Ryan McNeil
The hardest thing about love is its uncertainty. It’s an emotion that requires us to open ourselves up to another person so completely. That can be joyous sometimes, certainly in what can come from being physically vulnerable. However, it can also be truly terrifying in the way that we allow ourselves to lean so heavily on another as we are tested emotionally. That’s where the uncertainty takes over – that we are setting ourselves up for a painful fall.
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN is the story of two Belgians named Elise and Didier (Veerle Baetens and Johan Heldenbergh). Didier is a guitar player and singer in a Bluegrass band.One night, he meets Didier and is deeply smitten. She’s a tattoo artist, deeply smitten with the same elements of American culture that Didier is. They quickly fall for one another, living in the dilapidated splendour of Didier’s unfinished farm, and making wonderful music together when Elise joins the band.
Soon, Elise discovers that she is pregnant, and while the pregnancy is unplanned, it is also a blessing. It solidifies what she and Didier have together, bringing them even closer as their daughter Maybelle is born. As much as they have enjoyed living and creating for one-another up until then, Maybelle brings their life and their music far more love and meaning than they ever could have imagined.
Unfortunately, at a very young age, Maybelle is diagnosed with cancer. Her struggles with the disease will test Elise and Didier far harder than either of them have ever been tested. As parents, as partners, as people – they are about to be put through the ringer. Their every thought and emotion will have ripple effects on each other and on their daughter, so these two people who were once free spirits must now tread lightly.
The question is whether they even know which step to take.
It might get forgotten from time to time, but America is more than just a country. America is an idea; a great hope that opportunity awaits anyone daring enough to chase after it. It’s an idea that was forged during America’s golden age, and in many ways still exists today. It continues to exist because people within its borders and even many outside of it continue to extol its virtues. They spread the idea like gospel, using the language of some of America’s purest dreamers. This testimony is heard by people like Elise and Didier and believed to the letter. Through it they are able to elevate above their station…they are able to become true prophets of America.
Indeed, THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN might be the most American film ever to be made outside of America’s borders. It’s look and heartbeat feel like they come from somewhere like Mississippi or Kentucky. It’s the sort of hard luck story that everybody from Johnny Cash to Patsy Cline have sung about at some point. That it takes place completely outside of America makes it truly unique. These characters still believe that it’s possible that opportunity awaits them – that every happiness is theirs if they just work hard enough. That’s the romantic notion, isn’t it? That’s what fuelled songs by Johnny, Patsy, and so many others.
The film employs a broken narrative to tell The Ballad of Elise and Didier. Often this trick is used as a gimmick to make an ordinary story a little less ordinary. Here I believe the technique works to add texture to the story. They have to go through something terrible, and then they have to deal with the fall-out. No two people ever seem to handle death in the same way, so this story would have been compelling on its own. However, mirroring every moment they go through as grieving souls with an earlier scene of love, tenderness and joy makes things feel that much more bittersweet.
It shows how fragile even the most beautiful things are. Watching the beginnings of Didier and Elise, one sees a relationship so perfect – so right for both of them in the way that it’s based not just on attraction but on a commonality of spirit. However, as it often does, death takes something beautiful and reduces it to rubble. It’s then up to the survivors to decide if they want to rebuild, or walk away. What we see with Didier and Elise is that the choice isn’t always either/or. Sometimes we think we do, but we can’t. Sometimes we even make an effort to, but ultimately don’t. The trickiest part of all, is the way that one half of a relationship will be doing something different from the other half. So where one wants to try again, the other just wants to quit.
That’s a lonely feeling; to reach your hand out to someone and not have them reach out in return.
To watch all of this joy and all of this pain in one film would be amazing in its own right. Where THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN sets itself apart is in the way it uses its songs to underline what is happening on-screen both for better and for worse. Over and over, at particular moments, the film moves to a stage and we listen to the band sing and play. It plays upon the ability of music to heighten our emotions in ways that word and image can’t. It speaks a language all its own, making our souls understand what the characters are feeling in a very specific way. The songs within this film are deeply joyous and heartbreaking in equal measure, making the film that much more joyous and heartbreaking in an unexpected way.
When all of those elements come together, they turn THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN into something truly special. It celebrates the best things about The American Dream, and mourns the fact that America remains unfortunately awake. It brings together people on a spiritual level, and then tears them apart in a way designed to break a person’s very spirit. It does it all with great romance and wonderful music, and because of that, you keep hearing its every chord and note, well after the record has stopped.
