Breaking the Waves [DVD]

...but this award-winning movie could be very very tough to handle for some folks, so beware. Others have described the basic storyline, so I'll just try to explain how I feel about this film: This is one of the most powerful, raw, brilliant, dark, painful, difficult, heartbreaking and, in the end, transformative movies ever made. A film by writer / director Lars von Trier of all-around daring and excellence: a bravura, stunningly fierce and delicately nuanced tour de force performance by Emily Watson as naïve and loving Bess, awesome jittery handheld camerawork that imparts in-the-moment realism, and a remarkable tale that leaves you shattered and challenges everything you believe and think you know about love – What "should" love be? How far should sacrifice go? Would we have the courage to give all, nothing held back, to save the one(s) we love? To defy convention, endure judgement and suffer scourging by an outraged community repulsed by our actions? Is Bess deluded – or is she right? Makes you think… and think… Ultimately we’re gifted with another way of seeing, another truth that is transcendent, simple and pure, and a soaring understanding of faith. A great and revelatory film – one that can stay with you, and haunt you, for decades. But it’s not for the faint of heart.

Von Trier misogynistic? Tell that to Emily Watson, Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Lauren Bacall, and on, and on – all masochistic shrinking violets, certainly. Ahem. How could a woman-hating director attract some of the most creative, boundary-crossing actresses of our day? This Danish auteur offers actresses roles the likes of which are seldom seen in movies today, roles where the basest and the highest human impulses are thoroughly honored. They're irreplaceable.Yes, you must be on von Trier's wavelength to appreciate his genius. But this doesn't distinguish him from, say, Bergman or Fellini. Von Trier is plowing the field of a gothic sensibility. The literary equivalent – also quite controversial – is Flannery O'Connor. She created characters of dubious mental balance and set them in bizarre, often violent situations, simply because she felt that extremity was the necessary quality of art in our day to awaken deadened souls. So, von Trier. His Bess rubs our face in ultimate questions of faith; we can't avoid deciding whether her path is perverse or sanctified, or considering what we would do for love. Certainly her spirituality has at least as much dignity to it as the desolate sacerdotal obsessions of the church elders, hardened as they are on the anvil of contempt. And her determination to follow the lead of her love in spite of every obstacle, even unto the gates of hell, overrides any impression of her malleability. Von Trier's unyielding dedication to melodrama wears us down into a fully conscious submission to his art – if you'll let it."Breaking the Waves," like virtually every von Trier opus, is perverse, irritating, and brilliant. You will come through it with your sensibilities twisted and stunned and stretched. But if you stick with it, you will, at least in some small way, experience a dark, richly colored epiphany. This is one of my favorite films. Five stars. Don't miss it.

It's not unusual for me to watch 10 or more movies per week, especially now that I'm retired. Been a true film fanatic all my life, so friends will ask me what my top 5 or 10 or 100 movies are. Top 100 is fairly easy, but when it comes to Top 5 or 10, I usually have to say I can only provide that if they let me break them down into genres. Nevertheless, if pressed I can come up with my Top 10 or even 5. And it is rare that I have to make room in either of those lists for something new. Well, after watching "Anti Christ," "Melancholia," and "Nymphomaniac I & II," I've started going through all of the films von Trier has made. And of course, I read reviews of every movie I watch, and somewhere along the line, I read a review of "The English Patient," one of my favorites (Top 50 maybe) that mentioned that, although very good, it didn't stand up to "Breaking the Waves." Hah, I thought. We'll see. So I rented this, and it instantly took its place into my Top 5 (maybe I'll identify all five someday). This is one of those works of art that literally changed my life. It is transcendent: spiritually, emotionally, artistically, even physically. And Emily Watson's performance was literally out of this world. I wasn't able to sleep for a full day after watching it. I think this movie actually accomplishes what Mel Gibson wanted to do with "Passion of the Christ" but failed at so miserably. I'm not a religious person, but I do have a strong sense of the spiritual. My best friend calls me an "Agnostic with Possibilities." "Breaking the Waves confirmed why I hold onto those possibilities. "Breaking the Waves" is not an entertainment; it's a life experience, and although I'm interested and at times highly impressed by these other von Trier movies, none of them come anywhere close to "Breaking the Waves."

Lars Von Trier does some unusual movies. Not your main stream. All excellent. The description of this movie doesn’t give it credit for what it’s actually about. Not what you expect. Great movie.

Attention il n’y a aucun sous-titres, même anglais.

La edición de Criterion Collection es excepcional.Tengo una versión DVD publicada por VideoMax y el trabajo de restauración en esta versión (y más en el Blu-ray) es como ver una película nueva.Aunque no he consultado la versión europea, comúnmente compilada con otras, es un gran añadido todo el material extra. Me parece que no hay más versiones (además de las regionales que salieron en los noventa y a inicios del dos mil), así que seguramente es la mejor.Para quien no conoce la película: la recomiendo a quienes gustan del melodrama y buscan algo diferente. La historia se basa en la confrontación de la protagonista frente a su entorno social, a través de su aventura moral y en defensa del amor a su pareja.Y a quienes conocen la obra de Lars Von Trier, pero aún no ven ésta: considero que es una de sus mejores películas, la mejor lograda de la trilogía Golden Heart. Mi favorita es Dancer in the Dark y suelo ver más seguido The Idiots, pero ambas buscaron experimentar en diversas cuestiones y sus relatos pueden llegar a ser algo sencillos. En ésta hay un mejor desarrollo de los personajes.Considero que esta obra es un punto de inflexión en la trayectoria del director: ya se siente cómodo haciendo lo que quiere, sin pretender demostrar nada, pero ya empieza a tener que solucionar las exigencias del mercado.

Un clásico. De lo mejor de este director.Excentes actores.Un gole al corazón.

えろい