Breaking the Waves

[J.Stewart at wellcome.ac.uk]

The title also refers to a key scene in the film, where Bess is literally 
standing on the rocks as the waves crash on and over her.  It is the point 
of her crisis in faith -- whether to do what Jan has just asked her to do, 
that is to make love with other men in order to save his life.  She returns 
from this moment of crisis determined to forgive him from the terrible thing 
he has asked her, but he has had a medical and emotional crisis (he tries to 
commit suicide, and then is rushed back to the hospital because his brain is 
worse) and is literally dying.  

Clearly, there are lots of metaphorical meanings of the title as well. 
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Original Text
>From owner-pynchon-l at waste.org, on 19/3/97 8:50 PM:
At 09:04 PM 3/19/97 GMT, Mike Weaver wrote:
>Me , I reckon there's a whole lotta shoehorning going on.  Some of you
>p-listers seem almost desperate to find TP's influence wherever you look.
>As if  *breaking the wave*  was likely to be original to our Tom.   
Breaking
>the waves is a much more specific phrase and given the religious/miraculous
>aspect of the film, a biblical Red Sea miracle reference is more likely ( I
>haven't seen the film but a friend gave me a run down on it a few weeks 
back
>so any more substantial connections I'm ignorant of)

Mike--
Though your interpretation of BREAKING THE WAVES as an illusion to the
parting of the Red Sea is compelling, it does not necessarily refute the
origin of the title in TRP. It does not seem to me all that commonplace an
expression. Can you cite further examples of use of the phrase elsewhere?
Regarding whether BTW is a film version of Human Diastrophism in Love and
Rockets, I haven't read it but Von Trier has not so far mentioned it any
interviews. In some interview somewhere, I recollect he said BTW had its
origin in a children's book. And don't forget Carl Dreyer, particularly
Ordet which has a similar miraculous ending.