From the soles of the feet to the top of the head, there is not a single spot complete, but all wounds, bruises, and fresh wounds, not closed, not bound, nor moistened with ointment. - "Bible, Isaiah 1:6"
The LORD will pass through the sea of bitterness, and strike the waves, and dry up the depths of the Nile. - "Bible Zechariah 10:11"
1. Two Dimensions: Religious Ethics and Secular Morality
The story of "Breaking the Waves" takes place in a small town that is almost isolated from the world with a clear hierarchy. Here, age, gender, or occupation can ultimately become the standard by which people are drawn (in fact, the dense hierarchical network also fundamentally denies The Waves as a feminism; at least, feminism is only one aspect of it, but not all), such as a priestly old man with the highest status and power in the community, so that it is easy to decide whether others should go to hell after death. Beth moved back and forth between being a young housewife and a young prostitute, at the very bottom of the community anyway. Such hierarchical order and religious authority show the alienation of religion everywhere, and the most obvious point of religious alienation is of course the alienation and distrust between people, even father and son, mother and son may become strangers. On the other hand, doctors represented by Dr. Dudu and Dr. Richardson are representatives of advanced technology and scientism. They may believe in religion, but not in divine power. They may admit goodness, but show their support for religious power from the bottom of their hearts. questioning and contempt. This emotion may come from intergenerational barriers, or from the personal experience of each character, but in any case, we can be sure that a huge tension has formed between alienated religion and scientism, Faith and faith, though they are in harmony, are totally incompatible.
Nonetheless, they also have one feature in common, that is, the lack of genuine concern for people: the hierarchy and ritual standards have completely deprived the town of vitality, while the oil fields at sea, modern hospitals, and black-smoked motorcycles These things that should be vigorous, fresh, and full of vitality have not brought any vitality to the town, but are equally dead and control everything with its technology and rationality.
Beth's presence completely broke the silence. Precisely, Lars von Trier strikes this balance through a subtle ethical paradox. In the film, Yang, who was paralyzed in bed, asked Beth to find another man to make peace because she couldn't bear her love, and told him the whole process after each peace. If Beth decides to do what Young says, she's actually touching both religious ethics and scientism at the same time. The result of infringing on the former is top-down contempt, isolation and even abandonment, which eventually leads to the complete denial and rupture of Beth from the church to the family, and the result of touching scientism is the constant intervention of friends, and her persistence is the same in the end. Means betrayal.
As Beth herself asked, "Do you want to save yourself or Yang?" Saving herself means that Beth will be away from the "evil" that ordinary people can't understand, and embark on a path that normal people must go through, but at the same time she Yang's life must also be given up; and to save Yang, it means having to give up his chastity. It can be said that as long as Beth chooses to listen to her lover's words, the consequences are doomed to be disastrous. In this case, "Breaking the Waves" has God "possessed" on Beth in an almost mystical way, creating a schizophrenic effect. Through the "dialogue" with God, Beth finally firmed up her belief that she was desperate and even used her life to save her lover. The "weeds" that grow are true love and loyalty; if there is any word that can be used to further summarize it, it is true divinity and faith.
2. The Consistent Religious Moral Force: From Dreyer to Lars von Trier
If we look out of The Wave, out of Lars von Trier, out of Denmark, and finally to the whole of Northern Europe, we find that, to a certain extent, modern Nordic cinema seems to be more concerned with secular ethics than any other. any country in the region. In addition to Lars von Trier, director Thomas Winterberg, with whom the Dogma 95 manifesto co-signed, is also an expert on ethical issues. From 1998's "Family Dinner" to 2012's "The Hunt", Thomas Winterberg has been paying full attention to the various problems that ethical issues bring to Nordic families and societies, and almost all over the world in terms of technique and content Made a huge splash. In addition, the Swedish novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was also adapted into a film by Danish director Niels Arden Oplef, focusing on the ethical traces left by the Nazis in the ice and snow through a similar and revealing approach. , and this film was also adapted into another version of the popular "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by David Fincher, who is known for his perverted pictures. This shows that Nordic ethics has a great influence on world films. But we also have to say that Lars von Trier can still be called the highest and strongest among them, not only because of the way he presents his unique insights on ethical issues, but also because of Lars von Trier. Tyre has profound religious cultivation and humanistic feelings.
