His book is based on the reallife story of einar wegener, a danish artist who 70 years ago became the first man to be medically transformed into a womanlong. The film fashions itself as a love story between einarlili and gerda, who together must confront and evolve as einar undergoes gender reassignment surgery to become a woman. The friend, sometimes mistakenly described as the author, was actually her editor, and assembled the manuscripts for publication after lilis death. David ebershoff authored the international bestseller, the danish girl in the year 2000. But in the end, this is gretas book and david ebershoff has done her proud. Lili elbe left, whose life story is told in the danish girl, starring. The danish girl vs the true story of lili elbe, gerda wegener. The doctor sebastian koch prepares lili eddie redmayne for her last surgery and gerda alicia vikander wishes her luck.
Find out how true is the danish girl and who are the real lili and gerda. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, the danish girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of lili elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to her marriage and her own ambitions and desires. Gerda wegener is portrayed by swedish actress alicia vikander in the 2015 film the danish girl, also starring british actor eddie redmayne as lili elbe. The danish girl is a 2015 biographical romantic drama film directed by tom hooper, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by david ebershoff, and loosely inspired by the lives of danish painters lili elbe and gerda wegener. David ebershoffs debut launched in 2000 with a novel loosely inspired by true events, reimagining the story of lili elbe, one of the first transwomen to undergo gender affirmation surgery, the danish girl. David ebershoffs first novel, the danish girl, is inspired by the life of lili elbe. Her gender reassignment surgeries were, for the most part, the first of their kind. Ebershoff writes in a sensuous but unaffected style, as simple and rich as colors on a canvas. In 2000, david ebershoff wrote the danish girl, a fictionalised account of elbes life. Before we get into this book, wed like to pause to make sure were all on the same page. The novel is a fictionalized account of the life of lili elbe, one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Lili and gerdas marriage and work evolve as they navigate lilis groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer. The lgbt film festival mix copenhagen gives four lili awards named after elbe.
The real lili elbe einar wegener left endured a series of sex change surgeries. Lili elbe left, whose life story is told in the danish girl, starring eddie redmayne right credit. Eddie redmayne portrays genderreassignment trailblazer lili elbe, nee einar wegener, one of the first to make a sex change via surgery. Gerda gottlieb wegener becomes greta in the book, while lili substitutes andreas. Intersex lili elbes autobio man into woman intersex in australia. Her life story, fra mand til kvinde from man to woman, published in copenhagen in 1931, is the first popular fulllength autobiographical narrative of a subject who undergoes genital transformation surgery genitalumwandlung. Lili elbe wrote a great deal of the content for a book entitled man into woman, a semiautobiographical compiled from her diaries and published after her death.
Lilis life story was the inspiration behind the danish girl which completely twisted and disregarded many of her life circumstances and in my opinion the truth is much more interesting and compelling. In the danish girl, based on a true story, redmayne plays lili elbe, a danish trans woman and, as the movie asserts, one of the first known individuals to undergo gender confirmation surgery. With eddie redmayne, alicia vikander, amber heard, ben whishaw. Jun 24, 2019 about lili elbes autobiography man into woman. December 28, 1882 september, 1931 was a pioneering transgender woman. Lili elbe, danish painter who, born male, suffered from what is now called gender dysphoria and became female when she underwent the worlds first documented genderreassignment surgery. The danish girl tells the story of the painter einar wegener, who had the worlds first genderreassignment surgery and became lili elbe. Lili ilse elvenes 28 december 1882 september 1931, better known as lili elbe, was a danish painter and transgender woman. Her life would later become the inspiration for the danish girl. Elbe died of cardiac arrest caused by a uterus transplant surgery at the age of 48. Born einar wegener, elbe lived nearly her whole life as a man.
Lili ilse elvenes 28 december 1882 september 1931, better known as lili elbe, was a danish transgender woman and among the. A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of danish artists lili elbe and gerda wegener. Eddie redmayne right embodies elbe in the danish girl movie. It was an international bestseller and was translated into a dozen languages. Lili elbe simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Based on the book by david ebershoff, the danish girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of lili elbe and gerda wegener eddie redmayne and alicia vikander. Lili elbe was born einar wegener and spent her entire life trying to choose between the man she was born as and the woman she wanted to become. Many names were changed in elbes autobiographical novel, man into woman, to conceal their. More recently elbes life inspired the danish girl 2000, an international bestselling novel by david ebershoff, and a major feature film by the same name 2015 starring eddie redmayne. Einar changes into lili, and greta and einar switch places artistically.
