I’ve never seen a film by Lars von Trier before, but he was always one of those directors that I intended to get around to watching. I have heard that his work is very love it or hate it, or more so that it became that way over time, so I went with this earlier film of his, both because it seemed to be well-received and because it might be a good primer for his work. I have to say, if this film is a good example of his art, then I’m definitely interested in seeing more. This film is very heavy and emotional and takes you through a situation that’s rather unconventional (which is the entire point, of course). It’s the sort of film that almost could’ve fallen into overplay or cheese territory, but it executes the story and experience very well, and you’re really able to get into it and feel the full journey of it all. Honestly, I kind of want to hop right into the discussion portion, but I must tell you the story first.
The film follows Bess, a young woman with some sort of mental issue, who’s just been married to her fiancé Jan. The local Scottish Protestant community doesn’t take kindly to this Danish outsider, nor his family and friends, but they allow the marriage to go through. Bess is infatuated with Jan, as he clearly loves her just as much and has also opened her up to a whole new world of sensuality, which the film portrays in an almost spiritual way. While they do end up moving into their own house away from her family, Jan’s job on an oil rig forces him to be away from her for long stretches of time, so she often ends up living with her family again anyway. Eventually, Bess just can’t stand the separation, so she goes to the church and prays to God to bring Jan back to her. Interestingly, this “talk with God” is actually just shown as her talking with herself out loud, with her doing a deeper voice when talking as God, similar to something a young child would do. God warns her to be patient, but she claims that she just can’t wait and doesn’t care how God gets Jan back to her, just so long as he does it. Sure enough, one day, Jan is struck by a metal pipe during an accident and is left completely paralyzed. Bess blames herself for this, but Jan won’t hear anything of it, and the two are just glad to be reunited. However, life is hard for Jan in the state that he’s in, and he regrets that he can’t be more of a lover to Bess now. He suggests that she go out and find someone else, but she rejects it and is offended by the idea, saying that she only wants Jan and no one else. While she’s away and processing what he just suggested, Jan tries to overdose on medication, but he fails and is brought back to the hospital. He suggests that Bess take a lover again, but this time he wants her to describe what it was like with said person, that way it can feel as though they are still with each other and will lift his spirits. Though Bess is still reluctant to do so, she believes that this path might be ordained by God and will actually help Jan heal. Thus, she goes on a journey of sexual degradation, giving herself up to several of the men in the surrounding vicinity. This path hurts her more and more as the sex becomes more harsh and aggressive, but as she further degrades, Jan seems to be steadily improving, so she won’t stop, not at the insistence of her more rationally-minded sister-in-law, not at the pleading of Jan’s doctor who claims he’s looking out for Bess but seems to have ulterior motives, not even after she’s all but cast out by the whole community. What becomes of Bess? Does Jan ever truly recover? Is Bess’s path actually helping Jan at all? You’ll have to see for yourself. Now, let’s discuss the film for a bit.
