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Let us approach the central topic of [[Lacan]]'s [[seminar ]] [[Encore ]] — the paradoxes of [[feminine ]] [[sexuality ]] — through Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (BW), a [[film ]] which enables us to avoid the fatal misreading of Lacan's [[notion ]] of feminine [[jouissance]].

BW, a film [[about ]] the inherent deadlocks of Goodness,<ref>I wanted to do a film about goodness — "Naked Miracles," Interview with Lars von Trier.</ref> is set during the 70's in a small Presbyterian [[community ]] on the West Coast of Scotland. Bess, a simpleminded and deeply [[religious ]] local [[girl]], [[marries ]] Jan, a hearty oil-rig worker, courting the disapproval of the village elders. After the [[sexual ]] ecstasy of their honeymoon Bess can't bear having Jan [[return ]] to the rigs, so she begs God to return Jan to her saying that in [[exchange ]] for his return she would put up with any trial of her [[faith]]. Soon afterwards, as if in answer to her prayers, Jan effectively returns, but paralyzed from the waist down due to an accident on the oil-rig. Confined to his hospital bed, Jan tells Bess she must make [[love ]] to [[other ]] men and describe her experiences to him in detail-this way, she will keep awake his will to live: although she will be doing the act physically with other men, the [[true ]] sex will occur in their conversation…

Here, of course, the obvious reproach imposes itself: is thus BW not the utmost "[[male ]] chauvinist" film celebrating and elevating into a [[sublime ]] act of sacrifice the [[role ]] which is forcefully imposed on [[women ]] in patriarchal societies, that of serving as the support of male masturbatory [[fantasies]]? Bess is completely [[alienated ]] in the male [[phallic ]] [[economy]], sacrificing her jouissance for the sake of her crippled partner's [[mental ]] [[masturbation]]. However, at a closer look, things get more [[complex]]. According to the standard version of the [[Lacanian ]] [[theory]], the [[non-all ]] (pas-tout) of [[woman ]] means that not all of a woman is caught up in the [[phallic jouissance]]: She is always [[split ]] between a part of her which accepts the role of a [[seductive ]] [[masquerade ]] aimed at fascinating the man, attracting the male [[gaze]], and [[another ]] part of her which resists [[being ]] drawn into the [[dialectic ]] of (male) [[desire]], a mysterious jouissance beyond [[Phallus ]] about which [[nothing ]] can be said…

* [[Femininity between Goodness and Act]]. ''[[Lacanian Ink]]''. Vol. 14. <http://lacan.com/frameXIV3.htm>