Hans Christian Andersen was an intensely neurotic man, with many phobias and obsessions. Many people who met him commented about how difficult he was to get along with. Famously, in 1847 Andersen stayed with Charles Dickens's family in London for six weeks(!), causing problems so obnoxious that Dickens refused to divulge them even in his personal diary.
Several authors of gay history have claimed that Andersen was homosexual. I'm unaware of any solid evidence for this. He definitely had a Lewis Carroll-like obsession with one underage actress. From my limited knowledge of Andersen, I would characterise him as too confused to possess a specific sexual orientation. This film 'Young Andersen' suggests a strong emotional bond between teenage Hans and a pre-teen boy named Tuk, but the bond doesn't seem to be sexual: it's more on a Huck-and-Tom level. Physically, Hans is much nearer to manhood than Tuk, but emotionally Tuk is the more mature of the two.
SLIGHT SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. I know very little about Andersen's early life: this movie gets several details right, but I strongly suspect that it's largely fiction. Oddly, the filmmaker shows Andersen's teenage years in flashback, from the viewpoint of elderly Andersen on his deathbed. This decision has no payoff until the very end, when -- apparently at the moment of his death -- Andersen has a Citizen Kane moment, with the long-dead Tuk returning as Andersen's "Rosebud". Oh, dear.
The flashback begins with young Hans already having left his Danish peasant village for Copenhagen, where he penuriously lives in a doghouse! There are references to Hans's backstory -- his parents' poverty, his grandfather's insanity -- but these are never shown on the screen: to do so would have required a flashback within the flashback.
The action is largely concerned with Hans's education (at the king's expense) in a grammar school in the village of Slagelse. As the schoolmaster, Henning Jensen gives a stand-out performance that reminded me of Wallace Beery and Leo McKern. There's a splendidly erotic performance by Puk Scharbau as the schoolmaster's randy wife, and one amusing scene in which she attempts to seduce Hans when he would prefer to write poetry.
I was hoping that this movie would depict Andersen interacting with some of his fictional creations; something similar to what Dennis Potter did in 'Dreamchild'. We do get some semi-fantasy sequences, as well as some realistic sequences which I doubt actually happened ... such as Andersen piloting a primitive hang-glider, and Andersen attempting suicide after the death of his friend Tuk. There are several virtuoso camera sequences: commendably, most of these are for valid purposes rather than merely self-indulgences. I was disappointed by a montage sequence featuring Andersen and his schoolmaster: the action called for a continuous 360-degree pan, but director Rumle Hammerich broke it into several smaller arc pans, probably for technical reasons rather than artistic ones.
The exterior sequences are exquisite, the modern lighting is unobtrusive in the 19th-century interiors, and the art direction (recreating early 19th-century Denmark) is superb, although we get the usual problem for movies set in that period: everything is too clean, and the actors' teeth are too good. Rumle Hammerich is already a splendid director whose career shows great promise. I'll rate 'Young Andersen' 8 out of 10, but I suspect that much of this movie is fiction.
Several authors of gay history have claimed that Andersen was homosexual. I'm unaware of any solid evidence for this. He definitely had a Lewis Carroll-like obsession with one underage actress. From my limited knowledge of Andersen, I would characterise him as too confused to possess a specific sexual orientation. This film 'Young Andersen' suggests a strong emotional bond between teenage Hans and a pre-teen boy named Tuk, but the bond doesn't seem to be sexual: it's more on a Huck-and-Tom level. Physically, Hans is much nearer to manhood than Tuk, but emotionally Tuk is the more mature of the two.
SLIGHT SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. I know very little about Andersen's early life: this movie gets several details right, but I strongly suspect that it's largely fiction. Oddly, the filmmaker shows Andersen's teenage years in flashback, from the viewpoint of elderly Andersen on his deathbed. This decision has no payoff until the very end, when -- apparently at the moment of his death -- Andersen has a Citizen Kane moment, with the long-dead Tuk returning as Andersen's "Rosebud". Oh, dear.
The flashback begins with young Hans already having left his Danish peasant village for Copenhagen, where he penuriously lives in a doghouse! There are references to Hans's backstory -- his parents' poverty, his grandfather's insanity -- but these are never shown on the screen: to do so would have required a flashback within the flashback.
The action is largely concerned with Hans's education (at the king's expense) in a grammar school in the village of Slagelse. As the schoolmaster, Henning Jensen gives a stand-out performance that reminded me of Wallace Beery and Leo McKern. There's a splendidly erotic performance by Puk Scharbau as the schoolmaster's randy wife, and one amusing scene in which she attempts to seduce Hans when he would prefer to write poetry.
I was hoping that this movie would depict Andersen interacting with some of his fictional creations; something similar to what Dennis Potter did in 'Dreamchild'. We do get some semi-fantasy sequences, as well as some realistic sequences which I doubt actually happened ... such as Andersen piloting a primitive hang-glider, and Andersen attempting suicide after the death of his friend Tuk. There are several virtuoso camera sequences: commendably, most of these are for valid purposes rather than merely self-indulgences. I was disappointed by a montage sequence featuring Andersen and his schoolmaster: the action called for a continuous 360-degree pan, but director Rumle Hammerich broke it into several smaller arc pans, probably for technical reasons rather than artistic ones.
The exterior sequences are exquisite, the modern lighting is unobtrusive in the 19th-century interiors, and the art direction (recreating early 19th-century Denmark) is superb, although we get the usual problem for movies set in that period: everything is too clean, and the actors' teeth are too good. Rumle Hammerich is already a splendid director whose career shows great promise. I'll rate 'Young Andersen' 8 out of 10, but I suspect that much of this movie is fiction.