Heart breaking. Tender. A love story so very different and yet with the same deep emotion. A young and very happily married couple, Einar and Gerda Wegener, played a game they didn’t know would change their lives. Change would come from the inside to the outside, at a time when sexuality, especially transgender sexuality, was forbidden and covered in shame and secrecy. Since childhood, Einar Wegenar had struggled with the deep belief that she was a woman in a man’s body but could not describe it or tell anyone.
The setting was 1926 Denmark through the next few years to 1933. This movie was developed from the diaries of Lili Elbe who transistioned from male to female, her relationship with her wife Gerda Wegener, and the struggles they shared. Both Gerda and Einar were artists. Lili gave up her life as a painter, while Gerda developed her painting. Lili’s mood swings and depression deepened as she tried to find solutions. It seemed fruitless and took her to the edge of suicide.
Eddie Redmayne in the role of Einar Wegener, transitioned to Lili Elbe in a phenomenal characterization of this brave individual. He showed the absolute confusion and pain, emotionally and socially, when realizing and confronting this deep change, and then acceptance, to herself. Not just sexually but a complete self. And this in a time when the terms transgender and sexual reassignment surgery were foreign and strange sounding, and to some blasphemous and signs of deep mental illness.
Alicia Vikander, in the role of Gerda Wegener, also a painter, played the part of Einar Wegener’s wife very sensitively and respectfully. Despite her own confusion, loss of her marriage and husband, Gerda was a constant support to Lili and the life changes that Lili chose, with tears, anger and ultimately great love.
This movie is a fictionalized story based on real life couple bravely searching for solutions to this seemingly insoluble situation. They learned of Dr. Warnokos, a pioneering surgeon. The first transgender reassignment surgery offered and done by Dr. Warnokros, played by Sebastian Koch, was not only controversial but negated by his colleagues.
“It doesn’t matter what I wear, it’s what I dream.”
~ Lili Elbe from The Danish Girl
Directed by: Tom HooperBased on 2000 novel by the same name by David Ebershoff
Partial Cast:
Eddie Redmayne: Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe
Alicia Vikandaer: Gerda Wegener
Amber Heard: Oola Paulson, Gerda’s friend
Matthias Schoenaerts: Hans Axgil, Einar’s childhood friend
Ben Winshaw: Henrik, Lili’s friend
Sebastian Koch: Dr. Warnokros
Heart breaking. Tender. A love story so very different and yet with the same deep emotion. A young and very happily married couple, Einar and Gerda Wegener, played a game they didn’t know would change their lives. Change would come from the inside to the outside, at a time when sexuality, especially transgender sexuality, was forbidden and covered in shame and secrecy. Since childhood, Einar Wegenar had struggled with the deep belief that she was a woman in a man’s body but could not describe it or tell anyone.
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