Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Amber Heard, Matthias Schoenaerts
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Biographical drama directed by Tom Hooper. The Danish Girl (2015) is set in the early 1920s in Copenhagen and follows Danish artist, Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) who painted own husband, Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne), as a lady in her paintings and soon her paintings gained popularity. Einar then develops an attraction for the female physical appearance and begins living as a woman named Lili Elbe. With his feminism passion and Gerda’s support, Einar attempted the first-ever male to female sex reassignment surgery, although their marriage becomes strained when Gerda comes to the realization that Lili is no longer the person she married. Then to matters even more complex Einar’s childhood friend Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenaerts) shows up and forms a love triangle with the couple.
Where to Watch:
Best Quotes
Gerda Wegener: Is there something you’d like to tell me?
Einar Wegener: Is there something you’d like to know?
Gerda Wegener: I’m your wife, I know everything.
Einar Wegener: Every morning I promise myself that I’ll spend the entire day as a man. But I think Lili’s thoughts, I dream her dreams. She’s always there.
Dr. Hexler: [to Einar] The most likely explanation is chemical imbalance.
Einar Wegener: He wants to lock me up.
Gerda Wegener: [to Hexler] We trusted you. We came to you for help.
'I love you, because you're the only person who made sense of me, who made me possible.' - Einar Wegener (The Danish Girl) Click To Tweet
Einar Wegener: The first time we met she propositioned me.
Elsa: Is that true?
Gerda Wegener: When I said hello to him he actually blushed. He was so shy, so I asked him out.
Ulla: And you said yes.
Einar Wegener: Well she made me. She seemed so sure.
Gerda Wegener: I was sure. I still am.
Niels: Please, enough.
Elsa: No. What was it about him?
Gerda Wegener: I don’t know. But we went for coffee, and after I kissed him. And it was the strangest thing, it was like kissing myself.
Ulla: These two won’t be staying much longer.
Einar Wegener: Unmarried people are so delightfully easy to shock.
Gerda Wegener: Could you help me with something.
Einar Wegener: [Gerda starts dressing Einar in women’s clothes to pose for her painting] You will not tell anyone about this.
Gerda Wegener: [to Einar] I want to sketch you, Lili.
'I've only really liked a handful of people in my life, and you've been two of them.' - Hans Axgil (The Danish Girl) Click To Tweet
Gerda Wegener: [to Einar] We should go out tonight, give them something different.
Henrik: [to Einar who is dressed as Lili] You’re different from most girls. I feel I’d need to ask your permission before I kissed you.
[Gerda is shocked to find Henrik kissing Lili]
Gerda Wegener: Exactly what happened last night?
Einar Wegener: There was a moment when I wasn’t me. There was a moment when I was just Lili.
Gerda Wegener: But Lili doesn’t exist. We were playing a game.
Einar Wegener: Something changed.
Gerda Wegener: He’s lost his way. He needs a friend.
Hans Axgil: Let me help.
Gerda Wegener: I need to see Einar.
Einar Wegener: Let me help, please.
Gerda Wegener: I need my husband, can you get him?
Einar Wegener: I can’t.
Gerda Wegener: I need to talk to my husband, and I need to hold my husband. Can you at least try?
Einar Wegener: I’m sorry.
Einar Wegener: The fact is I believe that I’m a woman.
Gerda Wegener: And I believe it too.
Warnekros: The surgery has never been attempted before.
Gerda Wegener: [referring to the surgery] You’re my whole life. It could kill you.
Einar Wegener: It’s my only hope.
Einar Wegener: This is not my body. I have to let it go.
Hans Axgil: We were fooling in the kitchen, Einar was wearing his grandmother’s apron. We were just little boys, you know, playing around? Anyway, Einar just looked so pretty and I had to kiss him! So, yes, I kissed Einar.
Hans Axgil: How are you Lili?
Einar Wegener: Entirely myself.
The Danish Girl: Relevant But Inaccurate?
Based on a similarly titled fictional novel by David Ebershoff, The Danish Girl loosely recounts the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe (the first known transgendered recipient of sex reassignment surgery) and Gerda Wegener. And at a time where the transgender movement is receiving a burst of unprecedented attention, thanks to the likes of Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, this movie is perfectly placed to give not only historical grounding but also a personal and favorable story to this movement. But as tedious and uncertain as Lili’s journey was, so to was the project’s journey.