David ebershoffs debut novel, the danish girl, won the 2000 lambda literary. It won the lambda literary award for transgender fiction in 2000 and has been adapted into a major motion. His pseudonym was niels hoyer, and his real name was ernst ludwig hathorn j. The danish girl is not a novelization of an amazing historical anecdoteit is a beautifully written, senstivelyhandled, and deeplyengaging novel that it absolutely one of the best i have read in recent years.
The danish girl is a delicate, elegant novel about the search for ones true self when ones body, as an external encasement, doesnt mirror what is on the inside. In his novel, ebershoff attempts to approach the space between the marriage of einar and greta and to explore the transition they both. She begins as einar wegener, a danish man in copenhagen, and she ends as lili, the danish girl in dresden. Ullstein bild via getty images horatia harrod 28 february 2016 8. Starring eddie redmayne, alicia vikander, amber heard, ben winshaw based on the novel the danish girl by david ebershoff. His characters move with formal solemnity, and there is design to their appearances, as though they took part in a dance. The danish girl by david ebershoff the danish girl, by david ebershoff opens in copenhagen in 1925 with a wonderful enigmatic four word sentence his wife knew first. The film fashions itself as a love story between einarlili and gerda, who together must confront and evolve as einar undergoes gender reassignment. Based on a similarly titled fictional novel by david ebershoff, the danish girl loosely recounts the lives of danish painters lili elbe the first known transgendered recipient of sex reassignment surgery and gerda wegener. Lili is the republishing of man into woman, the memoir of one of the first openly trans women, lili elbe.
Here is a book that truly makes the reader stop and question one of our most rigidly held fundaments of identity, gender. Ebershoff mentions that he went to europe to seek out newspaper reports of lilis surgeries and subsequent life, and then i remembered some previous scanty reports of a book apparently written by a. Intersex lili elbes autobio man into woman intersex in. The danish girl kindle edition by ebershoff, david. David ebershoffs book of the same name, which is loosely inspired by reallife danish artists and couple einar wegenerlili elbe eddie redmayne. This fictionalised biopic of pioneering transgender artist lili elbe is well made and sympathetic. Lili and gerdas marriage and work evolve as they navigate lilis groundbreaking journey as. As beautiful as the danish girl is, their life is even more interesting. Biography of lili elbe, pioneering transgender woman. As a rule, the respectful way to discuss transgender people is by using the name and pronoun they specifically identify with. She died from paralysis of the heart due to organ rejection roughly three months after undertaking her fifth and final sexchange operation in june 1931. The danish girl is based on the life of lili elbe, who was raised as a boy and found fame as the painter einar wegener. The titlethe danish girlis fairly selfexplanatory as titles go. But ebershoff emphasizes the title in the books final chapter, as lili thinks, she was fraulein lili elbe.
It was a fictionalized description of lili elbes life. The last operation was to implant a womb uterus, which ultimately proved fatal. Lili elbe biography biography facts, childhood, family. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, the danish girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of lili elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to. I arrived at man into woman via david ebershoffs bestselling fictionalisation of lilis story, the danish girl, upon which the film is based. She was among the early recipients of sex reassignment surgery. See more ideas about danish girl movie, the danish girl, lili elbe. Lili elbe was born einar wegener in vejle, denmark in 1882 and moved to copenhagen to study art at the royal danish academy of fine arts as a. The danish girl true story the real lili and gerda. The danish girl true story the real lili and gerda screenprism. Find out more about danish painter lili elbe, who was among one of the firstever documented sex reassignment surgery recipients and whose life was the subject of the 2015 film the danish girl. This riveting account of the transformation of the danish painter ei.
The tragic true story behind the danish girl the telegraph. It is also about what makes a marriage and how far a woman will go to let her husband find his true self, knowing that she will likely lose him in the process. The danish girl, david ebershoffs 2000 novel about them was an international bestseller and was translated into a dozen languages. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, the danish girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the heroic story of lili elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to her marriage and her own ambitions and desires. The danish girl 2015 is a fictitious story adapted from david ebershoffs book of the same name, which is loosely inspired by reallife danish artists and couple einar wegenerlili elbe eddie redmayne and gerda gottlieb alicia vikander.
Lili elbe born einar magnus andreas wegener, later lili ilse elvenes. 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. The the danish girl community note includes chapterbychapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Lili, as einar, married fellow painter gerda gottlieb.
Einar wegener played by eddie redmayne and his wife gerda alicia vikander are a happily married couple. Greta asks her husband einar to wear silk stockings and feminine shoes to pose for her, so that she can continue painting a portrait in the absence of the female model. She experienced what is now known as gender dysphoria and was one of the first individuals known to receive sex reassignment surgery, also known as gender confirmation surgery. The true story behind the danish girl confirms that einar wegeners transformation into lili elbe ultimately led to her death. Lili elbe was a transgender danish painter who was among the firstever documented recipients of sex reassignment surgery.