The Danish Girl: The art behind the transformation

Soha Elsirgany , Saturday 27 Feb 2016

Nominated for four Academy Awards, The Danish Girl poignantly tells the story of the pioneering transgender Lili Elbe, with a backdrop of art

The Danish Girl
(Photo: Still from The Danish Girl)

Based on a true story, The Danish Girl looks into the life of artists Gerda Wegener and her husband Einar Wegener, who was one of the first people to undergo a sex change operation at the dawn of the 1920s, to become the woman Lili Elbe.

Directed by Tom Hooper, the film joins the Oscar race competing for best actor (Eddie Redmayne as Einar/Lili), best supporting actress (Alicia Vikander as Gerda) as well as best costume design and best production design.

Though The Danish Girl was banned in several Arab countries, it was screened for the general public in select cinemas in Egypt. The film then moved towards screenings across small cultural locations, including most recently in Elbet Alwan in Zamalek. On 1 March, it will be screened in El-Bawabh Documentary space in Dokki, followed by a discussion.

It's all about art

The Danish Girl is soaked deeply in art.

Lili is born from an artistic moment; when Gerda’s ballerina model is late she asks Einar to pose for her, wearing stockings and holding a dress. This moment sparks sensual emotions in Einer, that then develop to become Lili.

The film also opens with art, as a landscape scene turns into a painting (by Einar) in a gallery.

Art is at the core of the story, not only as the characters’ profession but as a motif that helps feed their transformation. Art runs in parallel to their life, as Einar and Gerda change, so does the artwork that appears in the film.

The first time Gerda draws Einar is in the middle of the night, while he lays in bed. The simple drawings are sketched in a moment of tranquility, with a pencil on paper. Detailed but not overworked, the artist’s pencil sketches act like studies, preliminary thoughts of a project yet to develop.

At this point, Einar is just beginning to understand his budding desire to become a woman. His thoughts are also like penciled sketches. On the other hand, Gerda is a strong, witty, bold, energetic woman, proudly concealing any vulnerabilities within her. Einar is a composed, supportive, considerate and attentive partner, who balances her cynical edge.

When Gerda draws Einar again, this time portraying him as a woman (Lili), she works quickly and aggressively on a large canvas with wide strokes, using black charcoal and minimal color. Lili emerges on canvas as a nude in an erotic pose.

In this transformation Gerda experiences a mixture of frustration, anger and desperation as she works amid fear of losing Einar. She is still composed, yet is starting to break and has doubts. She swings between being mad at him and trying to communicate the way they used to.

At the same time Einar is withdrawn in his new thoughts, is nervous and twitchy, smoking a lot, and has visibly lost interest in his own paintings, though he still tries. At this point in the plot, he is starting to be more comfortable as a woman, and relate less to himself as a man.

Before this moment, Gerda refused to take Einar’s transformation to Lili seriously, making her charcoal drawing a statement of acceptance.

danish girl film
(Photo: Still from The Danish Girl)

Her acceptance fully shapes up when Gerda begins painting large portraits of herself with Lili, in full colour. In the paintings they are both dressed elaborately, and though not erotic in nature, the work celebrates an intimate relationship between the two women.

During this phase of Gerda’s paintings, Einar has fully embraced and become Lili, having undergone her first sex change operation. She is more energetic than Gerda, but now self-absorbed, selfish, sometimes even conceited, and obsessed with appearances, in stark contrast to Einar’s sensible nature.

Gerda has also changed, having accepted that Einar will not return. She now has a sadness overshadowing her feisty demeanour and has lost her natural playfulness, though she humours Lili and supports her fondly.

Life imitates art

Lili’s life is also a theatrical performance of a sort, and the first outfits she wears are from the costume shop, which in one scene she runs to for comfort, like an addict needing a fix.

If art is a channel of self-expression, perhaps Lili’s transformation itself becomes her art.

Her mimicking of women’s physical movements and body language, and fascination with the fabrics and dresses she adorns herself in. Even her first lipstick is applied with a brush. All these are forms Lili’s art lived through.

At the end of Lili’s journey, Gerda is drawing her with pencil again.

“What you draw I become. You made me beautiful and now you’re making me strong. Such power in you,” Lili tells Gerda after her second operation.

Gerda’s portraits of Lily are what fed her identity and made it more grounded, realising it from a sketch to a full painting, and back to a fragile sketch again. The art was both inspired by and inspiring to Lili.

The Danish Girl
(Photo: still from The Danish Girl)

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

Short link: