Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
Rating: 8.2
Emily Watson delivers an extraordinary performance as Bess in her screen debut which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Several other great acting performances are note worthy in this film as well. The film explores an interesting theme of faith, spirituality, and allegiance to God in a very original manner and employs several of the Dogme 95 film techniques consisting of hand-held camera use, lack of artificial lighting, frequent use of close-ups as opposed to the more orthodox establishing master shots, etc. This film was made before the Dogme manifesto was written, and is sort of an experimental hybrid. The film does require patience, as it is rather slow and lengthy, but is visually stunning. The photography throughout the film is amazing. My favorite moments are the transition shots between chapters when title screens are juxtaposed with beautiful scenery of the scottish country side and 1970s rock n' roll music.
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