Search - Various Artists :: Breaking The Waves: The Original Soundtrack Album

Unforgettable.

Kerr | Toronto, Canada | 10/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lars Von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" is a unique film in both its style and its story. Von Trier has been accused of making films simply to showcase his eccentric directorial techniques. I strongly disagree. He certainly is unconventional but the audience can almost always feel that he strongly cares about his characters and the story he's trying to tell.The film is shot as a documentary, but Von Trier makes that work very well. The film tells the story of Bess whose love has no limits and knows no boundries. Her decisions are always influenced by her own definition of her own faith. Emily Watson is extraordinary in the scenes where she talks to God. Her performance is truly one of the greatest I've seen in a while. Her eyes seem to light up whenever she's happy and dim down whenever she's sad. Stellan Skarsgard as Jan and Katrin Cartlidge as Dodo also give fine performances.We are confronted by many philosophical questions throughout the film. Questions like: can our beliefs be so strong that they give us the power to triumph over anything and everything? I don't think that many of us know the answer to that but Bess sure does.I think the film is a must see. Challenging films are such a rare experience nowadays."

HEARTBREAKING

EriKa | Iceland | 03/26/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lars von Trier is not known for conventional films. If anything his films court controversy and push the envelope on what is acceptable and appropriate in films. Some of his Danish works, which are less well known, like a strange film called Idioterne, are positively shocking. Breaking the Waves is more mainstream but by no means conventional. The story tells of a naïve and mentally unstable young woman named Bess MacNeil (played startlingly by Emily Watson). She has been reared in a very conservative and religious community (women are not allowed to speak in the church, people are judged harshly by the church, and they can easily be shunned for their activities. Outsiders are not easily welcomed into this community). Bess marries an oil rig worker named Jan (an excellent Stellan Skarsgard. He is an outsider to the community and is not easily accepted. The beginning of the film tells the tale of their marriage, Bess's exploration of sexuality with her new husband, Bess's childlike innocence and mental instability... and how she copes (or does not cope) with Jan's frequent absences. Eventually Jan succumbs to an accident on the oil rig and has to return home. He is hospitalised and is paralysed, and it is thought that he will be paralysed for life. He cannot bear to see his wife especially knowing that he cannot perform his husbandly duties, so he convinces her to go out and experiment sexually with as many men as she can. He convinces her that this helps him when really he is trying to do it for her. Not to add that he is doped up on pain medication. Soon the town learns of her activities and she is shunned from the society. The end is heartbreaking and the ironic twist at the end is painful. Lars von Trier cannot be faulted for his creative vision, despite what you make think of this film or his other films. Most of them are love them or hate them ventures, and Breaking the Waves is no exception."