Breaking the Waves

Guldhjerte-trilogien #1

by Lars von Trier

At the centre of the film is Bess, a young woman raised in a small, devoutly religious community in the Outer Hebrides. Her life changes when she meets Jan, and outsider who works on the North Sea oil rigs. Their love - and the physical manifestation of it - transforms Bess. But their happiness is blighted when he suffers a terrible accident, and the body she desires so passionately becomes paralysed. To keep their erotic life alive, Jan urges Bess to have sex with other men and describe her experiences to him. Her sacrifice is his salvation, but it leads to her downfall and degradation. Breaking the Waves is a passionate film about religious dogmatism and erotic obsession where physical love is endowed with life-giving powers of healing, and miracles can occur.

Genres: Music, Film

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Lars von Trier (Danish pronunciation: [ˈlɑːʁs fon ˈtʁiːɐ̯]; born Lars Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches. He is known for his female-centric parables and his exploration of controversial subject matter.

Von Trier began making his own films at the age of 11 after receiving a Super-8 camera as a gift, and his first publicly released film was an experimental short called The Orchid Gardener, in 1977. His first feature film came seven years later, The Element of Crime, in 1984. As of 2010, he has directed a further 9 feature films, 5 short films and 4 television productions.

He has been married twice and is currently married to Bente Frøge. Von Trier suffers periodically from depression, as well as various fears and phobias, including an intense fear of flying. As he himself once put it, "Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking".

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

For months now netfilx has been telling me I've got a reallyreally long wait before I am allowed to view this thing. Godsdamn I'm gambling this is his most devastating piece of film. C A N N O T wait.

[Paolo Aguas]

I have not seen the film yet but I always wanted to, so when I saw this book being sold in a second hand bookstore (it was extremely cheap 5 Philippine pesos) I bought it immediately. What I liked about this film script to book medium is that there is a nice introduction in the start by some key people from the film talking about how they got the film started and produced etc. I felt that it was a really nice touch. I do not want to spoil anything from the film by talking about what happened and such so I just have to say that if you have the opportunity to read this script go for it you will not waste your time.

[Jared Busch]

asshole or not, Von Trier is a genius. includes a lot of stuff not in the finished film.

[Laughinglioness]

A review I wrote of Lars can be found at [http://recoveringchemist.blogspot.com], as inspired by discovering this book here on goodreads.

[Messiah]

اثری موزیکال ندیده بودم که پایان اش قرین مرگ باشد. این کار را پس از چندین سال نگه داری از آرشیو بیرون آوردم و جرات دیدن اش را یافتم به تمام

[Geoff Sebesta]

I read this before I saw the movie and ended up not liking either. Odd, because it's the same thing as Dancer in the Dark and I adore that film. Dunno.

[Bettie]

Bettie's Books

[Vafa]

I can never forget the last sequence and also the play of Emily Waison...

[Debby]

Sad and complex.