Cinema of the world

BREAKING THE WAVES

Director : Lars von Trier
Country : Sweden, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Spain, UK
Language : English
Duration : 158 minutes
Year: 1996

Cinema of the world

Synopsis

An small and religious coastal town, a simple, devoutly religious Scottish woman, Bess McNeill (Emily Watson), finds a partner in an oil rig worker from Norway, Jan Nyman (Stellan Skarsgard). However, the relationship grows strained when Nyman breaks his neck in a horrific work accident on the rig and becomes paralyzed. Unable to perform sexually and suffering mentally from the accident as well, Jan convinces Bess to have sex with other men, which she comes to believe is God’s work.

Lars von Trier

Director

Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly distinctive blend of film noir and German Expressionism with stylistic nods to Dreyer, Andrei Tarkovsky and Orson Welles, its combination of yellow-tinted monochrome cinematography (pierced by shafts of blue light) and doom-haunted atmosphere made it an unforgettable visual experience

Cast

– Emily Watson
– StellanSkarsgård
– Katrin Cartlidge

Crew

– Director: Lars von Trier
– Producer: Peter Aalbæk Jensen, VibekeWindeløv
– Editor: Anders Refn
– Writer: Lars von Trier, Peter Asmussen
– DOP: Robby Müller
– Sound: Per Streit