Breaking the Waves

[Keith Brecher]

At 09:00 AM 3/17/97 -0400, you wrote:
>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.
>
>I was thinking about why Von Trier might have pluralized "the breaking of
the wave" to "breaking the waves" and my theory is that it simply sounded
better, more compelling, etc. And, of course, there's the distinct
possibility that TRP's expression did not inspire the film's title. If it
did, I was not able to make a case for Roger/Jessica (and I guess we should
include the Beaver too) being exactly analogous to Jan/Bess, but TRP's
poetic ruminations following his use of the phrase "the breaking of the
wave" may apply in a general way to what goes on in the movie. Though, then
again, those ruminations could apply to lots of movies.
>>Regarding feminism and "Breaking the Waves," it seems like a great movie
for provoking debate. The all-male patriarchal church, etc. Even more
interesting would be to compare women and men in Carl Dreyer, the major
influence on "Breaking the Waves," with women and men in Von Trier.
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