Comparing The Film (2015) and The Novel (2005) of "The Danish Girl"

Reference: Zhang, Z. (2022). How The Danish Girl was Adapted and Recontextualized through Multimedia (accepted). Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance. 

Many stories from novels are adapted into movies, therefore the process of adaptation often changes several aspects of the original story. Just like the story of "The Danish Girl" by David Ebershoff which has changes in various aspects when adapted by Tom Hooper (2015) into a movie. Both book and film depict the real life journey of Lili Elbe, the first transgender woman to undergo gender confirmation surgery. The way the film and book develop the story of "The Danish Girl" is differentiated between fictional and original sources, the media used, and the way it is conveyed or depicted. By examining the differences, we can understand how the director recontextualized and adapted the original story into a film.

When the story of "The Danish Girl" is adapted into a film, the filmmaker wants to follow the real life of Lili Elbe. So the director changes several aspects from the book. As in the book, characters are fictionalized in order to explore characters and their backstory in detail. While in the film adaptation, the director wants to be accurate with the historical events by adjusting the characters background. As an example, to reflect on the original history, Gerda's nationality was changed from American to Danish as in Elbe's autobiography. This change was made to respect the original story of Lili Elbe.  

Another difference is the main focus of the story. Books and films use different mediums, so the filmmaker must consider the main focus of the film. The book emphasizes Lili's internal transformation and her identity, while the film more focuses on the marriage issues, and emphasizes the emotional struggle between Lili and Gerda during Lili's personal transformation. This shift has simplified the narrative story that explored Lili's psychology and transformation in depth, also in order to provide more relatable story context to the audience 

Because books and films use different media, this causes differences in the way the story unfolds. The film uses visual aspects like body language and expressions as tools, while the book only uses descriptive written form to tell readers about the events. The film uses background setting and character gestures to express emotions while the book focuses on deeper explanation and timeline to develop the story. For example, the film uses the luxurious background setting of a restaurant and Gerda's gesture when pushing Einar forward. This shift from narrative story to visual storytelling affects how the audience perceives the story 

In conclusion, both the film and book show the story of Lili Elbe, but film adaptations often differ in several aspects from the book, such as the original historical events, main focus of the story, and how they use the medium as a tool to convey the story. While the book gives a comprehensive timeline of the story of "The Danish Girl", the film provides emotional aspects using visual storytelling. Both the film and the book have their own way of depicting the story