A Doll's House (1973/II)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Henrik Ibsen (play)
David Mercer (writer)

Release Date:

24 August 1973 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Marriage | Dysfunctional Marriage | Feminist | Redemption

Cast

Jane Fonda	...	Nora Helmer
Edward Fox	...	Nils Krogstad
Trevor Howard	...	Dr. Rank
David Warner	...	Torvald Helmer
Delphine Seyrig	...	Kristine Linde
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Morten Floor	...	Bob
Tone Floor	...	Emmy
Dagfinn Hertzberg	...	Krogstad's Son
Ellen Holm	...	Krogstad's Daughter
Frode Lien	...	Ivar
Ingrid Natrud	...	Dr. Rank's Maid
Pierre Oudrey	...	Olssen
Anna Wing	...	Anne-Marie

Also Known As:

Maison de poupée (France)

Runtime:

USA:106 min

Country:

UK | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Sweden:Btl | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1990)

Filming Locations:

Røros, Sør Trøndelag, Norway

Company:

Les Films de la Boétie

Trivia:

John Osborne was offered the role of Helmer.

Movie Connections:

Version of Ett dockhem (1958) (TV)

Fine performances but flawed adaptation

"A Doll's House" is a film based on the play by Henrik Ibsen. The story focuses on the lives of Nora and Torvald Helmer and those around them and challenges the norms of marriage in the Victorian era.

This adaptation features a notable cast. Jane Fonda effectively captured the fluttery yet ultimately strong character of Nora. David Warner was appropriate to play the villain role as he often does. Trevor Howard is excellent as Dr. Rank and likewise Edward Fox and Delphine Seyrig were solid as Krogstad and Kristine.

As an adaptation of a great play, though, this film leaves something to be desired. Many unnecessary scenes were added that were not in the play, which led to problems. In added scenes, information is revealed at the start of the film which is not normally learned until later in the play. Ibsen wrote the play in such a way that the history of the characters is ambiguous and slowly revealed. Providing background information on the characters before the main events of the play dampened the element of surprise that adds a lot of interest to the play.

Another problem was that adding scenes or drawing out sequences lowered the tension compared to Ibsen's play, particularly toward the end. Also unfortunate was the fact that they unnecessarily added a handful of extra locations not seen in the play and modified a lot of the dialogue. The original structure and dialogue of the play is already perfect, so any changes only made this film worse. It would have been nice to see the cast of this film with a script that closely followed Ibsen's original work. Despite these flaws the main ideas of the story were intact and this is a watchable adaptation, but disappointing given its deviations from the original play.