Thursday, December 3, 2015

BTS video - Tom Hooper discusses 'The Danish Girl' - screenshots, articles, interviews

“The extraordinary thing with Tom is he has such a minute knowledge of every single piece of information... There
is a rigour to the way he works and yet he relies entirely on instinct. It’s all about how it feels and how it plays.”
- Eddie Redmayne
“We live in quite a cynical time and there is something rather beautiful about going back to this story in the Twenties and seeing this kind of love that’s so unbelievably giving...Love is the great enforcer of this incredibly moving story...
I felt the aesthetic of beauty was central to the way these artists saw the world. Einar was fascinated by the beauty
of landscape; Gerda was driven by female beauty. I wanted to honour that” - Tom Hooper

by Cadence Valentine
It was a picturesque October afternoon last year, with weather typically and obnoxiously L.A. A smattering of perfect white puffy clouds hung in the sky just to remind me that those still exist in the world, though usually outside the magic and mischief of Southern California. I entered the elevator leading to the exclusive, invite-only floors of Soho House, where I was to meet the gentleman who had sent me his first communication starting with, “Cadence, I hope you don’t mind me writing you out of the blue, but I am an actor…” ...Read more

...“There was one particular couple in Los Angeles,” he continues. “A woman called Cadence and her partner Trista. They had been together when she was living as a man and they’re still together. The way in which they allowed me to ask anything – and they did say, ‘Please ask us anything’ – along with their kindness and support galvanised me in it.” So what did he learn from these meetings? “There were two things that Cadence said: one was that she would give her everything and anything to live a life authentic. And the other was in relation to her partner while she was transitioning: the question was for her, how deep was her partner’s pool of empathy. And those two things sat with me the whole way through the film-making process.”





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...“I was on the tube in London and read in the Guardian that Eddie was going to do The Danish Girl with Tom Hooper, and I was wowed,” Vikander says. “I knew they had tried to make this film for a long time and I thought they’d made a great casting choice, but it had no connection to me.” 
What Vikander didn’t yet know is that Hooper had hit a wall trying to cast Gerda. “I was quite troubled about who I could find to play opposite of Eddie,” the director explains, “because Eddie is so phenomenal.” When he met the young Swedish actress—whom he’d been impressed by in the 2012 film A Royal Affair—he found what he had been looking for. “Alicia was a revelation,” he says. “She never slowed down. She was always ahead, and she’s incredibly intellectually bright. I like working with actors who are collaborative, and she was a great collaborator.”

Audiences seem to feel the same affection. When The Danish Girl premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, the movie received a 10-minute standing ovation and Variety noted that Vikander’s performance is “the stuff that best-actress campaigns are built upon.” They’re not wrong. Vikander is remarkable in the way she portrays the conflicted, emotional and sometimes-steely Gerda, offering her an extraordinary depth and amplifying exponentially the power of the film’s love story. As her friend Nicolas Ghesquière, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton, says, “Alicia is a heroine, a strong, multifaceted woman, a true rebel. She’s a real actress who’s not afraid to take emotionally charged roles and play them wholeheartedly.”

Outstanding performances aside, The Danish Girl also benefits from being released in a year that’s seen unprecedented visibility for transgender people, and that’s not lost on its cast. “If this film can be any part of that movement,” Vikander says, “that’s wonderful.” But there’s more to The Danish Girl than just a tale of gender identity. “It’s a very unique love story, but it’s still extremely relatable,” she says. “It’s about two people going into a new relationship, a new dynamic, and that’s something every person has been through. It’s a love story between two people, but above all it’s a story about being able to love yourself.”...Read more

New interviews on my playlist

OSCAR CALENDAR (via):
Oscar Nominations Announcement -Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016
Oscar Nominees Luncheon - Monday, Feb. 8, 2016
Final Oscar Voting Begins 8am PT - Friday, Feb. 12, 2016
SCI-TECH AWARDS - Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016
Oscars Sunday | Televised Gala Event - Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016

Updated on 4th Dec. 2015, 6:50

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Danish Girl promo - BBC Radio 4 interview, articles, news

BBC Radio 4 - Today interview: Eddie Redmayne: 'I was ignorant of trans issues'
Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne has told the Today programme he was "ignorant of trans issues" 
before making upcoming film The Danish Girl, in which he plays a trans women....
Mr Redmayne spoke to presenter Nick Robinson about the process of making the film and coming 
to understand the challenges facing trans people. - audio here

