100
Film.com
It was a bleak allegory -- a desperate, sullen, and moderately sick tale.
Breaking the Waves
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Denmark,
- Sweden,
- France,
- Netherlands,
- Norway,
- Iceland,
- Spain,
- United Kingdom
- 1996
- · 159m
Director
Lars Von Trier
Cast
Emily Watson,
Stellan Skarsgård,
Katrin Cartlidge,
Jean-Marc Barr,
Adrian Rawlins,
Jonathan Hackett
Genre
Drama,
Romance
In a small and religiously conservative Scottish village, Bess marries Ian, an oil rig worker. After a tragic accident leaves him paralyzed, Ian suffers psychologically from his inability to perform sexually. He asks Bess to have sex with other men and then describe her experiences to him so he can live vicariously.
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What are critics saying?
100
San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack
One of the most haunting and vital movies of the year.
100
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
True art is a journey to somewhere you've never been, and there has never been a movie quite like Breaking the Waves.
100
Film.com by Keith Simanton
It was a bleak allegory -- a desperate, sullen, and moderately sick tale.
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Not many movies like this get made, because not many filmmakers are so bold, angry and defiant.
100
Slate by Sarah Kerr
Right from the opening shot of Breaking the Waves...von Trier seems to be looking for the first time at life, not just the movies.
100
New Times (L.A.) by Andy Klein
This is a dark, often funny walk through Ingmar Bergman turf.
100
Mr. Showbiz by F. X. Feeney
Not only one of the best films of the year, it's one of the best films of the decade.
100
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
A movie about the passions of simple people, and it's done with such extraordinary empathy and commitment that it all but pulls you under. [29 November 1996, Friday, p.A]
100
Total Film by Ali Catterall
Philosophically complex, spiritual but anti-religious, harrowing yet hopeful.
90
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
A narrative path leading from the sincere to the ludicrous, and culminating in a final image of flabbergasting transcendance, gives Breaking the Waves its surprising power.
90
The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps
What Von Trier arrives at is a complex, contemporary, and deeply moving exploration of faith.
90
The New York Times by Elvis Mitchell
A narrative path leading from the sincere to the ludicrous, and culminating in a final image of flabbergasting transcendance, gives Breaking the Waves its surprising power.
90
Newsweek by David Ansen
There are few movies around that take such huge risks: this is high-wire filmmaking, without a net of irony.
90
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
"Waves" is a spellbinder.
89
Austin Chronicle by Russell Smith
With this artlessly profound and affecting story of love, von Trier emerges as one of those blessed filmmakers who've managed to blend their early stylistic flamboyance with enough human empathy to make their work both visually and emotionally compelling.
80
Time by Richard Corliss
In its pagan fervor, this is an almost religious experience.
70
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
You won't come out of it indifferent, and even if it winds up enraging you (I could have done without most of the ending myself), it nonetheless commands attention.
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