The Blank Canvas...

Rating: 6/10 (28 October 2016)

I didn't HATE it, but I really think it could have been told better...
To me, the movie wanted the story to have Gerda's perspective, rather than Lili's... The audience is with Gerda every step of the way from when she first encounters Lili as a genuine identity... but we never see Lili find herself, as a child; we're just told about it, and given the explanation that she was 'always there'...
I'm sure that's true, but if so, we needed to see it from the beginning - not have our first introduction be a crass 'dressing up' episode with stockings that the character has to embarrassingly retcon later, with a single line of dialogue. It just gives more fuel to the illusion that it's the outside appearance that matters, not the feelings inside... Since it's the first impression we're given, the lie stays imprinted on our minds, despite the denial later.
It's GERDA that suggests the stockings, and GERDA that suggests Lili come to the reception, when she first kisses Henrik... We see both of these things, but we don't see Lili first experience life on her OWN terms. That makes everything that subsequently happens to her feel instigated by other people - even if this was actually untrue, and not what the film wished to depict.