Beautiful new picture from the movie - source: The Danish Girl on Twitter (via)
POPSUGAR: 
PS: As much as it is a heavy movie, there is such a fun rapport between you and Eddie. What was it like shooting on set? 
AV: Eddie is down-to-earth, funny, and always honest. Even though we work long hours and it is a very tough subject and it's a lot of very emotional big scenes, he always brings such energy to set and such humor. I had met him a few times: we have a few common friends actually. Before we met for the reading, we presented an award at the BAFTAs a few months earlier. I remember the common friends that we had were, like, "Oh you're going to present with Eddie. He's going to be the sweetest thing; he's the coolest guy." I remember that we had quite a fast connection there because we were both so nervous. Being actors, we can't learn [what to do] when it comes to us walking up to the stage. So we had a bit of an icebreaker there, I think. It was really enjoyable. He just always pushed me to do my very, very best. I always felt like I had to step up and give him that. But he's extremely generous, and we had a lot of fun.

DUJOUR: EDDIE REDMAYNE'S DEFINING MOMENT
“There is a scene in the film, in which my character Lili is still living as Einar, and she goes out in Paris to a peep show,” Redmayne says of his role as a transgender woman in 1920s Europe. “There are men watching this woman dance, and Lili watches through a pane of glass, and then starts emulating her. This woman looks through the glass and sees the real Lili, not just her in the male guise. It was an extraordinary scene to shoot because I hadn’t met the woman playing the dancer before, and we didn’t really get to know each other, but we had this spontaneous and improvised moment together. It was unlike any other acting experience I ever had, and it was completely unique. It was just a moment and then it was gone, but I think it was one of the more important moments in the film.”

TOM HOOPER’S DEFINING MOMENT
“A defining moment for me on The Danish Girl was Alicia Vikander’s London screen test with Eddie. It was the first time I saw Alicia bring Gerda to life. But it was also the first time
I saw Eddie as Lili Elbe,” says Hooper, the film’s director.
“I was moved to tears by their extraordinary realization of the scene, beautifully written by Lucinda Coxon.
Eddie joked that ‘there was no suspense about who I was going to cast as Gerda.’ He was right.”

2015’S DEFINING MOMENTS IN FILM (Written by Adam Rathe) (x)

(x)
Redmayne wears a sweater, shirt, pants and shoes by Gucci and a watch by Omega.
Hooper wears his own clothing. (Photo Jeremy Liebman)

Satellite Awards nominations announced - List of Nominees
7 nominations for 'The Danish Girl' - Eddie, Alicia and Tom have all been nominated
Eddie Redmayne - Actor in a Motion Picture
Alicia Vikander - Actress in a Supporting Role
Tom Hooper - Director
Lucinda Coxon - Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Desplat - Original Score
Eve Stewart - Art Direction and Production Design
Paco Delgado - Costume Design

Deadline: ’The Danish Girl’ Bows With Style; ‘Janis: Little Girl Blue’ Solid In Debut; ‘Carol’ Dominates Thanksgiving: Specialty B.O. (Box Office report)
The Danish Girl debuted in four New York and L.A. locations with a strong performance by the awards contender. Starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikankder, the movie grossed $185K Friday to Sunday, averaging $46,250, the sixth-best opening weekend PTA of the year behind Steve Jobs, Sicario, Carol, Spotlight and Jurassic World. Focus said exit surveys showed the title “hit its primary audience” of older females, who “loved the film.” Specifically, the opening weekend’s audience was 58% female and 67% of the overall crowd seeing The Danish Girl was over 40. 
 The title’s opening compares to director Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, which TWC opened in November, 2010 also in 4 theaters. The Oscar-winning title grossed over $355K in its first frame, averaging a stunning $88,863. It went on to cume $135.4 million. The film will remain in 4 theaters
next weekend, followed by expansions heading into December and beyond.

Eddie Redmayne is on the December cover of IN in Canada. (via)


Updated on 2nd Dec. 2015, 2:10

Who is The Danish Girl? - new futurette

Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey
as a transgender pioneer. (x)


'I read 'The Danish Girl' and profoundly moved by it. I've found it a story unlike anything I read, 
an incredibly passionate journey to find yourself, to be yourself. Lili was so courageous. 
She would give her everything and anything to live an authentic life. " -Eddie Redmayne











My screenshots from the video (x)


Links:
illustratedwomeninhistory: Lili Elbe

Updated on 1st Dec. 2015, 13:25