The Danish Girl (2015) is a British-American biographical romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper. It revolves around the life of Einar Wegener a Danish painter and the unmasking of his woman self. The story incorporates the feelings of his wife Gerda Wegener as she comprehends his identity and how she supports her husband as he develops his female self, consulting several psychologists. By the end, Lili (Einar's female character) undergoes a male to female sex reassignment surgery, the first of it's kind. Eventually in her eagerness to become her 'true self'', Lili ends up dying.
Analysis of opening scene
The opening scene is beautiful and revolves around a Danish Bog. This bog is from a part of Lili's life that symbolises his struggles, as it could be said that his life is a bog.
(Each shot type is described when clicking on each picture.)
Each shot is framed well and when possible there is a good use of symmetry; the trees, the reflections, and the paintings and this is reflective of Einar's reflection of Lili in himself. The Danish Bog has dark sky's above which represents the darkness in Einar's life, his struggle with accepting his true self. All lighting used is natural lighting and by the end of the opening scene light is shining through the clouds. There is no camera movement only switches between shot, and no transitions are used either. The only movement is the clouds and the birds. Most of the opening credits are in white and in either of the lower corners, they slowly fade and slide in which creates a calmer scene.
There is both digetic and non digetic music used. The digetic music is the sound of the winds and the movement of the trees, and the reeds. The non digetic music uses instruments such as piano and flute to create a fairly soft tone and a sense of eutopia to put the audience in the mind of Einar as this is a place he thinks highly of.
Establishes the scene - The Danish Bog
The depth of field then changes and the reeds blur out to focus on the river (this is a long shot)
The reflection of the tree in the water is shown
This then shows the audience what the reflection was of
Close up of grass
This was most likely created using a crane
Title
The shot creates continuity between the shots we have just seen as this is Einar's painting of them
We can see she is looking at the painting
From the analysis of The Danish Girl, we have seen the importance of music and the effects an 'artistic' opening can have.
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