BREAKING THE WAVES Closing Night Gala

A robust Scandinavian oil-rigger and a pretty but naive Scottish village girl
marry; they are blissfully happy; he becomes paralyzed after a work accident; their
lives fall apart. This is the framework of Danish director Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the
Waves, but the outline doesn’t really suggest the movie’s titanic emotions and mysterious
power. Von Trier’s previous films-The Element of Crime, Zentropa, and The
Kingdom-suggest a master of baroque melodrama, with a flair for noir. Breaking
the Waves, one of the great movies at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has a more
monumental, oceanic, visual style, plus a plot that hinges on misunderstanding rather
than evil and a flood of emotion-largely triggered by star Emily Watson as the sexually
martyred wife-that becomes almost overwhelming. -Michael Wilmington,
Chicago Tribune. Breaking the Waves is Michael Wilmington’s Critic’s Choice