Movie Reviews for Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler

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Movie Reviews of Hedda Gabler

Movie Review: Hedda Gabler
Summary: 5 Stars

If you appreciate the works of Henrik Ibsen , you will certainely enjoy this BBC's production of this tragic masterpiece. Ingrid Bergman who plays Hedda steals the show as always. She is the greatest actress of all time; of course, my opinion. Back from her honeymoon after marrying an older rather dull academic man, she tries to keep herself from becoming the typical married lady. She unfortunately was born in the wrong century. However, her life becomes more intrigueing T when her x-lover enters the stage & threatens to ruin her sedate life. The ending is quite a shocking surprise. This dramatic play is not for all.

Movie Review: Superb cast makes this a Must-See
Summary: 5 Stars

It's been so long since I read the play that I can't compare this production, which another reviewer called "truncated," to the original. This is short but the collection of some of the finest actors in England plus Ingrid Bergman in her prime, make this a powerful performance. Ms. Bergman dominates every scene with her amazing presence. I had forgotten what a great actress she was. And, she is absolutely beautiful here. We are fortunate to have this on record.

Movie Review: at last
Summary: 5 Stars

ingred bergman as hedda,i've waited 40 yrs for this and i'm not disapointed,bergman,redgrave,richardson,howard can you ask for anything better,a 5 star production...

Movie Review: "Better Truncated Ibsen Than No Ibsen At All"
Summary: 4 Stars

This truncated adaptation of one of Ibsen's masterpieces does less than full justice to the elegant, classical dramatic architecture that distinguishes the craftsmanship of the original text. Moreover, as if to add insult to injury, additional scenes and new dialogue of matter merely narrated in the original are added here as unnecessary filler. For this reason, the production deserves less than 5 stars.

These limitations having been pointed out, what is nevertheless remarkable is the undeniable success of the extraordinary cast assembled here in conveying within a mere 75 minutes the essence of Ibsen's drama. Michael Redgrave, for instance, as the bumbling, foolish George Tesman is a scholar in the mode Nietzsche parodied and Ibsen similarly saw the folly of. Tesman is the sort of 19th century academic new man who believes one approaches a better conception of the real and the important by peering ever more closely at the domestic industries of Brabant in the Middle Ages. At the same time, inattentive to what's going on before his eyes, he's spectacularly unfit as a husband or a colleague. Ralph Richardson, in the reduced number of lines that remain to him, is a singularly reptilian, sophisticated Judge Brack, a true rival in at first witty and then sinister repartee to the aristocrat who's come down in the world, Hedda Gabler.

Ibsen once said that modern man is "a neurotic sufferer," and the principal exponent of such a conception of dramatic character here is, of course, Hedda herself. Ingrid Bergman plays this very character to the hilt. Spoiled, witty, above all bored to tears, she is cunning, manipulative, and finally at her wit's end. Great facial acting and caustic wit distinguish Bergman's Hedda. Her face is a book in which the audience, if not always the other characters, may read her thoughts. And she brings out the humor that is always in Ibsen. Her performance, even in truncated form, is in itself worth 6 stars.