——"Return of religion" constitutes the core concept of "Breaking the Waves" and even many works of Lars von Trier. It can be said that Lars von Trier never got rid of his zeal for religion itself or religious figures, not even Grace (meaning "compassionate, merciful, grace") has a metaphor of God's calamity in it. This "return of religion" is usually hidden in a subtle and cruel moral story, revealing the inherent (or traditional) evil and ferociousness of human beings through the defects and depravity of human nature, and at the same time exuding the spiritual light of religion. Just as Haneke examines the hypocrisy and ruthlessness of modern society through his utterly impassive bleakness, so Lars von Trier has an uncanny ability to make his films both shocking and perfectly logical; Above all, no matter how large the films made by Lars von Trier, no matter how many people in them have sexual intercourse, he is always the mantle of Nordic humanism.
Speaking of successors, I have to mention the profound influence of the director Karl Theodor Dreyer on Lars von Trier, who is also a Dane. From The Diaries of Satan (1921), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), The Day of Vengeance (1943) to The Promise (1955), Dreyer's films have always had a strong religious character . This one has to mention "The Passion of Joan of Arc" separately. Comparing "Breaking the Waves", it can be found that Lars von Trier has a very obvious reference to the image of Joan of Arc: from belief to doubt to re-belief to suffering, Beth undoubtedly experienced the same psychological line as Joan of Arc. Although the modern world presented in "Breaking the Waves" is much more complex than Dreyer's world could have imagined in 1928, Lars von Trier's human nature is also more paradoxical than Dreyer's in 1928. There is a world of difference between the affirmation of God and the self-flagellation of Joan of Arc, but none of these can make us ignore and deny the unreasonable, unreasonable, and deeply touching heart of every human being. Religious appeal.
When the big bell from the top view at the end of "Breaking the Waves" is clanking, people will no longer care about such stupid words as "good man" in Dr. Richardson's mouth, because God not only truly returned Yang's life, but also He showed his mysterious and solemn smile to the world in a materialized way. This sound of the bell is not only moving and shocking, but also pulls all the grass and snake gray lines laid down by "Breaking the Waves", and at the same time reveals its true core - it is no longer just an ethical tragicomedy, but more about beliefs with its supreme glory.
3. Breaking the Waves and the Fourteen Stations of the Road of the Dead: How dark is the dark horse?
At the beginning of 2014, the German film "Fourteen Stations of the Cross" won the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival and became the number one dark horse of art films that year. It is worth mentioning that the term "Fourteen Stations of the Cross" itself has strong religious connotations, and the film's screenwriter and director Dietrich Bruegmann compared the crucifixion of Christ to the deeds of the heroine of the story. In the end, it is integrated, and naturally the whole film is rigorous in style and serious in theme.
"The Fourteen Stations of the Cross" also tells a story with strong religious overtones. However, in contrast, we are surprised to find that although this film is obviously different from "Breaking the Waves" in structure, the two are still the same in terms of the story. Surprisingly similar, such as the confusion of others about the heroine, the extreme conservativeness of the Catholic forces, especially the act of "sacrifice" to God with one's own life, the two films are almost identical. Interestingly, compared to people's infinite sympathy for the exchange of fate between Beth and Yang, the heroine of "Breaking the Waves", "Fourteen Stations of the Cross" has attracted a lot of doubts from the audience and comments, because at the end, the younger brother's voice "Ma. Leah" completely confuses people. What people wonder is, what is the attitude of the director towards religion? If the attitude and significance of the film is to deny the authenticity of religious beliefs, why did the younger brother miraculously call out Maria's name in the end? If the point of the film is to praise Mary's religious devotion, why is the mother of Maria, who is also religious, the obvious target of criticism?
I think these have to be blamed on the narrative "landmines" planted when "Fourteen Stations of the Cross" deliberately pursues amazing effects, because until the little brother's "Maria" near the end of the film, the audience has no idea what will happen next. Things are almost unknown. In the sense of creating suspense, it may indeed be a good thing that no one knows whether such a "sacrifice" will have any effect, but it is also dangerous in that the expectations and doubts under the suspense will also dissolve for a while. Much of the plausibility of the story itself and the trust that the audience builds in the intent of the film. Therefore, belief itself has become a "shield" for belief, which to a certain extent deviates from the original intention of the creator. The difference between "Breaking the Waves" is that the film constantly reminds and confirms the reliability of belief itself from the correlation between Beth's actions and Yang's recovery, and then Beth's rationality undoubtedly confirms the opposite. The childishness and lowliness of denying religion and fanatical religious rituals. It is precisely because of this that these puzzles and contempt can definitely become Lars von Trier's "targets", and ultimately highlight the tragedy and sanctity of the heroine "breaking through the waves".
