The Stories about Art Films: 50. The Danish Girl (2015), ACJ Movie Academy

 

Basic Info

Title: The Danish Girl

Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance

Country: United Kingdom, United States

Language: English

Running time: 120 minutes

Release date: 5 September 2015 (Venice International Film Festival), 27 November 2015 (United States), 1 January 2016 (United Kingdom)

Staff

Director: Tom Hooper

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anne Harrison, Tom Hooper, Gail Mutrux

Screenplay: Lucinda Coxon

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Cinematography: Danny Cohen

Edited by: Melanie Ann Oliver

Cast

Eddie Redmayne as Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe

Alicia Vikander as Gerda Wegener

Ben Whishaw as Henrik Sandahl

Sebastian Koch as Dr. Kurt Warnekros

Amber Heard as Ulla Paulson

Matthias Schoenaerts as Hans Axgil

Summary

"The Danish Girl" is a 2015 biographical romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper, based on David Ebershoff’s 2000 novel of the same name, and loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery, Alicia Vikander as Wegener, and Sebastian Koch as Kurt Warnekros.

Lili Elbe

Gerda Wegener

Participated in the main competition of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival and screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, it was released in a limited release on November 27, 2015 by Focus Features in the United States.

Despite criticism for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events, Redmayne and Vikander's performances received widespread acclaim and nominations for all of the major acting awards such as Vikander won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Redmayne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Movie Review

“Brave beauty”

“Excellent Performances from the Two Leads”

“Beautifully shot with good performances”

“Certainly Touchy Subject Matter”

“One of the best period pieces from 2015”

“Woman Trapped in a Man's Body”

“Redmayne shines once again”

“Mostly true story of an early transgender case in Denmark”

“A touching story”

Interesting stories about the film

1. Many details of Einar Wegener's life were difficult to trace, both to the book's author and to the film's crew, and were not documented in Denmark either. Dresden's women's hospital had medical records, but none after World War II. They found newspaper items, memoirs of Wegener's friends and records of some similar surgeries at the time.

2. The film inspired more research into the period and aroused interest in Elbe and Gerda Wegener, who were the subject of a big art exhibition held in their hometown, Copenhagen, Denmark in 2016.

Lili Elbe by Gerda Wegener

3. Although the film is set in Denmark and features Danish characters, none of the main cast is Danish and no Danish language is used in the film.

4. Tom Hooper claimed that he cried three times when he first read the script and then he knew he had to direct the film.

Tom Hooper

5. According to director Tom Hooper's interview, more than 40 transgender people participated in the production of the film as supporting actors and extras.

6. Understanding the film's sensitive and controversial subject matter, Tom Hooper tried to make the film as neutral as possible. The film leaves Lili's transition to the audience's interpretation without praising or criticizing.

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Amedeo Modigliani in Worldwide Museums: 4. Barnes Foundation

 

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The 4th place I would like to introduce for this week is Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution that promotes the appreciation of art and horticulture. Its founder, Philadelphia-born Albert C. Barnes, made his fortune by co-developing Argyrol used to combat gonorrhea and inflammations of the eye, ear, nose, and throat.

Albert C. Barnes

In 1922, he founded the Barnes Foundation to teach people how to look art. Today, the foundation owns more than 4,000 objects, including more than 900 paintings, estimated to be worth about $25 billion. They are primarily works of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist artists, but also include paintings by leading European and American artists, African art, antiques from China, Egypt, and Greece and Native American art.

In 2012, to better serve Barnes’s educational mission, the Foundation moved to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The works of Modigliani currently in the possession of The Barnes Foundation are as follows.

 

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105. Classical Music: 20. Antonín Dvořák, ACJ Music Academy

 

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This week's lecture is “Antonín Dvořák”, the 20th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “105. Classical Music: 20. Antonín Dvořák” introduced on September 30th, 2017.

Antonín Dvořák, born on September 8, 1841 and died on May 1, 1904, was a Czech composer, one of the first internationally recognized.

Dvořák's birthplace in Nelahozeves

Following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana, Dvořák frequently used rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia.

Bedřich Smetana

He showed his musical talent from an early age, learning the violin at the age of six. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872, and was particularly successful in 1873 when he was 31 years old. To gain recognition beyond the Prague region, he submitted a score of his First Symphony to a German competition, but did not win, and the unreturned manuscript remained lost until rediscovered many decades later. 

In 1874 he made a submission to the Austrian State Prize for Composition, including two symphonies and other works. Although he did not know it at the time, Johannes Brahms, who was the leading jury member of the contest, was very impressed with his work and Dvořák was awarded the prize. Brahms recommended Dvořák to his publisher, Simrock, who soon afterward commissioned Dvořák for a work what became the “Slavonic Dances, Op. 46.” In 1878, the Berlin music critic Louis Ehlert praised the piece, and the score had excellent sales, and Dvořák's international fame finally began.

Johannes Brahms

Dvořák's first work of a religious character, "Stabat Mater", was premiered in Prague in 1880 and had a successful performance in London in 1883, followed by many other performances in the United Kingdom and the United States. Dvořák often performed his own pieces in nine invited performances in England, and his Seventh Symphony was composed for London. On a visit to Russia in March 1890, he had concerts with his own music in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1891, Dvořák was appointed as a professor at the Prague Conservatory, and in 1890–91 he composed his “Dumky Trio”, one of his most successful chamber music works.

Prague Conservatory

In 1892, Dvořák moved to the United States, where he became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. While in the United States, Dvořák wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the Symphony “From the New World”, which spread his fame worldwide, and his “Cello Concerto”, one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti. 

The title page of the autograph score of Dvořák's ninth
symphony, From the New World

In the summer of 1893, Dvořák moved from New York City to Spillville, Iowa, where his most famous piece of chamber music, "String Quartet in F major, Op. 96", which was later earned the nickname the "American Quartet”, was written. 

Dvořák's funeral on 5 May 1904

Shortly after moving to Iowa, Dvorák extended his contract with the National Conservatory for two more years, but the financial crisis of April 1893 worsened the Conservatory's financial situation. Unable to receive his salary, Dvorák, along with increasing recognition in Europe and an onset of homesickness, returned to Bohemia in 1895.

Dvořák's grave in the Vyšehrad cemetery

Except his first opera, All of Dvořák's nine operas have librettos in Czech and, like some of his choral works, were intended to convey the Czech national spirit. The most successful of his operas to date is “Rusalka”, and his seventh Humoresque and the song “Songs My Mother Taught Me” are also widely performed and recorded. 

Poster for the premiere of Rusalka in
Prague, 31 March, 1901

The Dvořák Prague International Music Festival is a major series of concerts held annually to commemorate the life and works of Dvořák.

Dvořák statue, Prague

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