Anyone watch this? Thoughts? - The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012) Discussion

[–] LeenPeeters 11 years ago

I am Belgian, living in Australia. I watched this movie only last night after getting a link from someone in Belgium.
My personal opinion: it could have been a really great movie if only the editor had stayed sober long enough to put the piece in the right sequence.
I dislike constantly having to figure out if I am watching the present, past, recent past... In this movie it was totally unnecessary to mix up the different periods in time.

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[–] G-One 11 years ago

The flashbacks are absolutely necessary, Leen. Place everything in chronologic order, and you end up with a slow moving picture, which will result in bored viewers. By using the flashbacks, Felix gave us the possibility to learn to know the characters while telling the story.
For me, this movie has a very painful resemblance to a young family I know.
Some people will argue that the last half of the movie destroyed the story, but to me it's carbon-copy of real life: Yes, losing a child hurts a couple, and it's in the nature of us to try to find the cause, and blame anything that comes to mind.

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[–] linda96657 11 years ago

I watched BCB today and I agree with G-One that the flashbacks were necessary to keep the story, the characters and as a result; the viewer from being bogged down in heartbreaking tragedy with nothing to dilute the depressing subject matter. The upbeat bluegrass was obviously central to the directors vision of what this movie was going to be about....how could the viewer experience the music if the entire back half of the movie was telling the story of !!!SPOILER ALERT,,!!!! Very sad , emotionally heavy tragic loss of most of this young family. Without the flashbacks, there may have been time for one of the superb, upbeat bluegrass numbers...then the music would have been out of place while the characters are terminally ill. I don't care for bluegrass either, I listen to Wu tang clan, punk, classic rock, stuff like that. But this was a pleasant surprise, the voices are a treat, the harmony the two main characters create is beautiful. This film DOES mirror real life, and it is sad, but it's still a great story, great soundtrack and an enjoyable surprise. I'm from Texas, born and raised, the accents the characters sang in did not sound fake or hokey or insincere. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I gathered from this character that he just loves bluegrass, I get it. Overall, I loved this and would recommend it.

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[–] ibbi 11 years ago

I mean it goes far, far beyond this, (and the play was probably written earlier anyway) but my initial thought was that someone watched Blue Valentine, thought "Man, this sucks", and then went and wrote a better version, that also encompasses so much more besides.

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http://tinyurl.com/n9jzuyg

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[–] leonavid-3 11 years ago

Man, was it depressing.

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[–] Gregoire-2 11 years ago

I have some objections from the last third of the film, but overall a very engaging, sweet and sad film, definitely worth watching. I though the chronological jumps were very meaningful and made you consider the central relationship in an interesting way.

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[–] jlovatt 11 years ago

I too wondered if bluegrass was really big in Belgium, it seemed a little strange. But my question is this: did Didier teach Elise to sing? Did this tattoo artist already know how to sing? When she first met Didier, she didn't know anything about this music style.Are we supposed to assume that she loved it somuch that she learned how to sing with the band? This was all veryblurred.....
Having said that, I did like the movie, apart from some inconsistencies like Didier!s ranting about Bush etc. I get the editing style too with the story sequences out of synch.
And in reply to another reviewer in this thread, I think the fact that Belgians like to perform American bluegrass is a compliment! Let!s accept it as such!

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[–] ilBuono 11 years ago

As Elise was an Elvis-and rock'n roll fan, it doesn't seem much of a stretch she'd like bluegrass too imo. Part of the same family...

As for the ranting, I believe many people don't like it because it's very unsettling to have Didier lash out in a frenzy of blind (or not so blind) hate, like it's unsettling to see friends in a rage. I didn't know what to think of it myself. But be it as it may, it makes a very bold and clear statement about the government's (and with them a lot of fanatic christians) attitude towards stem cell research and science. So one can only hope some people, if only a handful people, shift their opinion about it.

Bluegrass is definitely not big in Belgium, quite the opposite really, which I think gives the movie even more personality. However, the movie was received very well here and the soundtrack became somewhat popular. So even if some die hard bluegrass musicians didn't like it, at least it made some people aquainted with the genre.

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[–] nsnces 11 years ago

The problem with the ranting was simply that it ran on far too long. We got the point already.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] dan697 11 years ago

I really enjoyed the film. It was powerful and visceral, given substance with it's political message. His outburst monologue on the stage is just fantastic. I did a longer review on it a while back if anyone's interested http://alphashadowsblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/the-broken-circle-breakdown-film-review/

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[–] emvan 11 years ago

It's good, but not essential. (I have no idea why Academy voters thought it was one of the 5 best foreign films.) It gets a fairly strong B from me, meaning a movie I'm ultimately glad I saw as a bonus of sorts while in the process of seeing a ton of movies, whereas a B- is a movie I could have just as easily missed. If I see all the 2014 U.S. releases that I hope to see, I expect it'll end up ranked about 125.

I think the execution wasn't as good as the ambition.