Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves
E728209
Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves is the devout, emotionally fragile Scottish woman at the center of Lars von Trier’s 1996 film, whose extreme acts of self-sacrifice test the boundaries of faith, love, and morality.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8368047 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves Context triple: [Emily Watson, notableRole, Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves]
-
A.
Rebecca Gayheart
Rebecca Gayheart is an American actress and former model known for her roles in 1990s and 2000s film and television, including the teen slasher "Urban Legend" and the series "Beverly Hills, 90210."
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B.
Katherine Winter – Hilary Swank
Katherine Winter is the skeptical former Christian missionary and religious phenomena debunker portrayed by Hilary Swank in the supernatural horror film "The Reaping."
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C.
Hedli Anderson
Hedli Anderson was an English singer and actress known for her performances in 1930s–40s cabaret and theatre, and for inspiring and performing works by poets such as her husband Louis MacNeice.
-
D.
Heather MacLachlan
Heather MacLachlan is best known as the wife of former U.S. Senator and diplomat George J. Mitchell.
-
E.
Rebecca Washington
Rebecca Washington is a central character on the legal drama series "The Practice," known for her work as a dedicated attorney at the show's featured law firm.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves Target entity description: Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves is the devout, emotionally fragile Scottish woman at the center of Lars von Trier’s 1996 film, whose extreme acts of self-sacrifice test the boundaries of faith, love, and morality.
-
A.
Rebecca Gayheart
Rebecca Gayheart is an American actress and former model known for her roles in 1990s and 2000s film and television, including the teen slasher "Urban Legend" and the series "Beverly Hills, 90210."
-
B.
Katherine Winter – Hilary Swank
Katherine Winter is the skeptical former Christian missionary and religious phenomena debunker portrayed by Hilary Swank in the supernatural horror film "The Reaping."
-
C.
Hedli Anderson
Hedli Anderson was an English singer and actress known for her performances in 1930s–40s cabaret and theatre, and for inspiring and performing works by poets such as her husband Louis MacNeice.
-
D.
Heather MacLachlan
Heather MacLachlan is best known as the wife of former U.S. Senator and diplomat George J. Mitchell.
-
E.
Rebecca Washington
Rebecca Washington is a central character on the legal drama series "The Practice," known for her work as a dedicated attorney at the show's featured law firm.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
film character ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Breaking the Waves ⓘ |
| associatedGenre |
melodrama
ⓘ
religious drama ⓘ romantic tragedy ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
conservative religious elders
ⓘ
offshore oil rig community ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
devout
ⓘ
emotionally fragile ⓘ impulsive ⓘ naive ⓘ obedient ⓘ self-sacrificing ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | Scotland ⓘ |
| createdBy | Lars von Trier ⓘ |
| deathInWork | Breaking the Waves ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup | Scottish ⓘ |
| fictionalUniverse | Breaking the Waves universe ⓘ |
| firstAppearance |
Breaking the Waves (1996 film)
ⓘ
linked to:
Breaking the Waves
|
| gender | female ⓘ |
| knownFor |
extreme acts of self-sacrifice
ⓘ
intense religious faith ⓘ tragic fate ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| marriedTo | Jan Nyman ⓘ |
| medium | film ⓘ |
| memberOf | strict Calvinist church community ⓘ |
| motivatedBy |
desire to please God
ⓘ
love for Jan Nyman ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction | tests boundaries of faith and morality ⓘ |
| narrativeRole | protagonist ⓘ |
| partOf | Dogme 95-era cinema context ⓘ |
| portrayalNotableFor | intense emotional performance by Emily Watson ⓘ |
| portrayedBy | Emily Watson ⓘ |
| religiousBelief |
Presbyterian Christianity
ⓘ
linked to:
Presbyterian
|
| settingOfLife | rural Scottish Highlands ⓘ |
| spouseOf | Jan Nyman ⓘ |
| themeInvolvement |
faith
ⓘ
love ⓘ martyrdom ⓘ morality ⓘ sacrifice ⓘ sexuality ⓘ |
| yearOfWork | 1996 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves Description of subject: Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves is the devout, emotionally fragile Scottish woman at the center of Lars von Trier’s 1996 film, whose extreme acts of self-sacrifice test the boundaries of faith, love, and morality.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.