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A Doll's House (1973 Losey film)

A Doll's House
A Doll's House VideoCover.jpeg
Directed by Joseph Losey
Produced by Joseph Losey
Richard F. Dalton
Written by Henrik Ibsen
David Mercer
Starring Jane Fonda
Edward Fox
Trevor Howard
Music by Michel Legrand
Cinematography Gerry Fisher
Edited by Reginald Beck
Production
company
Les Films de la Boétie (France),
World Film Services (UK)
Distributed by British Lion (UK),
Tomorrow Entertainment (US theatrical 1973)
Release date
1 October 1973 (New York Film Festival)
Running time
106 min.
Country United Kingdom
France
Language English
Budget $900,000

A Doll's House is a 1973 Franco-British drama film directed by Joseph Losey, based on the play of the same name by Henrik Ibsen. It stars Jane Fonda in the role of Nora Helmer and David Warner as her domineering husband, Torvald. In the United States, the film was broadcast nationally on the ABC television network.

Losey's version of the classic play was extensively adapted for film. From Ibsen's expository dialogue, entire new scenes were developed by playwright David Mercer and integrated through a variety of invented sets. Losey's alterations generated considerable controversy, as did his casting of outspoken actress Fonda – known at the time as "Hanoi Jane" – in the lead role.

Set in nineteenth century Norway, Ibsen's A Doll's House focuses on the married life of banker Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora. A young middle-class couple with three small children, their seemingly respectable marriage is revealed to be a broken and bloodless matter.

The Helmers live in an unequal partnership, dominated by Torvald. Although he professes to love her, Torvald constantly chides Nora for what he calls her careless and childlike nature; he often calls her his "doll". He proudly thinks of himself as the family's breadwinner and protector, but he remains unaware of the secret that Nora holds: she had saved him, when he had become seriously ill and very nearly destitute. Without his knowledge, she had borrowed a large sum of money so that he could temporarily retire and recuperate. She told him the money had been inherited from her family; in truth it had been a private loan from Nils Krogstad, one of Torvald's coworkers. Nora has been scrupulously repaying him in small installments skimmed from her household allowance.

Torvald, it turns out, already holds the boorish Krogstad in contempt for various reasons. When Torvald is appointed bank director, one of his first acts is to fire his unlikable coworker. The desperate Krogstad attempts to blackmail Nora – she must persuade Torvald to keep him on the job, or he will tell all about the secret loan. Its existence would be embarrassment enough for Nora, but Krogstad threatens to reveal the most shocking news of all: Nora had forged her father's signature as a co-signer on the contract.


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