So, first off, this film is very Scandinavian. If you remember the two other films from that region that we’ve covered so far, then you should know that the Nordic countries have a history of bleak and/or heavy storytelling, and this film is not only no different, but takes it a step further into off-beat territory. I found myself really feeling both the messed-up nature of the situation as well as the spirituality that Bess feels connected to. The rational mind wants to dismiss these insane notions that Bess degrading herself would actually heal Jan, but the strange and almost other-worldly aura that surrounds the story almost makes you reconsider that, or at least wonder where the filmmakers are going with this. The answer to whether or not God was actually influencing all these events, as with any classic film with this sort of question, is never made clear, leaving it up for you to determine (well, except for the very last shot of the film, but that could be argued as metaphorical or even as a dream of some sort). I also have to give credit to Emily Watson and her portrayal of Bess. While I know that it’s controversial with some to have neurotypical actors play characters that aren’t, I think she pulled off the role very well. Bess comes across as the sort of neurodivergent person that, at first, could almost pass for being “average yet quirky,” but the more you understand who she is, the more you see that she has several qualities that would make it difficult for her to live fully on her own. She comes across as almost childish at times, being very stubborn and sometimes emotionally unstable, going into an outburst one minute but then being able to come off it very easily. Depending on who you are as a person, you might find yourself getting just as frustrated with her as some of the characters in the film do. However, her devotion and passion, as well as the lack of understanding coming from the other characters, do end up making you connect with her, even if you disagree with her actions. Honestly, I think this sort of “you can understand them even if you don’t agree” element extends to almost all of the people in this film. You can tell that Jan truly loves Bess and wants to help her live a full and free life away from the constraints of her community, but in the process, he is influencing her with his own way of thinking without considering how susceptible she it, as well as asking her to do things that she doesn’t even want to do and end up harming her in the end. Bess’s sister-in-law obviously means well and wants to stop Bess from hurting herself, but her steadfast rationality only ends up driving Bess further away. The church as a whole does have something of a point about the dangerous road that Bess is heading down, but they do practically nothing to actually help her and just impose their beliefs on her without even trying to recognize her view of God. However, the one major character that, to me, was more in the wrong than right was the doctor. Now, granted, he did come across in some ways as thinking in Bess’s best interests, recognizing that Bess clearly has mental issues and wanting to help her with that, but his way of doing so is by having her committed to an asylum, a place that unfortunately she’s suffered in before. This might seem like a normal doctor thought-process, but the kicker is that he’s actually in love with Bess and comes across as being jealous of Jan underneath all the talk of “wanting the best for Bess,” something Bess actually picks up on. If she gets committed, then he can essentially have her in the palm of his hand, which really skeeves me out and makes me lose all sympathy for him. Between all the emotional and physical trauma that Bess goes through, the horrible physical conditions that Jan has to live through, the manipulation/chastising/well-meaning-but-ineffective-rational-arguing that come from everyone around them, this is definitely not a light film. However, Bess’s spiritual devotion to Jan and the ethereal feel of the film helps to give it a sense of emotional meaning beyond the negative or even the positive. Honestly, it’s the sort of film that challenges you with the journey it takes you on, making it so where you don’t exactly know what to feel, but in the end it all amounts to a very worthwhile experience. I’m getting to the end point of my review, but before I go, I did want to mention an aspect of the film, how it comes across, and how it relates to the director in a real-world context. The film seems to have been shot handheld, or at least that’s the impression it’s trying to give off. The camera moves slightly when capturing most of the shots, at times even panning between two characters as if you’re literally looking from one to the other. Sometimes it even blurs slightly, as if shifting focus, and all of this gives the film a very intimate feeling, especially when the focus is on Bess in close-up, something that recurs throughout the film. Every time she has her “talks with God” or an intimate moment with Jan or an expression of her beliefs, the camera always (or at least often) gets up close and personal. I think this element greatly helps us connect with Bess, and the film as a whole, since we feel as though we’re experiencing her and others’ feelings and situations more viscerally. It’s interesting to note that Lars von Trier had just formed the Dogme 95 movement with his fellow director Thomas Vinterburg. Dogme 95 was one in a long line of art movements to strip back the “artifice” of their mediums and work directly with the core elements. In this case, this meant that Dogme films steered away from special effects and fanciful storytelling, and instead shot and recorded everything on location with handheld cameras and portrayed realistic situations without any sort of adherence to “genre.” Breaking the Waves doesn’t really count as part of this movement, as it’s very clearly produced with more typical film-making quality, but the use of a handheld camera and a relatively realistic scenario does show von Trier’s want to experiment with this sort of idea.
Whether or not this film is “Dogme” or not, it’s still a very challenging yet engaging drama that I’m very glad I saw. I do want to check out more von Trier films now, if only to see how far he pushed his storytelling. I was most curious to watch his film The Idiots, as that is considered a true Dogme film, and it looks rather interesting. However, I’ve found that the film is hard to get your hands on if you live in America, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to cover it. Either way, look forward to more von Trier stuff in the future, though next week will be something entirely different. In the meantime, go check out Breaking the Waves and see how you feel coming away from it.