Curator Watchlist
A devastating, fiercely acted melodrama that turns faith, desire, and sacrifice into a raw moral ordeal. It is emotionally punishing and intentionally abrasive, but for viewers drawn to fearless performances and confrontational art cinema, it is essential.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 2h 39m
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge
In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with another.
Lars von Trier
Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge
A devastating, fiercely acted melodrama that turns faith, desire, and sacrifice into a raw moral ordeal. It is emotionally punishing and intentionally abrasive, but for viewers drawn to fearless performances and confrontational art cinema, it is essential.
Breaking the Waves is one of the most punishingly sincere films of the 1990s. Lars von Trier strips away polish to trap the viewer inside a story of faith, desire, and self-destruction, and the result is both spiritually charged and emotionally brutal. Emily Watson’s performance is astonishing: fragile, luminous, and terrifying in its commitment.
What makes the film so hard to shake is the way it turns devotion into a test that no one can pass cleanly. The romance is real, but so is the cruelty, and the movie keeps forcing love into impossible shapes. Its chaptered structure, handheld immediacy, and bleak humor all sharpen the sense that this is a tragedy being lived in real time.
This is not an easy recommendation, but it is a major one. If you respond to cinema that risks alienating you in order to reach something raw and transcendent, Breaking the Waves delivers exactly that. If you want emotional safety, stay away; if you want a film that leaves a scar, this is the kind of masterpiece that does it.
Toni (4.5★) · 2931 likes
Lars Von Trier's films got me through a bad time in my life by making it worse❤️
Karsten (4★) · 1274 likes
i feel like shit
dselwyns (5★) · 933 likes
the only breaking was my heart, and the only waves were my tears
🥳 Benjamin 🎉 (4★) · 674 likes
Why did I watch this. It said Lars von Trier right there on the cover, no one to blame but myself.
Bunny🐰🪓 (5★) · 498 likes
When Lars Von Trier redefined romance. The story is about a woman named Bess a simple, God-fearing woman whose life turns from a fairy tale to a hell hole after her husband gets paralyzed due to an unfortunate accident while working on an oil rig, as he asks his wife to see other men and tell him her experience with them when he is unable to have sex with her. Shot with a bleached-out lens which is enough to give… more
Another devastating von Trier tragedy centered on a woman pushed toward martyrdom, with the same appetite for emotional extremity.
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faith and guilt, sacrifice, marital devotion, sexuality and repression, female suffering, moral extremity, religious devotion, tragedy
art-house drama, psychological intensity, religious themes, bleak romance, Dogme-inspired realism, 1990s cinema, emotional devastation, female-led tragedy, provocative melodrama