Table of contents Introduction 3 Mission 4 Method 4 Theory 5
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Breaking the WavesThis is the first film in Trier’s “Golden Heart Trilogy” from 1996, which also includes The Idiots (1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). It becomes apparent that the story in Breaking the Waves is very different from his previous Europa trilogy, where a Postmodern concept has been replaced with a simple, almost banal story about a girl who sacrifices all she has for the sake of love. Narrative structureThe story revolves around Bess McNeill, who marries oil rig worker Jan despite objections from her community, the Calvinist church. Bess is portrayed as a simple and childlike woman, who has difficulties functioning without Jan when he is away on the oil rig. In an attempt to bring Jan back, she prays to God and as a result Jan returns the next day but only because he has suffered a serious head injury, which has left him paralyzed. Consequently, Bess believes it is her fault and struggles to handle the situation. Jan, who is no longer able to perform sexually nor mentally, urges Bess to find herself a lover whom she can tell him about, as an attempt to experience their love for each other through Bess’ new encounters. As a result, Bess starts living a promiscuous life and comes to believe that what she is doing is the will of God and that her actions affect the outcome of Jan’s condition. As the story progresses, Bess becomes more and more unstable, and begins to believe that her however humiliating sexual encounters will eventually heal Jan. Tragically, Bess’ sacrifices end up killing her and after her death, the viewer learns that Jan slowly starts to recover from his injury. A melodramatic storyThis melodramatic story becomes a central theme in Trier’s Golden Heart Trilogy, which is a title taken from the children’s book Guldhjerte – Eventyret om pigen der blev prinsesse. The story in Guldhjerte is about a girl who is so good that she gives everything she owns away. “Jeg klarer mig nok” is her only respond as she gives away her food, her clothes and at the end her heart. The story is an expression of the goodness and the ultimate consequence of being a martyr, which in Breaking the Waves is combined with a religious and human motive and a miracle. This simplistic story is combined with a melodramatic genre and attentiveness to emotions as an effect in film. The aforementioned genre that the film appears to depict is also substantiated by Torben Grodal, professor in film science, who states in Filmoplevelse (2003) concerning the melodramatic genre, “En stor gruppe filmhistorier benytter sig af kausale fremstillingsformer, der skildrer mennesker, der er underkastet en overvældende skæbne. Derved fremkalder disse historier ofte passive følelser som sorg og frygt, men de passive følelser kan også bestå i lidenskaber, dvs. følelser, der her en sådan styrke, at de bringer hovedpersonerne i konflikt med samfundet eller med de mere normale dele as deres karakter. Deres lidenskab er en kausal årsag, der sætter deres normale, viljestyrede dømmekraft ud af funktion.”59 The melodramatic genre often depicts characters who have a goal to achieve, which is prevented by outside forces and this is where the genre often generates passive emotions such as sorrow and fear. The characters’ actions in melodrama are therefore determined by outside circumstances (e.g. war or natural disaster), and a possible way in which the audience deals with this, is by expressing nervous twitches or by crying. The latter can be said to be the body’s automatic reaction of the emotion of powerlessness. Furthermore, a melodramatic film can maintain this emotion through its narrative structure and its style which emphasizes the characters affection by using close-ups of facial expressions and applying mood setting music that reinforces both empathy and allegiance. By applying passionate emotions, drama and a polarized world view, the melodramatic genre has functioned well in audiovisual art such as film where the expressive dramatic form could be supplied with a use of excessive emotional background music. In the 1930s and 40s this was a common sought out genre and movies like Gone With the Wind (1939) and Casablanca (1942) displayed these melodramatic aspects. In Breaking the Waves Bess is also the victim of a devastating destiny and the audience experience the fear and sorrow she goes through. Furthermore, we see how she is controlled by her emotions and how this affects her judgment. An example of this can be found near the end of the film where Bess, in a last attempt to ‘heal’ Jan, puts her own life at risk with fatal consequences. She willingly offers herself to a couple of sailors who she already knows would try to rape and kill her. Prior to this, we see her first encounter with them and how she barely manages to escape from the ship that they are on. As such, Andersen is right in claiming that a larger level of pathos is employed in this film as opposed to Epidemic. However, when looking at the history of melodramatic films, it becomes clear that Breaking the Waves does differ in some aspects. Through the narrative structure of Breaking the Waves it is also observed that compared to Epidemic, it employs a larger degree of redundancy and the characters’ actions are well motivated. The protagonist Bess is depicted as a happy and cheerful woman and as such she becomes the person that the viewer commits to and engaged in. Through the story’s alignment, the viewer is presented with Bess’ motivations and moral codes which the audience can identify with. Bess’ only wish is to be married to Jan and live a happy life together, a notion we can all sympathize with and therefore an allegiance is established between us and Bess. This is further emphasized as both the community and her family are skeptic of the marriage and look censorious at Bess. The larger degree of redundancy is seen through the depiction of Jan’s friends and the elderly men of the Calvinist church. The film often shows how Jan and his friends from the oil rig joke and laugh together which stands in clear contrast to the people of Bess’ community, who is never seen expressing any form of joy. As such the film bears resemblance to a mainstream narrative structure within the genre of melodrama. This is also substantiated by the plot’s unlimited narration where as mentioned earlier the viewer is assigned with more knowledge than the characters. Within this, it is also worth noting Rose/Christansen’s statement concerning the depth of knowledge that the viewer is presented with. It is a notion of how deep the plot gives us access to the characters’ mental state. In a movie where only the characters’ external behavior are described, then we are dealing with an objective narration. If we however, are assigned with camera shots from the character’s optical view, then we dealing with perceptual subjectivity, and if we are further involved in a person’s dreams and memories, we call this mental subjectivity.60 In Breaking the Waves, the viewer is presented with more knowledge than Bess and this gives us the opportunity to predict the outcome of her actions and it reinforces our allegiance to Bess, which applies to the genre of melodrama. By applying the same analytic method as exercised in Epidemic, it becomes apparent that Breaking the Waves differs noticeably through its narrative as well as stylistic structure. Where Epidemic explored a self-conscious and in many respects experimental idea of the relationship between fiction and reality, Breaking the Waves practices a much more common theme of tragic love. In terms of narrative structure, it becomes apparent that the film employs a higher degree of redundancy, where Epidemic for the most part neglected that. |