A Doll's House [1973] Anthony Hopkins

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A Doll's House (1973)


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A Doll's House is a 1973 British movie, directed by Patrick Garland. It is based on Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House.

Claire Bloom ... Nora Helmer
Anthony Hopkins ... Torvald Helmer
Ralph Richardson ... Dr. Rank
Denholm Elliott ... Krogstad
Edith Evans ... Anne-Marie
Anna Massey ... Kristine Linde

A Doll's House (Norwegian: Et dukkehjem) is an 1879 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Written one year after The Pillars of Society, the play was the first of Ibsen's to create a sensation and is now perhaps his most famous play, and required reading in many secondary schools and universities. The play was controversial when first published, as it is sharply critical of 19th century marriage norms. It follows the formula of well-made play up until the final act, when it breaks convention by ending with a discussion, not an unravelling. It is often called the first true feminist play. The play is also an important work of the naturalist movement, in which real events and situations are depicted on stage in a departure from previous forms such as romanticism. The influence of the play was recognized by UNESCO in 2001 when Henrik Ibsen's autographed manuscripts of A Doll's House were inscribed on the Memory of the World Register in recognition of their historical value.

A Doll's House criticises the traditional roles of men and women in 19th-century marriage. To many 19th-century Europeans, this was scandalous. Nothing was considered more holy than the covenant of marriage, and to portray it in such a way was completely unacceptable; however, a few more open-minded critics such as the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw found Ibsen's willingness to examine society without prejudice exhilarating.] In Germany, the production's lead actress refused to play the part of Nora unless Ibsen changed the ending, which, under pressure, he eventually did. In the alternative ending, Nora gives her husband another chance after he reminds her of her responsibility to their children. This ending proved unpopular and Ibsen later regretted his decision on the matter. Virtually all productions today, however, use the original ending, as do nearly all of the film versions of this play, including Dariush Mehrjui's Sara (the Argentine version, made in 1943 and starring Delia Garcés, does not; it also modernizes the story, setting it in the early 1940s).

Much of the criticism is focused on Nora's self-discovery, but the other characters also have depth and value. The infected Dr. Rank and Nora both suffer from the irresponsibility of their fathers: Dr. Rank for the father who infected his family, Nora for the father she likely married to protect. Dr. Rank's disease becomes a metaphor for the poison infecting the Helmers' marriage and society at large. Mrs. Linde provides the model of a woman who has been forced to fend for and find herself - a self-aware, resourceful woman.

It was felt by Ibsen's German agent that the original ending would not play well in German theatres; therefore, for the play's German debut, Ibsen was forced to write an alternative ending for it to be considered acceptable. In this ending, Nora is led to her children after having argued with Torvald. Seeing them, she collapses, and the curtain is brought down. Ibsen later called the ending a disgrace to the original play and referred to it as a 'barbaric outrage'.

This version of A Doll's House is beautifully produced. It doesn't dissipate the play's intimate impact with a lot of extraneous production values. The cold ice and snow are a constant reminder that this is a closed society that doesn't allow much movement; Krogstad and Linde can't go to the next town without taking their reputations with them. There's always the imperative to somehow keep warm, to provide for one's own. If Krogstad can't support his boys, there's no telling what might happen to them.

In this version there's a feeling of discontent right from the start. Nora's schemes are afoot from the beginning. The little tricks she pulls behind Torvald's back seem to come out of grave necessity. She isn't a petty little fool but a guilty, suffering fool forced to deceive her husband. She never gets a chance to really be the daddy's doll she describes, as the game got too grim for that a long time ago. Her dishonesty thus demeans her play-acting with Torvald, because he is sincere and she is not. He's a dope, but he's actually more innocent than she is.

Always a powerful story, A Doll's House was a firm argument for feminist values written almost before they were conceived. It's easily interpretable as not just a call for fairness in relationships, but a demand for the abolition of marriage as the basic oppressive instituion of society. It must have been foremost in the thoughts of the early women's rights' activists, and the emancipated free-love exponents of the 'teens and 20s, the folk interviewed in the witnesses' testimonials section in Warren Beatty's Reds. As long as we have conservative pundits who tout Marriage values as the cure for everything in society (i.e., a power structure that keeps everyone in their place) the play will be of vital topicality.