1. Breaking the Waves
By Lars Von Trier

2. Bess A Christ figure? Joan of Arc? Virgin Mary
Like most women somewhere caught between the virgin and the whore
Bess’ role as daughter, sister-in-law, wife and member of religious community

3. Story
Mental Illness
Setting
Deceptively simple storyline

4. Questions Is Bess good despite the choice to prostitue herself?
Whose values constitute the norm by which “good” is defined?
Is this a fable of sacrificial victim?
Is it possible to see her not as a victim of patriarchy but as a woman who chooses to live on her own terms?
Who is really perverted here? The elderly with their set of unnatural rules and who pervert religion –which shoud be about passion and love? Or Bess&Jan?

5. Paradigm
The good woman is the dead woman who can be safely mourned when she can no longer disrupt the “natural” order of things
Is this therefore Von Trier’s cultural critique of gender and its assigned roles?

6. Cinematography Hand Held Camera Picture Postcards
Sepia Hue and Granular Look
Distance (Von Trier creates a narrative context and perhaps takes sides, the camera isolates Bess)
Voyeuristic use of close-up

7. Music 60’s & 70’s Pop Church Hymns
Scottish jigs at the wedding reception

8. Finale
The bells
Silencing of desire, male authority over society (women and bells are silenced in their community)
The miracle gives the silenced Bell a voice
A sublime happening that speaks for the wronged and rejected by the dominant society

9. DOGME 95
Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.
The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.

10. DOGME 95
The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
Optical work and filters are forbidden.
Genre movies are not acceptable.
Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).