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Films on the to-do list

  • Armageddon Time
  • Black Widow
  • Chimes at Midnight
  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer
  • Last Christmas
  • Remember Sunday
  • Shazam! 2
  • Thor: Love and Thunder
  • Spy Guys

Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale (2003)

TV miniseries review: Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale (2003), directed by Philip Saville

My knowledge of Scandinavian storytellers is … not brilliant. I know Selma Lagerlöf lived at Mårbacka and was a lesbian, August Strindberg had a crazy hairdo and Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) … well, he was Danish?

In My Life as a Fairy Tale we meet young Hans Christian (Kieran Bew), who lives with his mother (Geraldine James) in Odense, Denmark. All he wants to do is to sing and dance and perform, but when his father dies, he has to try and make a living. He goes to Copenhagen.

In Copenhagen, he meets both royalty and the famous Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind (Flora Montgomery), with whom he falls head over heels in love. After a rather bizarre audition at the theatre, Jonas Collin (James Fox) decides to take the young man under his wing. His son Edward (Mark Dexter) takes an instant dislike at the rival of his father’s affection, but the daughter Jette (Emily Hamilton) is delighted, especially when she overhears Hans Christian telling stories – fairytales – made up on the spot …

Collin sends Hans Christian to school, as he’s never received any formal schooling, and he starts to write down his stories. Stories that are picked up by a publisher (Hugh Bonneville) and suddenly, the whole world seems to want to hear what the eccentric young man from Odense has to say.

Also starring Simon Callow as Charles Dickens, Steven Berkoff as Meisling and Alison Steadman as the, uh, not-so-charming Mrs Meisling.

Interspersed with excerpts from Andersen’s fairytales, using the characters as actors in it (e.g. Jenny Lind as the Nightingale, and so on), the life of Denmark’s famous storyteller really surprised me. I have no idea how legitimate the portrayal is, but if he was half as eccentric as he’s portrayed here, he would definitely have been diagnosed with something in today’s day and age. He might have been somewhere on the Autism spectrum, which was a surprise.

Also, surprised to see him “happening” upon the royal family just like that, like some kind of 19th century Forest Gump.

With the excerpts from his stories, it made the viewing somewhat bizarre, but it fitted in very well nonetheless. It’s a good story, a fascinating life, and who would have guessed that the man behind Thumbelina and The Little Mermaid, to name but a couple, seems to have been special … in more ways than one?

3.5 out of 5 royal rings.

Traxy

An easily distracted and over-excited introvert who never learns to go to bed at a reasonable time. Enjoys traveling (when there's not a plague on), and taking photos of European architecture. Cares for cats, good coffee and Boardwalk Empire. A child of her time, she did media studies in school and still can't decide what she wants to be when she grows up.

2 thoughts on “Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale (2003)

  1. Never heard of this story, by HCA fascinates me.  His stories were staples for children for so long that he has got to be considered one of the most influential writers, but I think most people, like me, know nothing about him apart from being from Denmark.

    Good review–will see if NetFlix has this one.

  2. Good luck! 🙂 I’m curious to find out if HCA really had some sort of mental disorder. Think Dickens really did ask him to leave, but not sure what the reasons were.

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