Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
Breaking the Waves
TITLE DETAILS

Breaking the Waves

1996-07-05 · 159 min · ★ 7.5

Drama · Romance

In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with another.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Lars von Trier
Production companies
Zentropa Entertainments, SVT Drama, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, La Sept Cinéma, VPRO, Media Investment Club, Trust Film Svenska, Liberator Productions, Argus Film Produktie, Northern Lights, DR TV, Villealfa Filmproductions, YLE, ZDF
Countries
Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, United States of America
Status
Released
Budget
USD 7,500,000
Revenue
USD 23,000,000

Top Cast

Emily WatsonEmily WatsonBess McNeill
Stellan SkarsgårdStellan SkarsgårdJan Nyman
Katrin CartlidgeKatrin CartlidgeDodo McNeill
Jean-Marc BarrJean-Marc BarrTerry
Adrian RawlinsAdrian RawlinsDr. Richardson
Jonathan HackettPriest
Sandra VoeSandra VoeMother
Udo KierUdo KierSadistic Sailor
Mikkel GaupMikkel GaupPits
Roef RagasRoef RagasPim
Robert RobertsonChairman
Phil McCallGrandfather
Desmond ReillyAn Elder
Sarah GudgeonSybilla
Finlay WelshFinlay WelshCoroner
David GallacherDavid GallacherGlasgow Doctor
Ray JeffriesMan on Bus
Owen KavanaghMan at Lighthouse
Bob DochertyMan on Boat
David BatesonDavid BatesonYoung Sailor

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Streaming

MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel

Rental

Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home

Purchase

Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home

View authorized watch options on TMDb

Recommendations

Young Adam
★ 5.9
Young Adam2003Drama · Romance

A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits.

The Proposition
★ 5.9
The Proposition1998Drama · Romance

Father Michael McKinnon goes from the UK to Boston circa 1935. For unknown reasons, he avoids at all costs the most prominent parishioners, Arthur and Eleanor Barret. Meanwhile Eleanor and Arthur desperately want to have a child, but Arthur is sterile, so they hire Harvard law student Roger Martin to impregnate Eleanor, but unfortunately Roger falls in love with her.

Ae Fond Kiss...
★ 6.5
Ae Fond Kiss...2004Drama · Romance

A young man upsets his Punjabi family when he falls in love with an Irish schoolteacher.

Clash by Night
★ 6.7
Clash by Night1952Drama · Romance

An embittered woman seeks escape in marriage, only to fall for her husband’s best friend.

Braveheart
★ 7.9
Braveheart1995Drama

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post
★ 6.9
The Miseducation of Cameron Post2018Drama

Pennsylvania, 1993. After getting caught with another girl, teenager Cameron Post is sent to a conversion therapy center run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh and her brother, Reverend Rick, whose treatment consists in repenting for feeling “same sex attraction.” Cameron befriends fellow sinners Jane and Adam, thus creating a new family to deal with the surrounding intolerance.

The Outrun
★ 6.8
The Outrun2024Drama

Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to the Orkney Islands—a place both wild and beautiful, right off the Scottish coast. Now 29 and after more than a decade of living life on the edge in London, where she both found and lost love, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her traumatic childhood merge with more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.

Macbeth
★ 7.1
Macbeth1971Drama

Scotland, 11th century. Driven by the twisted prophecy of three witches and the ruthless ambition of his wife, warlord Macbeth, bold and brave, but also weak and hesitant, betrays his good king and his brothers in arms and sinks into the bloody mud of a path with no return, sown with crime and suspicion.

Bitter Moon
★ 7.1
Bitter Moon1992Drama · Romance

A passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.

The Shipping News
★ 6.4
The Shipping News2001Drama · Romance

An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.

Bastard Out of Carolina
★ 7.1
Bastard Out of Carolina1996Drama

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Higher Ground
★ 5.9
Higher Ground2011Drama

Inspired by screenwriter Carolyn S. Briggs' memoir This Dark World, a tight-knit spiritual community is thrown off-kilter when one of their own begins to question her faith, love, and trust - in human relationships as well as in God.

Tell It to the Bees
★ 7.5
Tell It to the Bees2019Drama · Romance

Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father's medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean's world.

Macbeth
★ 6.4
Macbeth2015Drama

Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

The Poker House
★ 6.2
The Poker House2008Drama

Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.

The Assessment
★ 6.9
The Assessment2025Drama

In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.

See You Soon
★ 5.9
See You Soon2019Drama · Romance

A U.S. soccer star suffers a career-threatening injury in the run-up to the World Cup, and during his recovery, embarks on an epic romance with a Russian single mom.

Red Road
★ 6.5
Red Road2006Drama

Jackie is a CCTV operator. One day, a man shows his face on her monitor, a man she hoped never to see again. Now she has no choice and is compelled to confront him.

Three Christs
★ 6.7
Three Christs2017Drama

Dr. Alan Stone breaks new ground for treatment of the mentally ill through an experiment on three paranoid schizophrenic patients who believe they are Jesus Christ.

