Breaking the Waves

[Steven Maas (CUTR)]

On Sat, 15 Mar 1997, Paul Mackin wrote:
> You may be onto something. Is there a Roger-like guy in the movie who is
> somehow saved by a Jessica? Haven't seen it but read about its 
> having lovers of opposite temperaments.			

WARNING: SEMI-SPOILER INCLUDED.
Not having recently reread GR I won't comment on whether the man is
Roger-like, but he _is_ quite literally and magically saved by the woman
through her terrible self-sacrifice.  She doesn't seem particularly
Jessica-like but maybe I'm missing something.  She's sort of a very
innocent but strange and strangely wise woman.  He's a fun-lovin' regular
guy, at the beginning at least.
 
> Note that the movie pluralizes "wave". Why would they do that?

Not a clue.

Fascinating movie.  I heard some feminist critics bash it, heard other
feminists who liked it. Just goes to show that feminism (of course) is no
more monolithic than other movements.


> When I saw Lars Von Triers' remarkable new movie "Breaking the Waves," the
> person I was with said: "Hey, man, that was a great movie, but what the
> hell does the title mean?" We had no idea, but recently, re-reading GR, I
> came across the phrase "the breaking of the wave" in the Roger/Jessica
> church visit episode and I've since wondered whether this might not be the
> source of the film's mysterious title. Independently of "Breaking the
> Waves," I sort of thought Von Trier's earlier release "Zentropa" showed
> evidence of TRP influence, but I dismissed that sort of thinking as paranoid. 
>   Does anybody else think the title from "Breaking the Waves" comes from
> GR? How about TRP's influence on Von Trier?
> 
> Keith_Brecher at brown.edu