In addition to the shortcomings of the plot itself, there is also a very obvious gap between the two in terms of character creation. At least in "Fourteen Stations of the Cross", Maria's serious and even a bit "fascist" Catholic face is very It's hard to be convinced that she's really a living person, and whether she's filled with non-pathological goodness at all. As a result, the fatal flaw in character was once again torn apart from Maria's final successful "sacrifice", which made it difficult for people to follow. In contrast, although Beth created by "Breaking the Waves" has an extraordinary neuroticism and vulnerability, her firmness is inherent in her vulnerability and her love for Yang. Once such a logical coherence is established, Beth is worthy of sympathy. After all, this kind of fragility and love seems to be extracted from the deepest part of everyone's heart, as pure and hard as a diamond.
4. Technique and Emotional Power: Holding, Editing, Color, Music and Dogma 95
The reason why "Breaking the Waves" in 1996 still exudes infinite charm is, on the one hand, of course related to its classic and timeless textual connotation, and on the other hand, its technical level is almost impeccable. From the photography, editing, soundtrack to the overall tone of the film, there is hardly a single aspect of "Breaking the Waves" that perpetuates the stereotypes of filming.
In addition to the realism brought by the handheld photography itself, this seemingly impossible story is infinitely close to the truth, the director gave Beth's actor Emily Watson the freedom and right to look directly at the camera. It now seems that doing so not only further enhances the realism of the scene like a home video, but also achieves a wonderful effect that has never been seen before. We found that every time Beth stared at the camera was actually a moment of extreme happiness in her heart (such as the church agreeing to marry Beth and Yang, and Beth breaking the waves for the second time to meet death), so staring at the camera naturally brought out A strong sense of sharing allows the audience to experience this sweetness more directly.
Also, related to the intense presence of handheld photography, the shaky way of shooting is inherently emotional, and Lars von Trier also reinforced this through editing. Jump cuts between scenes are commonplace in "Breaking the Waves". What's even more surprising is that there are also traces of editing in the middle of some coherent actions. This seems to separate the actions, but in fact it achieves an emotional level. Coherence, that is, "going directly from one emotional vertex to another emotional vertex", saves a lot of unnecessary emotional transitions. Of course, the principle followed by all this is not "reduction" and "direction", but "emotionalization" directly related to Beth's character. It certainly won't be cut off. In 2013, Lars von Trier released a new restored version of "Breaking Waves" through Standard Corporation. In this version, Lars von Trier completely subverts the previous natural tones, instead toning the entire film in bronze, resulting in a classical, heavy texture that is in turn transcribed with the video The strong gelatinous feeling formed after the 35mm film complements each other, forming the world in the eyes of Lars von Trier.
The role of the soundtrack and songs in "Breaking the Waves" cannot be overemphasized. From the first chapter, All the Way from Memphis, the songs that appear with the title of each chapter play a very important role in guiding and prompting the plot: White Shade of Pale hints at Yang's return home from injury, Deep Purple is very rich The lyrics of "Bullets flying" in the characteristic keyboard rock Child in Time even directly allude to the cause of Beth's death, and the film finally reached its climax until the final chapter appeared in Life on Mars sung by David Bowie. These tracks are basically classics from the 1960s and 1970s. On the one hand, they must have left a deep impression on Lars von Trier, who was less than twenty years old at the time. It resonated extremely strongly with mainstream audiences in their 40s, 40s and 50s. Interestingly, after the end of the main film, Lars von Trier unexpectedly chose Bach's Siciliana (Siciliana) to create a strong religious atmosphere and elevate the whole film to the level and scope of religion. This press, mention, can be said to be quite clever.
Finally, I want to mention the famous Dogma 95 manifesto. In fact, it can be seen from the name of Dogma 95 that the signing of this declaration was actually in 1995. However, "Breaking the Waves", which was filmed in 1996, did not abide by the commandments mentioned in the declaration. Perhaps as critic David Street said, "The emergence of "Breaking Waves" means that Lars von Trier cannot be bound by the precepts he made himself." And in such a top work as "Breaking Waves" After appearing, Lars von Trier has made a series of heavyweight films such as "Idiot" (1998), "Dancer in the Dark" (2000), Melancholia (2011), Female Addict (2013) and so on. . It's hard to say which of these films surpassed "Breaking the Waves"; but they all seem to have surpassed "Breaking the Waves." After all, for Lars von Trier, this work called "Breaking the Waves" has just crossed the horizon. As for what else can come out of this "Endless Treasure" full of tobacco, alcohol and drugs, I am afraid only He will know for himself.
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