Breaking the Waves (1996)

It’s gonna be a rough year. It’s already pretty shitty. We’re just a few months in and we’re stumbling towards a Presidential election so it’s definitely going to get worse so we thought that for this dreary year we should discuss a dozen Lars von Trier movies before it’s all over. Like strange frosting on a sad cake, Lars just boosts the melancholy and vague sense of dread. He loves trilogies as well. We’ve finished the Europa trilogy and now it’s time for the “Golden Hearts Trilogy” which kicks off one of von Trier’s most acclaimed works. Small town Northern Britain sure sucks, especially if you’re under the thumb of a fundamentalist Calvinist sect that will send your cousin to hell for getting his ears pierced. Bess falls in love with an outsider and things just might be fine until her husband, Jan, becomes paralyzed. Poor Jan has some suggestions on how to keep their physical relationship alive that draws the ire of the religious and modern world but Bess, trained in her devotion, piously goes forward with God on her side. We’re talking about the 1996 film “BREAKING THE WAVES” starring Emily Watson in an amazing performance as well as Stellan Skarsgård & Katrin Cartlidge. This might be as upbeat as it gets for our year-long theme. Which is kind of fucked up to think about.

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