The Danish Girl (2015)

-
This movie appeared among the options on Netflix. I vaguely recalled that this was one of the Oscar nominees years ago, so I decided to watch it and see if it's an interesting story... particularly since I've been to Copenhagen and to Solvang and the movie was entitled The Danish Girl.

As I watched Eddie Redmayne portray the tormented landscape artist Einar Wegener and Alicia Vikander portray his wife, Gerda (who did portraits), I started to understand what the buzz was all about. It turns out that the movie followed Einar's struggle for identity... he was a woman trapped in a man's body. This was what he (and the audience) realised when he relished the experience of posing for Gerda wearing women's clothes. He even consulted with medical doctors to determine if something was wrong with him. Gradually and eventually irreversibly, Einar transformed into Lili Elbe, the personification of his feminine self; Gerda, of course, had to struggle through the whole process as well because she literally saw her husband vanish, being replaced by a totally new person, abandoning her. Lili was immersing himself into this new life; but to ultimately become a woman, he decided to have sex reassignment surgery. It was an extremely risky series of surgeries and she died of complications. Through these trying times, Lili and Gerda were supported by Lili's childhood friend, Hans.

It was heartbreaking to see someone struggle while searching for one's identity and find acceptance for it. I couldn't help but think about Joey Mead King (a tv host and model) and her husband Ian (a businessman and car collector); they faced a similar situation when the husband transformed into a woman. But the world that the Kings live in is more accepting and open-minded than the 1920s of the Wegeners. Einar was diagnosed as being a mentally ill patient while Ian was surrounded by people who love him throughout the process.

On the flip side, it was also a struggle to watch Gerda as she watched everything unfold and there was nothing she could do to stop losing her husband. She was there during the surgeries and up until the end. Perhaps, Joey went through similar challenges but remained supportive of her husband. 

It's unfortunate that Lili died before she could really experience what being a woman was like during the 1920s. He was just about to discover and the chance was snagged away from him. I think this is where the story shows its strength. We'd never know who Lili was as a woman because she was gone too soon.

It's like a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis; but as it attempts to leave the cocoon, it dies before the world could see how beautiful its wings were.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more