A Life Less Enchanting

I know very little about the life of Hans Christian Andersen. What I am certain of is that his fairy tales have inspired and entertained children and adults for generations. Who would have thought that an eccentric and socially awkward man born to poverty would make such a lasting impact on literature and humanity?

The two-part series Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale chronicles in a magical way the life and times of the renowned storyteller and tells of his poor beginnings as a shoemaker’s son. In the film, he was portrayed as a misfit with a wild imagination and an extraordinary gift for weaving tales. He leaves his hometown Odense in Denmark when a fortuneteller predicts his greatness. He sets out for Copenhagen believing he could be an actor or a musician and it is here where he encounters unbelievable hardship. He later crosses paths a theater manager Jonas Colin who takes him in and treats him like a member of the family. Colin was able to arrange for Andersen to study on scholarship. In school, he is taunted by a stern teacher, Meisling, who tries to harden the overly sensitive student. He was told he would never amount to anything.

Scenes from Andersen’s tales are interspersed with "factual" events in his life. His love for opera singer Jenny Lind and her rejection of his marriage proposal are presented side by side with his tragic tale "The Little Mermaid". It is a menagerie of whimsical images conceived in the mind of the brilliant author. The young actor Kieran Bew who plays Andersen is a gifted thespian who portrays the writer as the eccentric that he is but never makes him look like a joke. The movie is a technical masterpiece and the actors breathe life into characters both of this world and of the universe created by Andersen.

The creators of the film have certainly taken so many artistic liberties with this production that it is quite a task to ascertain the veracity of the situations presented. One thing true is that Andersen saw himself as an "ugly duckling" and felt even more unattractive after Lind rejects him. His aunt Christiane did run a brothel in Copenhagen and he did regard himself as one of Jonas Colin’s children (this was met with initial resistance from Colin’s son Edvard). The other characters, though, are hybrids of several personalities. I read on the Internet that there were two Jette’s in Andersen’s life, a Jette Wulff and a Jette Hanck (in the film, Jette was presented as Colin’s daughter). It was also stated in texts that he fell in love with a certain Riborg Voigt and Colin’s daughter Louise, who were both engaged to be married. Andersen’s mother was shown as a drunken woman who was hard on her son. According to sources, Anne Marie was actually gentle on Andersen but she did bear illegitimate children in a world of extreme poverty and immorality. She died a mad drunk.

In short, Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale is something Andersen himself would have enjoyed watching. The film made his life look more like a story out of his own mind. Fantasy is much easier to deal with, anyway.

Refer to the Hallmark Channel website (www.hallmarkchannel.com) for screening schedules.