Bluegrass Band: The Broken Circle Breakdown

A typical bluegrass concert consists of a band, playing songs, and then in between sets, the couple who was singing starts telling stories of their lives, to enhance the realism and emotions the soulful music elicits from the audience. Director Felix Van Groening takes this concept and applies it to his passionate film "The Broken Circle Breakdown," creating a setting and story that make the viewer feel "invigorated and alive" (Puchko). "The Broken Circle Breakdown" follows the relationship of Didier (Johan Heldengergh), a singer and banjo player in a Belgian bluegrass band, and his lover and tattoo-parlor owner, Elise (Veerle Baetens) as they struggle to make sense of their relationship after the tragic death of their daughter. Van Groening

Didier's band of musicians is always hovering, "singing the songs of life,...singing in the void for all they're worth, singing that somehow we will all get through it-unbroken" (Kulhawik). For example, when Elise is given the leathal injection after being pronounced clinically dead, the band stands faithfully by her bedside. In the silence following, Didier tells her goodbye, puts on his banjo, and launches into a suprisingly upbeat melody that seems to be celebrating Elise's "love, loss and--in the end--life, in all its bitter beauty" (Scott). "The Broken Circle Breakdown," like the bluegrass music encircling the story and characters, "has a way of evoking any number of emotions" (Scott) that resonate long after the initial

Veerle Baetens, who plays Elise, and Johan Heldenbergh, Didier, "harmonize magnificently onstage and off" (Merry). Van Groening elicits "strikingly visceral, detailed" (Kulhawik) performances from his actors, creating a palpable, profound connection to the audience. For instance, Heldenbergh presents Didier as a man who dreams of the American life, but has a temper; Baetens is a character of effortless sensuality and girlish charms that brings out Didier's softer side. Beatens is first "pure temptation, irresistible in her stars-and-stripes bikini, then a grim-faced mother, absorbing more bad news from her daughter’s physician" (Williams). The two find a connection in their opposite personalities, a characteristic that will ultimately be their downfall as they begin to blame each other for Maybelle's illness and death. Kristy Puchko on "'The Broken Circle Breakdown'" states that Beatens and Heldenbergh "craft a connection that feel authentic, deeply held, and enviable. Every step of the way, these performers are in sync in this complicated dance of love and hate, and it is truly