The Danish Girl

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Danish Girl follows the life of a transgender painter in 1920’s Denmark. Originally, Lili Elbe is just an alter-ego designed for Einar Wegener by his wife, Gerda, to display to the arty Copenhagen society circles. However as the film progresses, Einar reveals that Lili is who he really is, and decides to undergo gender reassignment surgery. The Danish Girl shows the attitudes of a 1926 society, which had a total lack of understanding for the concept that someone may consider themselves transgender.

Tom Hooper provides an astonishing outlook into an area of human life that still receives stigma today, showing how the notion that someone could be transgender was introduced into social dialogue. Most of the doctors he visits before undergoing his transition tell Einar that he is mentally ill or insane, and he undergoes radical treatments to help ‘cure’ him of what professionals have assured him is lunacy. All the while the film shows, with stunning tenderness and sensitivity, Gerda’s life being turned upside down as she seeks to support her husband become who he really is.

The setting of the film is beautiful. With the two main characters being painters, there is no doubt an artistic edge to the way the film is presented. The film shines a spotlight on a Danish city in a period of great cultural growth, and provides a spectacular European backdrop to an extremely poignant story.

Image: UPI Media

At the moment the majority of the hype surrounding The Danish Girl is based on Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Lili Elbe. After seeing it, no doubt the interest in Redmayne’s portrayal is most certainly deserved. Redmayne’s performance was compelling, and invoked immense feelings of compassion and sympathy within the audience.
However, the true star of the film is Lili’s wife Gerda, played by Alicia Vikander. The immense empathy and concern that she shows for her husband, throughout his entire journey, is extraordinary. As previously mentioned, the idea that a man felt as though should have been born female was completely out of the ordinary by society’s standard – and although Gerda struggles to understand at points, she always maintains that Lily is not insane. You also feel a great deal of sadness that her marriage and, ultimately, her life breaks down along with her husbands, as a result of other people’s ignorance.

Image: UPI Media

LGBTUA issues are still prevalent in our society today, and for this reason the film has tremendous significance. As society continually seeks to evolve in terms of its understanding of LGBTUA issues, The Danish Girl shows how far society has come in discussing and confronting some of these issues in comparison to 1926 . However I think the film is also helpful in showing how far society has still yet to go. Whilst stigma still surrounds the topic of transgender, The Danish Girl does well to educate the audience that a greater understanding of the issues of the transgender community is needed by everyone, if we are to strive for complete equality.

Director: Tom Hooper

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Amber Heard

Length: 119 minutes

Country: UK