Tag Archives: The Danish Girl

Oscars 2016: Cate Blanchett And Rooney Mara Both Nominated For ‘Carol’

Hollywood held its breath today as the academy revealed which of the year’s films it was most impressed by.

The Revenant led the nominations with a total of 12, followed by Mad Max: Fury Roadwith 10, and The Martian with seven.

Cate Blanchett is up for Best Actress for her critically-acclaimed role in lesbian love story Carol – which received a total of six nominations, including one for co-star Rooney Mara, who is up for Best Supporting Actress.

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However, there was film failed to pick up Best Picture category, and Todd Haynes was absence in the Best Director category.

Eddie Redmayne is also aiming for an Oscar double after being nominated for Best Actor for The Danish Girl – twelve months after winning the same prize for The Theory of Everything.

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However, Redmayne faces stiff competition from the likes of Bryan Cranston, Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Fassbender.

Other nominees included Sam Smith and Lady Gaga – who were both nominated for Best Original Song.

Smith – who is nominated for Bond theme, Writing On The Wall – expressed shock after also picking up a Golden Globe for the song last weekend.

Lady Gaga is nominated for her track, Till It Happens To You, which formed part of the soundtrack of film The Hunting Ground.

Unsettlingly, for the second consecutive year, no performers of colour were nominated. Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight), Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton) and Mya Taylor (Tangerine) were among the many black actors who were shut out.

Similarly, no women cracked the Best Director race – but, sadly, that comes as no surprise.

 

Bafta Film Awards: ‘Carol’ And ‘The Danish Girl’ Lead This Year’s Nominations

Great news, Cate Blanchett is up for Best Actress for her critically-acclaimed role in lesbian love story Carol – pitting her against Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), Saoirse Ronan and Brie Larson – at this year’s Baftas.

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Also nominated is Dame Maggie Smith, nominated for her role in the excellent The Lady In The Van – written by prestigious gay playwright Alan Bennett.

Carol – which is up for a total of nine gongs – is also nominated for Best Film, alongside Bridge of Spies, The Big Short, The Revenant and Spotlight.

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Another queer movie making waves is The Danish Girl, with Eddie Redmayne aiming for a Bafta double after being nominated for Best Actor – twelve months after winning the same prize for The Theory of Everything.

The Danish Girl – in which Redmayne plays transgender pioneer Lili Elbe – is also named for Outstanding British Film.  Vikander – who has won universal praise for her role as Gerda Wegener in the biopic – is also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in sci-fi thriller Ex Machina.

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She faces Kate Winslet – who recently took part in a stunning androgynous photo shoot – nominated for her role in Steve Jobs.

The Danish Girl’s Director On The Hardest Part Of Making The Film

The past few months have graced us with several new queer, mainstream films with one of these being The Danish Girl. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as trans woman Lili Elbe who, in real life, was one of the first (known) recipients of sex reassignment surgery.

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The Danish Girl follows Lili as she navigates the changing relationship with her wife Gerda (played by Alicia Vikander) as well as the love triangle they get into with Lili’s childhood friend Hans (played by Mattias Schoenaerts).

The Danish Girl has been garnering critical acclaim and some are even suggesting that Redmayne may even receive an Oscar nomination for his performance. And not only that but the film also seems to be doing (reasonably) well at the box office, earning $46,250 from four theatres in a limited box office run over the weekend.

But despite all of these accolades, it wasn’t actually very easy to get the film made, as The Danish Girl‘s director Tom Hooper explains to AfterEllen.

Hooper reveals that they struggled to get The Danish Girl financed and “it’s been a 15-year-journey for Gail Mutrux, the producer”, while  “it’s been a seven year journey” for the director. It “speaks to the sort of kind of extraordinary pace of change in the perception of trans issues”, says Hooper who also credits “a lot of good work by people moving this conversation forward” as well as shows like Orange is the New Black and Transparent for creating this “big tipping point with the acceptance of trans stories in the mainstream culture”.

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Though, other than getting financing for the film, Hooper reveals that one of the hardest parts of making The Danish Girl was creative, regarding “the balance between pain and joy in Lili’s story”.

The director says that he “didn’t want the film to only focus on that and not get the sense of the joy and the promise of release when you discover your true self and kind of showing that”, but, if it was “too joyous”, Hooper asks “would it be dramatic, or would it be truthful to the 1920s?”

