If I hadn’t spent my Xmas/New Year gap week in Copenhagen I’d probably have filed Danish Girl – man discovers he’s a woman trapped in the wrong body – under Worthy-but-Dull and given it a miss. So I’m now doubly grateful to generous friends who loaned their delightful flat on Gammelstoftegade, five minutes from the city’s classy and refreshingly car-lite centre. This is a powerful tale, gorgeously lit, intriguingly shot and played out with rare force and subtlety.
Since the protagonists – a couple whose XY half would undergo the world’s first sex-change surgery – are painters, the cinematic sumptuousness is not incidental. Even I could pick out a few visual allusions, and no doubt missed others through my ignorance of art history. Yes, it is common nowadays to see films that are beautiful and forgettable, but this one’s unusually well shot even by the high production values we now take as read. And it’s anything but forgettable: Gerda’s selfless and utterly unsentimental love (watch out for rising star Alicia Vikander) for her Danish Girl husband, Einar, stupendously played to the last nuance by Eddie Redmayne. Do not miss.
Repeat: do not miss. But do please come back and tell me; am I alone in seeing, in Matthias Schoenaerts’s portrayal of Hans, Vladimir Putin’s doppelganger?
Thanks Phil, a great inspiration to watch it soon!
doesn’t seem to be available on region 2 dvd yet but will look out for it.
No – it’s very new Tabatha: first night in Sheffield was on Friday. I’d also say that on account of the cinematography, it’s one to see on the big screen.