They were conversations that Dinesen had with herself, so to speak: mental bargains she made while she was trying to reconcile herself to his physical absence and emotional withholding, which carried over to her writing -- the concept of a rooted female versus a roving male, the idea of deprivation and abnegation as springboards for creativity.
But even if their conversations are herself externalized and projected out onto someone who has become, for the purposes of fiction, some other self: they still need to work as characters for a viewer who knows nothing of Dinesen's life; and I found that they do.
Klaus-Maria Brandauer as Bror Blixen was far closer to his real-life counterpart.
I'd seen the actor before, but not to know his name; I'd watch him again.
And in many ways the formative presence during those years was Farah Aden, Dinesen's haughty Somali majordomo.
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But even if their conversations are herself externalized and projected out onto someone who has become, for the purposes of fiction, some other self: they still need to work as characters for a viewer who knows nothing of Dinesen's life; and I found that they do.
Klaus-Maria Brandauer as Bror Blixen was far closer to his real-life counterpart.
I'd seen the actor before, but not to know his name; I'd watch him again.
And in many ways the formative presence during those years was Farah Aden, Dinesen's haughty Somali majordomo.