Breaking the Waves (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Lars Von Trier (Director) And Anders Refn (Editor) Deleted Scenes Featurette-Emily Watson's Casting, With Optional Commentary Interviews-Cast-Adrian Rawlins (Actor) Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	154:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Lars von Trier
Studio Distributor	Zentropa Ent. Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Emily Watson Stellan Skarsgård Katrin Cartlidge Jean-Marc Barr Adrian Rawlins Jonathan Hackett Sandra Voe Udo Kier Mikkel Gaup Roef Ragas Phil McCall Robert Robertson Desmond Reilly
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ian Anderson Johann Sebastian Bach David Bentley

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.20:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Lars von Trier is perhaps the most famously controversial film director of recent times. His work is spare, often uncompromising and deliberately challenging to audiences reared mostly on cinema's answers to pudgy, rosy cheeked babies and apple pie. His political and social views are, if anything, starker still, often openly critical of Hollywood, and more broadly, the United States, which to date I believe he is still yet to visit. Born in Copenhagen and a student of the Danish Film School, he has worked in film and television, and is currently filming Manderlay with Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of Ron Howard, a companion piece to his earlier Dogville, a film I am yet to fully recover from seeing.

    Whilst he has been working since the 1970s, he did not become widely known internationally until the release of his 1996 film Breaking the Waves. It caused a sensation with its distinctive visual style, emotionally gut-wrenching story and powerful performances, particularly from Emily Watson, in what was her film debut. Much lauded by critics as a modern masterpiece, and included in many Top 10 Films of the 1990s lists, it was the first of three films that focussed on female protagonists, in this film's case a young woman, Bess (Watson), who lives in a remote, cloistered, staunchly Calvinist community on the coast of Scotland. She defies the wishes of the church leaders in marrying an 'outsider', Jan, a Swedish worker on an offshore oil rig (Stellan Skarsgard). Married life for the couple is somewhat unorthodox, certainly from the point of view of the community, but obviously full of love, both physical and emotional.

    What follows will have many people turning back to Apollo 13 or Bridget Jones' Diary, and indeed I must confess that the film's austerity and bleakness, even when depicting the most beautiful of human emotions, are extraordinarily draining emotionally. Jan is critically injured in an accident and is unable to be sexually intimate with his new bride. Bess, encouraged by her paralysed husband and coming reluctantly to believe she will be acting according to God's wishes, agrees to find such intimacy with other men, in the hope of vicariously continuing the sexual relationship she has with Jan and aiding his recovery. In such a town such acts are a terrible transgression, and Bess, when discovered, is thrown into the asylum. One wonders how such behaviour would be accepted in a less conservative community, but one would hope that the events that then transpire could be avoided, although one could argue that such a thought ignores the point of the characters', in particular Bess' actions.

    I will not reveal more, but suffice it to say that I needed a walk in the sunshine and some good conversation with friends after the film concluded. It is two and a half hours of unrelenting cinema - audacious to be sure, asking difficult questions about the nature of love and our perceptions of what is good and what is immoral, but not a film one could easily sit down to watch again in a hurry to further explore its meaning.

Video

    It is always difficult to assess video transfers of such experimental films such as these. Breaking the Waves was short entirely on hand-held cameras, and as such, has a visceral, sometimes coarse look that is starkly different from the glossy perfection of Hollywood blockbusters. It is framed at approximately 2.20:1, with 16x9 enhancement.

    Sharpness levels and shadow detail are as good as one needs or should expect considering the visual style of the film.

    Colours are drained and convey all of the frigidity of the sometimes frighteningly bleak Scottish landscape.

    The film has a grainy look about it, but to quibble about compression artefacts seems beside the point.

    Film to video artefacts are not a major distraction, nor indeed are the occasional film artefacts - mostly specks of what seems like dirt and dust - one could argue that they add to the realism of the film.

    In sum, the transfer is faithful to what I believe to be the director's intentions, and one shouldn't ask for more than that.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    We have two audio options, both in English - one 5.1 Dolby Digital, the other a Dolby Stereo 2.0 track. Both more than adequately perform the job, although I found myself thinking the more centralised 2.0 track was more in keeping with the film's realism, although the 5.1 track doesn't add a whole lot.

    Dialogue is difficult to understand on occasions, but is well presented.

    Audio sync is fine.

    Audio distortions were not an issue.

    As mentioned, this film strives for austerity, meaning less is more, so the surrounds and subwoofer on both tracks stay quiet.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras included are informative and quite diverse.

Audio commentary with von Trier and editor Anders Refn, interviewed by Dod Mantle

    This track is scene specific to a point where scenes not discussed are discarded. Thus, only thirty nine minutes of the film are dealt with. The speakers seem comfortable and offer a little interesting information, although von Trier, surprisingly, jokes a lot. Perhaps he doesn't like explaining his movies - maybe because he can't, completely anyway.

Promo clip from Cannes Film Festival and four deleted scenes with optional commentary from Lars von Trier and the Director of Photography Robby Muller

    These scenes are individually interesting - two are actually extended versions of scenes in the film, and in reasonable condition. Their inclusion if nothing else allows one to see how difficult editing a film of such complexity would be. Hats off to Anders Refn!

Emily Watson's casting with optional commentary

    A short two minute snippet dealing with the extraordinarily talented Watson, whose performance must be considered as one of the great debuts in cinema history.

Interview with Adrian Rawlins

    Two minute interview with the actor who filled a difficult role in Dr. Richardson. It is unfortunately far too short to offer much insight however.

Trailers

    Not just for Breaking the Waves but for other Umbrella releases, which is a cause of some annoyance for me. At least they don't automatically play before the menu loads like some recent releases from the major studios.

    From what I can gather the Region 1 release is not only censored, but inferior in terms of extras, video and audio quality to the All Region Danish release. So if you want a true version of the film - avoid Region 1.

    Compared to the Danish release, which forms part of a Lars von Trier Collection, we miss out on:

•    Italian 2.0 Dolby track (dub)
•    Excerpts from the documentary 'Tranceformer - A Film about Lars von Trier' (17:27) (subtitled in English where needed)

    The Danish release misses out on:

• English 2.0 Dolby track

    Considering the likely difficulty in obtaining the Danish release, I would opt for this very good local release which misses out on very little, and picks up an extra English track.

    Hard hitting cinema.

    The video transfer seems faithful to the director's intentions.

    The audio suits the needs of the film perfectly.

    The extras are a nice addition.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall