Cheap Breaking the Waves (Video) (Emily Watson) (Lars von Trier) Price

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Customer Reviews of Breaking the Waves

Bess McNeil, deeply loves, obsesses and marries Jan (pronounced Yan) an oil rig worker. When an accident brings him back paralyzed, presumably forever, her pure naïve innocent and childlike happiness takes an unspeakable turn with devastating consequences. Emily Watson gives a persuasive portrayal as Bess; veteran actor Stellan Skarsgard plays her husband Jan; and Dodo Katrin Cartlidge is excellent as her real true friend and sister-in-law.

Jan convinced of his demise, unable to make love to Beth and orders her to have sex with other men and to come back and tell him about it. This, he says, is the only way he can make love to her and to further stipulate, he says he will die if she doesn't.

There aren't any clear answers as to why Jan asks his wife to do this. Is he delusional, perverted, or does he really feel Bess will be better without him? Does Jan really love Bess so much that he is willing to set her free, or is he thinking of only himself when he embarks his innocent wife into hell, cast out from the church, her family, the town. Is he telling the truth when he believes he can make love to his wife via another man's pleasure. Does he sincerely realize that Bess is mentally incapable of handling this request? Did he realize where she was going, what might happen to her? We don't get those answers.

During chronological sequence breaks, you will hear the soundtrack - songs from the 70's, Jethro Tull's Cross Eyed Mary, Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, Elton John Your Song, Yellow Brick Road. The music is set to picturesque scenes.

Same as von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, the camera angle can have that dizzying effect especially when it pans the length of a room. You'll adjust as this intriguing conflicting plot develops. Again, the movie is long, two hours. There is graphic sex and nudity, both male and female. It isn't advisable for younger audiences. If you have seen "Dancer in the Dark" you will again be mesmerized by this complex emotional and moving film. ...MzRizz.

Harsh/Graceful Modern Retelling of Orpheus, Joan of Arch, ..
Try at a short(ish) review: Breaking the Waves reminds me of Ingmar BergmanÕs work and other great auteurs who not only play with our emotions but reach into our gray matter and belief systems, stirring them all up. After 6 years, I finally felt prepared to view this passion play. It went from being a movie I should see to one that I am grateful I saw and will see again (when I am ready).

Emily Watson is stellar and accompanied by a cast that almost seamlessly makes the strange premise of a wife trying to save her husband by sexual encounters with other men believable. Even the chapter breaks connote a sense of the story looking real but also not looking real. To keep this telling from being too stark and unyielding, Lars von Tier presents an unexpected sensuality and sense of humor in the first half. Otherwise, I donÕt think we could care about these extremely religious and/or secular people for 2 1/2 hours. On the other hand, it takes its cameras, not filtering the sound of the film running through the camera spokes, into the scenes of BessieÕs search for men. It is a very painful adventure into Hades for such a simple woman child.

Ultimately, it is a story about attaining love but goes beyond to finding grace. It is a marvelous work to be in the collective consciousness and definitely not meant to be a popcorn movie. The film has an Achilles heel or two but so superficial that I hardly feel they need be noted. Make sure you have the stomach and compassion. It rang the church bells in my heart and mind.

Try pairing this movie with EgoyemÕs ÔExotica,Õ any of BergmanÕs films, Marcel CamusÕ ÔBlack Orpheus,Ô Allen's 'Crimes & Misdemeanors' or DreyerÕs ÔPassion of Joan of Arc.Õ Then go out and get some sunshine, have a good walk and dinner with loved ones.

Beautiful...
This film does NOT endorse what it depicts. Obviously, the memebers of the church are misguided, in fact a great deal of the film points that out. But the film is not about them, it is about Bess, and about her love for God and God's love for her. What happens to her in the movie is not God's torture of her, it is human free will being exercised on a pure spirit, and the beauty is how her spirit always remains pure. That is why God loves Bess. God does not sugarcoat the world, and all who wish to follow him go through trials. Bess made it through those trials, and this is, as such, a TRUE CHRISTIAN FILM.

Not to mention it is cinematically the best film I have ever seen, as Heilman says, it is transcends words and descriptions. Do not let any review scare you away, if you don't like graphic sex turn it off, but this is a film about the love God has for all the how beautiful a pure spirit is.