Shelbi Cordner

Humanities
Simone Flanigan
The Danish Girl
For this assignment I chose to watch the film The Danish Girl (2015) directed by Tom Hooper
and starring Eddie Redmayne (Lili), Alicia Vikander (Gerda), and Matthias Schoenaerts (Hans). The
Danish Girl takes place in Germany in 1926 and follows transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in her transition. At
the beginning of the film Lili is known as Einar Wegener. Both Einar and his wife, Gerda, are artists.
Einars transition into Lili starts when Gerda needs a pair of womens stockings modeled for a painting.
She asks Einar for his assistance in modeling them. With the support of her wife and childhood friend,
Hans, Lili begins to understand who she truly is. Doctor after doctor she is told that she is broken or
mentally ill. Psychosis seems to be the general consensus and treatments as extreme as a lobotomy are
suggested. Lili is finally introduced to Dr. Warnekros. Warnekros is the first doctor to validate the
confusions that Lili is experiencing and is willing to attempt a gender reassignment surgery. A surgery
that was then unheard of and had never been attempted. Warnekros explains that the surgery will have
2 different phases and that Lili should expect copious amounts of recovery time after both stages. Lili
decides to go ahead with the surgery and after a hugely successful stage one moves onto stage two
(earlier than planned) against the warning of both Gerda and Dr. Warnekros. The movie ends with Lili
eventually succumbing to infection and passing away with Gerda by her side.
For this assignment we were given a choice between choosing a foreign film or a film containing
relevant social/political topics. Though technically this film falls in both categories, I am choosing to
approach this critique from the social/political side. I chose this specific film because transgender issues
are something that I think are greatly important in todays society, especially with the light that has

been spread on the trans community as of late. With prominent figure in the media such as Caitlyn
Jenner and Laverne Cox becoming more and more open with their gender identity, the trans community
is getting more attention than ever. Also, Lili Elbe was, in fact a real person and was a pioneer for
transgender people of today. Lili Elbe was born on December 28th, 1882 and died from surgical
complications on September 13th, 1931.
The decision to cast Eddie Redmayne was controversial for some. Many members of the LGBTQ+
community did not like the decision of a cis gendered man being cast to play a transwoman. I
understand both sides of this debate. While there are many transgender actresses that would have
played the part of Lili beautifully (Jamie Clayton, Harmony Santana and Savannah Burton just to name a
few.) there is a very large chunk of the film that Lili is living as Einar. While I am obviously not familiar
with these actresses on a personal basis, I have a hard time believing that a transgender woman would
be able to comfortably play a man. I can see that bringing on intense dysphoria. Obviously I cannot
speak for these actresses, thats just my theory.
The story of The Danish Girl is based on the novel by David Ebershoff. I read the book
before seeing the movie. I have to be perfectly honest in saying that I felt this was one of the rare times
that I preferred the movie to the book. Although I did enjoy the book, I felt the movie was a more
accurate representation of the trials a transwoman would have experienced in the 1920s. In the book,
Lili faces very little resistance from Gerda, never encounters any harassment from passersby on the
street, and just overall doesnt get the kind of criticism that you would expect from that era. I am in no
way condoning the harassment of the transwomen (or transmen, gender fluid, non-conforming, or any
members of the LGBTQ+ community, obviously.) But the fact is, that in the 20s, not everyone was
comfortable with the idea of a transgender person and certainly not everyone was nice about that
opinion. That being said, I do feel the movie did a better job than the book in showing that struggle.
There was scene that, for me, was very difficult to watch. It begins with Lili walking in a park and she is

approached by two men. The men ask her start harassing her in a language that is not English; it is clear
that they are asking her if she is a lesbian. When the discover that she is actually transgender, they
proceed to physically assault her. For me, that scene was incredibly emotional because violence against
transgender people (More specifically transwomen. Particularly transwomen of color.) Just last year, we
saw a spike in violence against transwomen. So that fight is one that has most definitely not gone away;
if anything it is getting worse. In 2015 alone 22 transwomen were murdered, 20 of them women of
color. I know we like to think of our society as so open minded and progressive and in a lot of ways it is
but when it comes to transgender rights and respect we still have a long, long way to go.
Despite the criticism the film makers got for their casting choice of a cis man, I thought Eddie
Redmayne did a beautiful job. In my opinion, he did a wonderful job in portraying the very complex
emotions that both Einar and Lili had. My absolute favorite part of his character is the development. He
does such a brilliant job in showing not just the physical transition but the emotional and mental shift as
well. Redmaynes character starts out as Einar; a shy, meek, slightly awkward, man. Its clear that Einar is
not quite confident in his own skin. But as the realization of who he is hits him and Lili comes out, you
see this beautiful shift into this beautiful, elegant, incredibly confident woman. Redmayne does an
amazing job of really showing that Einar really was Lili all along.
Now, I have to admit, I had seen nothing of Alicia Vikander before watching The Danish Girl but I
am in love. Her performance was beautiful, uplifting, and heartbreaking all at once. I feel as if she gave
Gerda the real depth that she lacked in the book. Vikander does such an amazing job as truly showing
the complexities of being in love with someone that is going through a transition. In both the book and
the film Gerda is immediately supportive and even encouraging. As Lili gets farther and farther into her
transition, thats when Gerda starts to struggling with it a bit. I think thats what I preferred about the
movie Gerda and the book Gerda. The book version of Gerda was always a little too supportive. I know
that sounds harsh but in reality, a wife during the 1920s is going to struggle with the idea of her husband

transitioning into her wife. In the movie, Gerda is much more realistic in her response to Lili. She clearly
loves her husband and wants him to be happy but she also does not want to lose him. And again
Vikanders performance and ability to communicate those mixed emotions blew me away.
While doing a little more research on this film for this paper I stumbled across a theory that
Gerda is actually gay. After thinking this through, I have concluded that while I see where this is coming
from (more on that in a moment) it is also a bit of a close minded statement. Gerda is unusually
supportive and encouraging of Lilies transition. There is also a scene in the movie where Gerda discovers
that Einar is wearing some of Gerdas undergarments underneath his street clothes and while this
shocks Gerda it also seems to excite her. So the theory of her being gay is not farfetched and I dont
think its necessarily a bad theory. However, I think its a bit close minded to assume that because she
loves Lili just as much as she loved Einar that that automatically makes her a lesbian. I really believe that
if you really truly love someone, you can love them at any point in their life. Gerdas love for Einar and
for Lili is clearly very deep but I do believe that it evolves. You do not have to be romantically interested
in someone to be in love with them. Gerdas love for Lili transcends those typical for rules or
guidelines that society often demands of relationships. So is Gerda actually gay? Maybe. But I
genuinely dont think her sexuality pays a role in her love for Lili. Perhaps Im a romantic and I just like to
believe that love as true as that is out there. Really I just think that gender roles are a hunk of nonsense
fed to us by society. And frankly, I could write another entire essay on it.