How beautifully you capture the soul of this film. And now you know why I insisted on that this should be the next movie to talk about in The Matinee. I was pretty sure you’d love it and I’m happy you did, so it could get another well deserved celebration.
Thanks Jess…
I actually really wrestled with this post. It might have been because I wrote it through a very exhausting few days, or it might have been because the film has stayed with me in ways I find hard to express. Wasn’t sure I was completely happy with it when I pressed ‘publish’, so your thumbs-up means a lot.
And yes, Corey and I have even more good things to say about it on the podcast today. Go listen.
So glad you loved this too…That broken narrative device is used extremely well in the film – never once confusing you as to where you are in the story and helping to make every little moment that much more meaningful. The film is neck and neck with Museum Hours as my favourite so far this year.
Here’s hoping it gets further in the Foreign Language Oscar race simply to get wider exposure.
And apparently you should listen to Jessica’s advice more often as well…B-)
Jessica’s advice hasn’t steered me wrong so far…unlike some people’s.
The thing that’s been perplexing me through the weekend is how some people could have come away from this film with muted opinion. Guess I’ll have to grill James about it on Sunday!
I saw this film over a month before its release (at the TIFF Member’s Fall Preview) and I’ve grown to love it more in the weeks since (especially as I was writing my review of the film for Toronto Film Scene).
Sadly I am one of those people who has a muted response.
I was ok with the first two acts, the bluegrass music is quite wonderful but I found the emotional pummeling in the third act to be cringe worthy. Someone wrote on Letterboxd that the movie is fine until George W Bush becomes a secondary character. I also feel like the director piles on the misery to the point where it lost me completely.
No need to say “sadly” mate, you don;t like what you don’t like!
My only question in response to your act-three reluctance is whether you felt similarly about other misery-porn stories like BLUE VALENTINE or RABBIT HOLE.
I actually don’t remember much about RABBIT HOLE, my log said that I didn’t care much about it.
A lot of people compare this film to BLUE VALENTINE, but I think they are very different. In BLUE VALENTINE, the marriage has already deteriorated to the point of no return. There are no reasons given, and it’s probably better that way. As a viewer, I could come up with different scenarios to fill in the blanks. For me BLUE VALENTINE is about how two people can fall deeply in love and then fall out of love. It’s a glimpse of the beginning and end of a marriage. In BCB, I feel like the director pile on so much misery to break the characters up. What they go thru initially should be enough, they don’t really need to add more.
It reminds of Iñárritu’s film Biutiful. It’s not enough that he is a single dad, whose wife is bipolar, he is also dying but able to see dead people.
Sorry for this rambling, please allow me to make it up to you by recommending a film that deals with a similar subject as Broken Circle Breakdown. The film is called Declaration of War, directed by Valerie Donzelli. It’s a semi-autobiography about a couple dealing with a child who has a brain tumor. It’s inventive and moving.
Here’s the thing though, I didn’t see BCB as a film where the story “piles on the misery”. They have one specific incident that leads to the rift, and it’s a rift that cannot be bridged no matter how much these two people may believe they want to bridge it.
VALENTINE was about people falling out of love for the usual reasons; BCB had people fall out of love because of a tragedy.
You lose 500 points for making me remember the clusterfuck that is BIUTIFUL.
I really enjoyed reading your take on this film. I like what you said about the Americaness of it and the shattering of the American dream. Unfortunately this film lost me in the latter stages. I can’t really say here without spoiling, but I can say that I left this film in a foul mood (I was quite furious actually). Great first half though – loved watching the very organic development of their relationship.
Sam, did your fury have anything to do with the religion/anti-religion angle, a speech from the stage and his final words to her?
If so, I can absolutely understand that…However, the film had won me over so entirely (with its characters, their emotion, etc.) that I see the events and their resolution trying to lead the viewer to a middle ground of sorts.
In other words, be careful what you put your faith into and how much of it you put there (e.g. medicine, a country, God, etc.). Instead, focus on putting your faith in people.
I’m just glad to see a movie use subtlety when discussing religion – even if I have my own fairly strong opinions on the subject.
Nope it wasn’t the religious angle at all. I agree with you on what the film was saying about faith. I might just need to write a spoilerish discussion on my own site at some stage to try and explain.
If I was a betting man, I’d wager that it lost you right after “If I Needed You”?
It was less one point and more a steady decline, the more the film got into the torturous latter stages.
Sounds like someone needs to write a full review!