Humanities › History & Culture A Doll's House 1973 Production with Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins Share Flipboard Email Print Scene from A Doll's House - French advertisement circa 1900. Print Collector / Hulton Archive / Getty Images History & Culture Women's History Feminist Texts History Of Feminism Important Figures Key Events Women's Suffrage Women & War Laws & Womens Rights Feminism & Pop Culture American History African American History African History Ancient History and Culture Asian History European History Genealogy Inventions Latin American History Medieval & Renaissance History Military History The 20th Century View More By Jone Johnson Lewis Women's History Writer B.A., Mundelein College M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. our editorial process Jone Johnson Lewis Updated March 25, 2017 The Bottom Line This treatment of Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, by director Patrick Garland and actors Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins, is especially strong. Garland manages to transcend the plot contrivances which I found, on reading Henrik Ibsen's play, to make the story almost unbelievable, and instead, create characters and a story that seem real. A surprisingly hopeful film to enjoy for itself, this would also make an interesting film to use in high school, college, or adult classes to explore issues of gender roles and expectations. Pros both Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins create sympathetic charactersdepicts "woman on a pedestal" in its positives and negativesemotional depth of Nora's transformation -- and her husband's reaction -- ring truefictionalized and historical settings may make discussion of feminist issues feel safer to somemakes a somewhat-contrived plot seem believable Cons some plot coincidences a bit too contrivedhistorical and fictional settings may, for some, make the feminist issue easy to dismissfor some women, that this is written by a man might be a negative Description Henrik Ibsen's depiction of 19th century men and women -- in marriage and friendshipDepicts Nora Helmar's attempt to find her identity, beyond the constricting pedestalAlso depicts her husband Torvald Helmer's attempt to salvage his own identity at work and home1973 production directed by Patrick Garland, screenwriter Christopher HamptonClaire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins star as Nora and Torvald HelmerDenholm Elliott, Ralph Richardson, Edith Evans,and Helen Blatch play supporting roles Review - A Doll's House The basic plot is this: a woman of the 19th century, pampered first by her father and then by her husband, acts out of caring -- and that act then subjects her and her husband to blackmail, threatening their security and future. How Nora, her husband, and Nora's friends attempt to deal with the threat depict different kinds of love. Some loves transform people and bring out their best and the best in their loved ones -- others make the lover and loved one smaller. I remember the first time I read Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, in the late 1960s, just when the feminist movement was rediscovering past literary treatments of gender roles. Betty Friedan's more straightforward treatment of the ultimately-unsatisfying constrictions of women's traditional role seemed to ring more true. In reading A Doll's House then, I was disturbed by what I read as contrived characters -- Nora always seemed quite the silly doll, even after her transformation. And her husband! What a shallow man! He didn't evoke the least bit of sympathy in me. But Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins, in director Patrick Garland's 1973 treatment, show how good acting and direction can add to a play what a dry reading cannot.