Breaking the Waves

An award-winning, critically acclaimed film, Breaking the Waves is Lars von Trier’s great melodrama — a work of complex psychology echoing masters such as his fellow countryman Carl Th. Dreyer. Emily Watson stars in this story of feverish love set in a religious community in Scotland during the early 1970s.

Duration: 159’
Production year: 1996
Country: DK, FR, SE
Language: EN Subtitles: PT

Upcoming sessions

21:00

NOS Vasco da Gama Cinemas

Room 4

Cannes Film Festival 1996 – Grand Prize of the Jury

Lars von Trier

Born in 1956, Lars von Trier has established himself as the most ambitious and visually distinctive Danish filmmaker on the contemporary scene. He made his feature film debut with The Element of Crime (1984), which earned him international recognition, and solidified his reputation with Europa (1991), Breaking the Waves (1996) and The Idiots (1998). In 1995, he co-founded the Dogme 95 movement, which advocated a more austere and naturalistic approach to filmmaking. His work is characterised by formal experimentation, the subversion of cinematic conventions, and an exploration of the limits of representation. Dancer in the Dark (2000), winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, marked one of the most acclaimed moments of his career. Subsequent films such as Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005), Melancholia (2011), Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and Vol. II (2013), and The House That Jack Built (2018) further confirmed the diversity and radical nature of his trajectory within European and international cinema.