Table of contents Introduction 3 Mission 4 Method 4 Theory 5
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The last scenePerhaps the most interesting aspect in Breaking the Waves in regards to the theory of the Postironical, is the last scene. After Bess’ death Jan recovers from his injury and wants to give Bess an honorable funeral, which he does not believe that the church can give her. Therefore, along with his friends, Jan steals Bess’ body from the mortuary and takes it out to the oil rig and gives Bess a worthy burial in waves of the ocean. The next day Jan is woken by one of his friends, who wants to show him something, in his own words unbelievable. He is taken to the rig’s radar which does not detect anything and Jan questions his friend’s intention. But as they step outside on the rig’s platform, they hear the sound of church bells ringing which seems to come from the sky and Jan starts to cry cheerfully. The film cuts to a shot of the oil rig from above and the viewer sees church bells swinging over the clouds as the scene fades to black and the film’s credits starts. While the credits roll across the screen, scenes from the movie are also shown to maintain the viewer’s recollection of the story. The final scene of Breaking the Waves is perhaps the most widely discussed subject critiqued by audiences and critics. Where some found the ending to be beautiful and serious and in keep with real miracle depicted by Jan’s recovery, others saw it as tasteless, ironic and an annulment of the preceding story. As such it is also a pivotal issue in Andersen’s theory on the Postironical where the main problem revolves around Breaking the Waves’ last scene. Are the church bells meant to be ironic, and if so do they cancel the pathos established and experienced by the audience? I do not believe that they are meant to be ironic but I can see how they can be perceived as such or perhaps if not ironic, then at least forcedly pathetic. This problem however, compares to the film’s overall narrative composition which also portrays a combination of empathy and distance. However, if the church bells are an ironic comment made by Trier, it is still not substantial enough to revoke the melodramatic composition of the entire film. As seen in Epidemic, the notion of Booth also applies in Breaking the Waves as he states that irony can be perceived as a local and temporary effect that only communicates a specific message and does not destabilize the whole work. Still Andersen’s claim goes beyond the discussion of only one work and he bases his statement as an argument that should be considered within a variety of Trier’s films – that the supposed irony perceived in Breaking the Waves’ last scene is established by his previous ironical and metafictive films such as Epidemic. As I said earlier, the two films mentioned here do not fall under the same category; This is argued through Epidemic’s ironic distancing and experimental structure where Breaking the Waves relies more on a melodramatic story and applies a much larger degree of pathos. Key findingsThrough the narrative structure of the film, it becomes apparent that it portrays a melodramatic story but Trier has created a story that through its stylistic system concentrates on a more serious and raw environment. The mentioned classic characteristics of the melodramatic genre are in Breaking the Waves turned into a functional frame in which Trier constructs a realistic emotionality that the classic genre lacks. While the film employs classic Hollywood characteristics such as redundancy, motivation and allegiance, it does at the same time incorporate elements of metafictive narratives which counter the melodramatic genre. Through his employment of metafictive aspects combined with typical mainstream characteristics, Trier manages to create a film that establishes the possibility of using several opposing elements and as such the movie can be seen as a successful result of Epidemic’s revolt against the System. The supposed irony argued by Andersen in connection to the Postironical, is also refuted as it does not cancel the pathos in the film. As a result, the larger level of pathos in Breaking the Waves does not determine a complete break with Trier’s previous ironical phase and should instead be seen as a successful product of Epidemic’s experimental composition. What is also interesting about Andersen’s statement of Trier, where he claims that Trier has a difficulties being taken seriously when appealing to our emotions. As I have already established the supposed does not cancel the pathos of the rest of the movie based on Booth’s theory on localized irony. As such I accept the argument that the church bells in Breaking the Waves can be perceived to be ironic. The notion of this then, can be seen as an reflection of Trier’s own belief, that he does not wish his films to be taken too seriously. With this I suggest, while Trier supposedly removes some emotional appeal through ironic distance in Breaking the Waves, he is commenting on that specific film and does not imply a complete denunciation of being a serious director. ComparisonBy combining the findings of Epidemic and Breaking the Waves shows through a Neoformalistic analysis, how both movies differ from each other within the narrative structure, but do have similar traits in connection with the stylistic structure. Noticeably, they both practice an aspect of metafictive, where the use of handheld camera supports this notion. However, as the analysis demonstrated, the significance of meta effects had different meaning between the two films. Epidemic applied these effects with an agenda to thematize the relation between fiction and reality. Additionally, the effects also helped to establish Trier’s criticism of the film industry, where he through ironic distance is able to attain a criticizing position. The film’s clear lack of redundancy, motivation and alignment are all elements that show how Trier dissociates Epidemic from mainstream film. In Breaking the Waves Trier also apply metafictive aspect, but as the analysis proved, these effects were employed together with classic elements of the mainstream. As such, the film takes notice of a double strategy, which notes a problematic perception of the movie. However, Breaking the Waves manages to incorporate both strategies without cancelling the degree of pathos and thereby stating Trier’s opinion on recognized and accepted storytelling in film. Finally, the analysis depicted how both films can be considered in connection with Andersen’s theory of the Postironical. As mentioned, Epidemic marked clear characteristics of a Postmodern film which supports the notion of the Postironical because as Andersen stated, it does not represent a clean break with Postmodernism, but is rather a revised continuation, which is simultaneously a break and a extension, and as such the Postironical is by and large related to Postmodernism. Breaking the Waves also showed signs of a Postironical film, but to a minor degree than Epidemic. Thus, Breaking the Waves should be seen as a successful result of Epidemic, and as a continued example of Trier’s mode of expression. From this, I argue that Trier in deed can be seen as a Postironist based on the analysis of the two films mentioned here. However, I deem it necessary to question Andersen in his theory of new Postmodern tendencies, which points toward a redefined perception of irony and as such becomes Postirony. |