Lars Von Trier
Le Onde Del Destino

Destiny is an ocean, and its waves are often much bigger than us...

The mindset with which one approaches watching a movie (or even viewing a painting, reading a book, or listening to an album) is fundamental to the opinion we will form about the work itself later.
Being exceptionally rational and clear-headed when faced with certain works is already, in itself, a difficult task if one allows oneself to be carried away by the narrative and emotion, without being overtaken by the urge to critically analyze at all costs.

This work by Lars Von Trier fits precisely into that category of films just described: it is impossible to remain indifferent! You either love them or hate them. Not necessarily masterpieces, indeed... rather imperfect, gritty, and with some excess and mannerism overboard but nonetheless manage, after almost 2 and a half hours of projection, to instill a form of participatory engagement with the characters' stories. Call it "alchemy," love at first sight, or that same thing for which two people like each other immediately without knowing anything about one another but this film succeeded in the arduous task of immersing me into the story in a form of unparalleled symbiotic and reciprocal relationship.
A film, I repeat, shot in a "dirty" form and deliberately imperfect (like life itself, the director seems to tell us), with handheld cameras, without scenographic embellishments and without particular attention to the direction of photography, as imposed by the strict rules of the Dogma 95 group, christened by Von Trier himself. Rules that also required the absolute TRUTHFULNESS of the camera's position (Dollys or fixed cameras were prohibited, but everything had to be strictly at human eye level as if the camera were exactly an eyewitness to events and WITHOUT any possible intervention of fiction in any shooting aspect, including the inevitable camera shakiness from one scene change to the next).

The film tells the story set in the early '70s of a young Scottish woman (a splendidly inspired Emily Watson) who, due to a work accident that prevents her husband from having sexual relations, decides to undertake a Great Test of Love. In agreement with her husband who slowly convinces her, she decides to engage in different sexual relationships with people she knows to allow her partner to relive, albeit indirectly, his now absent sexual impulses and at the same time, to restore a sexual life to his companion, the heroine, and martyr of this whole affair. If this is not a form of Great Love and Great Mutual Respect, what is?

A film that is therefore harsh and extreme, speaking of an enormous sacrifice and a secular form of "sanctity" seen within a true, mature, and extremely sincere relationship between two people who love each other so much to accept Non-Attachment and Non-Possessiveness of one another.
A story of Sacrifice that borders on a form of sacredness and parallels the path of the young woman to an almost mystical vision of Christ's path to redemption with various passages (the dialogue with the clouds at the end and the light breaking through them) that leave no room for other interpretations.
A film of truly moving intensity, which knows how to reach directly to the heart of the viewer without too many narrative delays and which has only the flaw of exceeding too much in this "free-cinema" technique made of improvised shots, often blurry or in motion, which, after the first 10 minutes, make the viewing too strenuous to be enjoyable.

It's a pity because, beyond this not insignificant technical aspect, Breaking the Waves (which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 49th Cannes Film Festival in 1996) has beautiful dialogues, made also of silences and highly evocative and spiritual images of rare intensity (and often “rawness”), not to underestimate the truly "chilling" soundtrack with the reproduction of the greatest standards in the history of rock, dividing the various chapters of the film. I’m talking about the likes of David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Deep Purple, Procol Harum, Elton John, Jimi Hendrix... an unforgettable soundtrack that I hope someone will eventually review.

** I reciprocate the dedication to MariaElena, for her sweet fragility that, despite appearances on this site, I believe hides a truly pure and candid soul... like the protagonist of this splendid film.