Elena Undone
★ 6.9
Elena Undone2010Drama · Romance

The wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.

Similar titles

Rosemary
★ 5.8
Rosemary1958Drama

West Germany in '50s is becoming an economic superpower. In such climate, Rosemarie is just one of many enterpreneurs who wants her piece of new fortune. She uses her charms to bring members of West German industrial elite to her bed. There she finds business secrets and later sells them to French competition. However, when scandal errupts, Rosemarie would find that she can't beat the system.

The Executioner
★ 7.6
The Executioner1963Drama

An undertaker gets married to an old executioner's daughter and, although he doesn't like it, must continue the profession of his father-in-law after his retirement.

Jamon Jamon
★ 6.2
Jamon Jamon1992Drama · Romance

José Luis has a cushy corporate job at the lingerie factory his mom owns. After he falls in love and proposes to Silvia, a beautiful laborer on the underwear assembly line, his mom enlists Raul, a potential underwear model and would-be bullfighter, to seduce Silvia.

Lou & Lena
★ 5.9
Lou & Lena2003Drama

Two friends, Lou and Lena... An agreement for this all night walk.

Croque la vie
★ 3.5
Croque la vie1981Drama

Friendships and business do not mix, that's what we find with Theresa, Catherine and Alain, three longtime friends. Freshly graduated, they decided to start their own business, but work is scarce and a fight breaks out between the trio. Separated, married and scattered all over France, the once inseparable trio no longer keep in touch. But four years later, they decided to organize a big party for their reunion which serves as an opportunity for them to put things right and confess everything they have in their hearts.

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs
★ 6.6
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs1978Drama · Romance

Solange is seriously depressed, and her kindhearted husband, Raoul, makes it his mission to cure her doldrums. After many failed attempts to cheer her up, Raoul hits upon a possible solution: find his wife a lover. Unfortunately, his choice, Stéphane, proves to be just as ineffectual in restoring her flagging spirits. In the end, the gorgeous Solange finds her own, highly problematic tonic to her troubles in the form of a 13-year-old boy.

Poster unavailable
Not rated
Untitled Cher BiopicDrama

Plot TBA.

Sadık Ahmet
★ 7.3
Sadık Ahmet2024Drama

Dr. Sadik Ahmet fights for the democratic rights of the Western Thrace Turkish minority living in Greece. After graduating from Athens University Faculty of Medicine, Ahmet started working as a doctor in Komotini. Ahmet entered the political struggle to defend the rights of the Western Thrace Turkish minority. He became the founding chairman of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board (BTTDK), which was established in 1989. Ahmet was also known internationally for his work on minority rights in Greece. Ahmet, who died in 1995, became a symbol for the Turkish minority in Western Thrace.

Universal Prayer
Not rated
Universal Prayer2015Drama

We seek to find the inner light of each one and thus turn on new lights, to leave the paths illuminated, so as not to walk blindly and alone. It is having a real awareness of our actions, that our life is a commitment and that if each one of us acts, a great change will be seen in the world. The power of life is to give us existence.

Blow
★ 7.4
Blow2001Drama

The story of how George Jung, together with the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, established the billion-dollar cocaine empire in the United States in the 1970s.

Revival!
Not rated
Revival!2018Drama

A unique visual and musical experience based on the Gospel of John. Originally a Passion play, it freely blends elements of stage and cinema, creating a fresh take on this well known story.

Odette Toulemonde
★ 5.7
Odette Toulemonde2007Drama

Objectively, Odette Toulemonde has nothing to be happy about, but is. Balthazar Balsan has everything to be happy about, but isn’t. Odette, awkwardly forty, with a delightful hairdresser son and a daughter bogged down in adolescence, spends her days behind the cosmetic’s counter in a department store and her nights sewing feathers on costumes for Parisian variety shows. She dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite author, to whom – she believes – she owes her optimism. The rich and charming Parisian writer then turns up in her life in an unexpected way.

Last Year at Marienbad
★ 7.4
Last Year at Marienbad1961Drama · Romance

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?

My Girl
★ 7.4
My Girl1991Drama

Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...

Bloody Sunday
★ 7.2
Bloody Sunday2002Drama

The dramatised story of the Irish civil rights protest march on January 30 1972 which ended in a massacre by British troops.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
★ 7.4
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown1988Drama

After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.

Grace
Not rated
Grace2024Drama

A 1950s Southern teen questions her faith and sexuality on the eve of her baptism when urged to repent her feelings for her best friend.

French Twist
★ 6.1
French Twist1995Romance

After learning of her husband's infidelities, a housewife invites an itinerant lesbian to move in with them. None of their lives will ever be the same again.

Jesus of Montreal
★ 6.9
Jesus of Montreal1989Drama · Romance

A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.

Viridiana
★ 7.7
Viridiana1962Drama

Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.