The Danish Girl

Celebrating LGBTQ Cinema in Honor of Pride Month and Orlando
Celebrating LGBTQ Cinema in Honor of Pride Month and Orlando
Celebrating LGBTQ Cinema in Honor of Pride Month and Orlando
June is a month of victory for the LGBTQ community. It’s the one time of the year lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, and all other spectrums of queer sexualities and gender identities come together to honor the queer heroes who rioted, fought, and persevered before us. It’s a time of joy, of marching in parades, dancing in queer nightclubs and seeking comfort, safety, and acceptance as an LGBTQ person. But this year that sacred month of celebration was tarnished by the largest hate crime the LGBTQ community has ever faced.
Censors Ban ‘The Danish Girl’ in Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Elsewhere
Censors Ban ‘The Danish Girl’ in Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Elsewhere
Censors Ban ‘The Danish Girl’ in Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Elsewhere
There are plenty of good reasons to ban The Danish Girl, most of them having to do with Tom Hooper’s direction. (Take it easy with the Dutch angles, Hoop. We get it. You’re an artist.) Unfortunately, the censors in middle eastern nations currently removing the Eddie Redmayne-starring film have not been doing so out of any sense of aesthetic obligation, but rather troubling social mores. Though Hooper’s insistence on lingering in graceless close-up for interminable stretches of runtime is clearly the most offensive aspect of the film, the controversial transgender subject material has ruffled the wrong governmental feathers.
When LGBT Film Looked in the Mirror This Year, So Did I
When LGBT Film Looked in the Mirror This Year, So Did I
When LGBT Film Looked in the Mirror This Year, So Did I
Movies have long been a means of escapism, where one can slink away from their chaotic or mediocre lives into the anonymous oasis of a movie theater, or more often lately, into our streaming-equipped bedrooms and living rooms. I often think of Pauline Kael’s “Trash, Art, and the Movies” essay, in which she champions less prestigious pictures, the ones that make the most invigorating, lasting impressions on us, regardless of whether they’re regarded as “the best” films. “It’s the human material we react to most and remember longest,” she wrote. As much as movies enable us to escape the daily responsibilities of life, offering a chance to explore another world for a few hours, sometimes they bring us right back to ourselves. It’s when we’re left alone in the darkness to sit with ourselves that something transformative happens. It’s in those moments that a film, or even television, can lodge itself in our brains or hearts, injecting its roots until blossoming into larger revelations long afterward. Escaping through art can be the most cathartic and revealing process, where what’s on screen ends up holding a mirror back at us, perhaps seeing the things we don’t look at every day outside the theater. I like think Edward Hopper got it right. In one of my favorite paintings, Hopper’s New York Movie, a lone woman stands on the edges of a movie theater, her head down in deep contemplation as a film plays on screen. This is where the personal and the cinematic intersect.
Tom Hooper on What ‘The Danish Girl’ Taught Him About Love
Tom Hooper on What ‘The Danish Girl’ Taught Him About Love
Tom Hooper on What ‘The Danish Girl’ Taught Him About Love
It took 15 years to bring The Danish Girl to the bring screen, Tom Hooper’s latest film about the first woman to undergo gender-reassignment surgery in 1930s Berlin. Starring Eddie Redmayne as transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, and Alicia Vikander as her painter wife Gerda Wegener, the film charts their love story and journey. Over an intimate luncheon and interview, Hooper shared stories of his work on the film, the real trans women consulted with and what the screenplay taught him about love and expectations.
Here’s What The 2016 Oscar Race Will Probably Look Like
Here’s What The 2016 Oscar Race Will Probably Look Like
Here’s What The 2016 Oscar Race Will Probably Look Like
This is the most exciting time of the year for anyone who loves film, as critics and journalists no longer have to play the guessing game of what may or may not make it to the Oscars. The awards season frontrunners are already pretty clear, with the exception of a few titles yet to screen for press, including The Revenant, The Hateful Eight, Joy, By the Sea and Concussion. Here’s what your 2016 Oscar categories will most likely look like.