The new film of “Far From the Madding Crowd,” based on the evocative Thomas Hardy novel, has gotten mixed reviews – which is too bad. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg and adapted by David Nicholls, it is a movie of great feeling and equally great subtlety, not an easy combination to come by, with cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen that captures the bucolic moodiness of England’s “Hardy country” and a haunting score by Craig Armstrong that makes excellent use of both the folk and symphonic traditions.

“Madding” is also superbly acted by a cast that conveys the emotional complexity of an independent young woman navigating a man’s world. Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) is the woman in question. Poor and orphaned but nonetheless well-educated, she has no inclination to marry. A turn of good fortune (her late uncle leaves her his farm) ensures she won’t have to. But if it’s true, as Jane Austen said ironically, that a single man of good fortune must be in want of a wife, then it’s equally true, as Hardy implies, that a single woman of great beauty must be in need of a husband. Before you can say “The Bachelorette,” Bathsheba’s suitors are lining up. Rising farmer-turned-down-on-his-luck shepherd Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) is first up, with his offer of a pet lamb and a piano. He’s kind, intelligent, spirited and hard-working – a woman’s idea of a man’s man – and since he’s played by sex symbol du jour Schoenaerts, the obvious match for Bathsheba. (Indeed, you don’t have to read past the first chapter of the novel to know this.) But Bathsheba is too young and willful to see it. She’d be happy enough to be a bride, the center of attention, as long as she didn’t have the responsibilities of a wife. That never works. ...

Bruce Jenner’s transition to womanhood and the profile of transgendered model Andreja Pejić in May Vogue have got me thinking about the transgendered nature of art.

Consider Thomas Hardy – whose “Far From the Madding Crowd” has been made into a new film starring Carey Mulligan, the sensual Matthias Schoenaerts and the estimable Michael Sheen. For him to create some of fiction’s greatest romantic heroines, and heroes, he had to understand a woman’s mind and heart as well as that of a man. For George Balanchine to create some of ballet’s finest works, he had to know a woman’s body as intimately as a man’s.

Art has also long been preoccupied with hermaphroditism – the condition of having the physical attributes of both sexes. In ancient Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus – son of Hermes, the messenger god, and Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty – was a beautiful youth beloved by the water nymph Salmacis, who embraced him against his will in her pool and prayed that the two would become one. ...

‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ and the games men – and women – play

The transgendered nature of art