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The Danish Girl

Movie · 2015 · 15 people

Tom Hooper directed The Danish Girl, a romantic drama from 2015 drawn from real lives. Lucinda Coxon based the script on David Ebershoff's novel of 2000, which takes loose inspiration from the Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. It tells of Elbe, an early recipient of gender-affirming surgery, through a marriage. Focus Features and Working Title are among its producers.

It unfolds in 1920s Copenhagen, in the life of the married painters Einar and Gerda Wegener. When Gerda asks her husband to pose in women's clothes for a portrait, it awakens the Lili within Einar, who gradually begins to live as Lili and heads toward surgery. Eddie Redmayne plays Lili Elbe and Alicia Vikander is Gerda Wegener. Matthias Schoenaerts (Hans Axgil), Ben Whishaw (Henrik), Sebastian Koch (Kurt Warnekros), Amber Heard and Philip Arditti are also in the cast.

It premiered on 5 September 2015 in the main competition at Venice. It opened in limited US release on 27 November 2015, in the UK on 1 January 2016, in Turkey on 12 February 2016. Despite criticism of its historical accuracy, both lead performances were widely praised: Vikander won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Redmayne was nominated for Best Actor, and the film also earned Oscar nominations for production and costume design. It was banned in Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.

DirectorTom Hooper
Production companyFocus Features

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Cast

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Philip Arditti Philip Arditti Actor · born 1979 Eddie Redmayne Alicia Vikander Matthias Schoenaerts Ben Whishaw Sebastian Koch Amber Heard Adrian Schiller Emerald Fennell Claus Bue Pip Torrens Nicholas Woodeson Sophie Kennedy Clark Holly Weston Rebecca Root

Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Tom Hooper's direction is so eager to turn every frame into a painting that the film at times freezes inside its own elegance. The 1920s Copenhagen, the costumes and the interiors are immaculate, yet that polished surface softens the very inner conflict the story sets out to portray. Since the script rests on a novel only loosely inspired by real lives, the arguments over historical accuracy are understandable. The bigger problem, in my view, is a dramatic structure that moves too safely and too tidily. What carries the film is the acting: Alicia Vikander's Oscar-winning Gerda quietly pulls the story's centre of gravity toward herself. A carefully crafted biopic, faithful to the genre's academic conventions, that takes few risks.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film's most interesting choice is to tell Lili Elbe's story from inside a marriage. That way it reads not only as one person's search for identity but also as a picture of how a couple, an artistic circle and the medicine of 1920s Europe faced that search. Gerda's position is especially thought-provoking: wife, artist and closest witness to the change all at once. That it was banned in several countries shows how contested the ground this century-old story touches still is today. It is worth watching with the knowledge that it takes liberties with historical detail.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

This is a heavy drama made for adults. It treats gender identity, marriage and surgery seriously, and it isn't one to watch with young children. If you watch it with teenagers, be ready to talk it through afterwards. The pace is slow and there is almost no room for humour. It will appeal most to adults who enjoy quiet, emotional dramas.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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