How historically accurate is the film?

The article begins with " The Danish Girl (2015) is a fictitious story adapted from David Ebershoff's book of the same name, which is loosely inspired by real-life Danish artists. " That could be interpreted as "it is more fiction than not." However it seems to me that it is more true than fiction. Of course the real Danish couple were a bit older (their 40s) than is depictd in the movie.

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes not.

Thanks for the article. It's an interesting read. I saw this film to find out a little more about a transgender point of view and ended up being just annoyed with yet another film clearly written for a hetero male audience. I knew it was Oscar bait but I just didn't realize how obviously it was written to please a bunch of white male academy voters who have an underdeveloped view of women.

I don't feel as comfortable writing about the historical inaccuracies of Lilly's character but I can see how transgender women would see her as an oversimplification. She had four to five surgeries and apparently had several relationships with men before and during her series of 4-5 surgeries. I read she was in a relationship with an art dealer and died from having a uterine transplant in an attempt to have children with him. I even read that she had affair an with one of her surgeons. Apparently she and Gerda never obviously had a sexual relationship as they were very open and accepted in 1910s and 1920s Paris Bohemia. They had apparently a completely open life together living as female friends with only the possibility of being lovers for over 20 years. They were immediately divorced,likely due to government oversight of some sort, when Einar had his first surgery. Some sources suggested they married as a convenience tfor traveling throughout the rest of Europe. Most sources say Lilly had a long term relationship with a man while married to Gerda and that Gerda was remarried and living in a different country for most of Lilly's surgeries. I would have loved a film that would have detailed Lilly's relationship with her male partner and helped realize her motivation for taking the extra risks of uterine transplantation. Especially since medical science is still making unsuccessful attempts in that area today.

Nearly every source I read indicated that Gerda was living openly as a lesbian and living from sales not only of her Lilly portraits but also of her original lesbian erotica for those twenty years. I'm a hetero female so I don't feel comfortable addressing the obvious prejudice in taking such a fundamental part of a real person and representing her in a wholely different way and then presenting it as truth. Especially in a movie that was basically the "love" story of two actual living individuals who seemed to be anything but a hetero couple in real life. Especially since the Gerda character was so obviously written for the purposes of engaging the more knuckle- dragging portion of the male demographic. Despite all the lavish sets and gorgeous costuming and the emotional score, I think the Gerda character is what makes this film Oscar bait. I will admit my biases up front. I am sick of the "dutifull, long-suffering noble and ethereal" female character BS that is just so overdone by filmmakers.

By nearly all accounts Gerda was very happy to be married to a spouse who identified as female and encouraged Lilly for twenty years to live openly. Most accounts indicate they were friends and even sisterly. I'm not saying there was no genuine affection between them. She grieved Lilly's death after her last surgery. One account portrayed Gerda as borderline aggressive, all but standing over Einar's genetalia with a scissors. Not sure how much I believe that one. Not one account portrayed Gerda as a weeping doormat of a wife, there to counter-balance Lilly's transformation, a story telling tool. Ten minutes into this portrayal of Gerda as a sexually aggressive little girl prancing around in her big girl clothing and waving a cigarette while barking orders to a dog and an older man, I knew I was witnessing pure male fantasy. Initially being portrayed as a sexual aggressor, you know filmmakers are going to make her pay and be miserable for the rest of the film. Her de-evolution was used as a story telling contrivance to give the hetero male and less mature audiences something to cling to while Lilly's character transitioned. Perish the thought of two strong minded, independent, and sexually satisfied women who found a way to defy convention and live the lives they wanted, actually being shown on screen. I have to say researching Gerda and Lilly's lives in bohemian Paris was a fun exercise. I highly encourage it. And it made me wish filmmakers would have more respect for the point of view of female audiences. A more historically accurate story would have made a much more interesting film than this costume-driven melodramatic schlock.