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I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, I'm really glad I gave this movie a second look after all these years. Indeed, as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure it was the first movie directed by von Trier which I have seen but, to be honest, at the time, even though it had been universally heralded, I have to admit that I didn’t like it much. Basically, Lars von Trier is one of those directors which I always found interesting without ever really enjoying his movies. Eventually, it's not that his movies are extremely difficult to watch (they're are not easy though), it's above all because they're all so dark and depressive. Anyway, after watching pretty much every single movie directed by the Danish master during the next 30 years, I was now much more able to appreciate this classic. Indeed, afterwards, von Trier would deliver some movies which were so much more darker and messed up than this one so it wasn't so hard to swallow now (it was still nothing really cheerful though). First of all, I thought it was interesting that, even though everyone in the film and the audience should find Jan's request to be appalling, I didn't think that it was now so revolting after all and I'm sure there are other couples where such things actually do occur. I'm not saying that it was usual or that it was a great idea but I'm just saying that the concept was not as revolting as it might seem at face value. Eventually, if Bess could have been slightly more discrete instead of becoming basically a cheap prostitute in plain sight in the middle of a very religious conservative community, I actually believed that it could have worked somehow. However, Lars von Trier has always been obsessed in relentlessly punishing his characters but, after all these years, I can handle that. In this case, everything Bess did and everything that happened to her was not because she believed in God but out of sheer love and, in fact, the basis of Religion is actually love, so, it seems that it all came together somehow, in a very neat way, even if von Trier did choose a really dark path to make his point. Of course, I shouldn't forget to mention that Emily Watson was absolutely brilliant in this. Indeed, her performance was really impressive, one of the best acting debut ever, and I wonder why Lars von Trier didn't work again with her afterwards. The first time I watched this movie, the last thing that really bothered me was this ending with those bells in the sky… As a matter of fact, at first, I even despised this ending, seriously. However, it didn't bother me again the second time around. Anyway, to conclude, even if I'm still not a huge fan, I have to admit that it is actually really good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Lars von Trier’s work.
7/10
