the Word. You can only love a human being."
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Wikipedia