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Also worth noting are Hooper’s words on how involvement from trans consultants shaped the film. The Danish Girl has received some backlash from trans advocates for its decision to cast Eddie Redmayne, a cis actor, in the role of a trans woman, but Hooper does say that the film’s team had a “great group of people” helping them, with trans journalist and present Paris Lees on-board to answer questions that Hooper and Redmayne had, as well as having a “very inspiring conversation” with Redmayne during pre-production.

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Moreover, Hooper says that unlike in real life where Gerda and Hans ended up together, he decided to let Lili and Gerda stay together as they “didn’t want the film to play as heteronormative” and instead wanted to “honor the love between Gerda and Lili”. Some have criticised the director for not sticking to facts but given that so few films about women in love end with the women still in love, others have praised the director for his creative decision.

Eddie Redmayne Transforms Into Transgender Artist Lili Elbe In Trailer For Oscar-Hyped Drama ‘The Danish Girl’

The first trailer for The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as famous transgender, has been released.

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The film, based on the book of the same name by David Ebershoff, focuses on

the true story of transgender pioneer Lili – born Einar Wegener – who became one of the first people to have gender reassignment surgery in the 1930s.

The trailer opens with the beautiful love story between Einar and his wife Gerda, who falls for the ‘charming and mysterious’ artist.

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When one of Gerda’s models fails to show for a painting session, she persuades her husband to pose for her in a dress, unaware of how meaningful the moment is for him.

The dress-up spirals into a joke as the pair create a new identity for him, the beautiful and enigmatic Lili, heading out for the evening to see whether they can fool others.

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But Gerda soon realises it is no longer a game for her partner, who experiences a revelation and admits to feeling more like her true self as Lili than she ever has, declaring, ‘This is not my body’.

With her wife’s support, Eddie’s character then embarks on the life-changing process of gender reassignment surgery.

Speaking previously about the movie, Eddie called the portrayal of transgender artist Lili Elbe ‘his most challenging role yet’.

Redmayne told GQ magazine:

I was actually offered The Danish Girl before Hawking… People go, “Oh are you doing this transformative thing?” It’s not a concerted choice. I think it will be a unique experience.”

Meanwhile, Academy Award-winner Hooper – who previously worked with Redmayne on Les Miserables – has revealed there was no other actor than the hugely talented Eddie for the role.

I was a great believer in him as an actor. I think also there’s a certain gender fluidity that I sensed in him, that I found intriguing and it led me to think he might be a really interesting person to cast in this role. I felt that there was something in him that was drawn to the feminine. That was something that I felt he might be interested to explore further.”

The Danish Girl opens in New York and Los Angeles on November 27, and in additional cities in December.

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Amber Heard Discusses Why She Signed to do the New Eddie Redmayne Film ‘The Danish Girl’

Bisexual actress Amber Heard, now married to Johnny Depp has been discussing her reasons for joining Eddie Redmayne in the film The Danish Girl.

In the film, Redmayne plays an artist famous for getting one of the first known gender-reassignment surgeries. Heard plays his wife.

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Talking to IndieWire, she said

It’s story about heart and love between two people and identity as well and it just so happens to be also an LGBT issue. Discrimination, identity, family relationships love, all these things within the context of a society. All of these things within a society that doesn’t accept that. Somebody undergoing a sex change to fully realize themselves is incredibly compelling for me.

I’m obviously a major advocate for equality and as a member of the LGBT community, I am honored to be able to be part of a story that represents a part of that struggle and that life.”

Heard has been a staunch advocate for the LGBTI community, which is one of the reasons why she wanted to star in the upcoming film. She came out as bisexual in 2010.

There’s always been gay people. That’s a fact. And I’m not trying to say that having ambiguous gender identity, I’m not saying that’s new. Look at the Greek culture, that’s fairly recent too in the span of human culture, but to actively be able to change it in this way…awesome.”

In the interview the Austin-born actress also discusses the limitations she faced being an actress.

you’re constantly asked to choose between one of two archetypes: sexy or not. And within the “not,” you perhaps can acquire for yourself a few different traits, but they’re going to be severely limited. The story’s not going to be about you. In the former, it’s completely unfulfilling work to undergo and it’s not fulfilling for an audience to watch. It’s incredible frustrating that a system is in place where you have to choose one or the other. I should not have to choose to be taken seriously or to be beautiful.”

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The Danish Girl will be released in December.