By this stage, the movie is rife with confusions of every type, and Hooper handles them with clarity, grace, and a surprising urgency, far more at ease in this intimate drama than he was with the super-sized galumphings of “Les Misérables.” He is right to be urgent, because Lili and Gerda are all too aware that, for those who are sentenced to lifelong incarceration in the wrong form, a change of clothes is not enough.Įinar Wegener was a real person, and “The Danish Girl” is based on a novel, of the same title, by David Ebershoff, which retells the tale of Lili, and honors her determination to undergo transgender surgery. He was a boyhood pal of Einar, who now shows up as Lili. The couple spend time in Paris, partly in the company of Hans (Matthias Schoenaerts), a strapping art dealer. She now paints nudes, which combine Lili’s face with the female physique that Lili yearns to possess, and these idealizing works begin to sell. The impulse to unearth a buried self grows ever stronger, and, by a fetching symmetry, so does Gerda’s career as an artist. Does he think he’s embracing a him, or a her?Įinar flees, bewildered but undeterred. Few of the guests look askance one of them, indeed, an impassioned fellow named Henrik (Ben Whishaw), engages Lili in conversation, and, in the seclusion of another room, bestows a kiss. Hence the next step: Gerda goes to an artists’ ball, taking Einar along not only in drag, decked out in a wig and a long gown, but in the complete guise of another person, who is introduced as Lili Elbe, Einar’s cousin. Far from being alarmed, she is sympathetic and even mildly aroused by this silken theft. At home, he slips into his wife’s nightgown. Einar, on a backstage visit to the ballet, runs his hand in rapture along a rack of costumes. Gently, he dons ballet shoes and silk stockings-just for fun, although the donning earns such close and reverent attention from the camera that something more than amusement, clearly, is at stake. ![]() Gerda is painting a portrait of Ulla (Amber Heard), a ballerina, and, one day, when Ulla is late, Einar takes her place. They seem touchingly young, like earnest teen-agers playing at adult life, and, despite the fact that both of them are artists, we sense little rivalry or spite. We are introduced to a married couple, Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander). The new Tom Hooper film, “The Danish Girl,” begins in Copenhagen, in 1926.
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