Word: nora
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Anticipation proves to have been the best part of Liv Ullmann's Nora. She is giving a middling performance in a self-indulgent vanity production. Stardom is a powerful narcotic which, like pride, has frequently preceded a fall...
...still, deep pauses, this is not immediately apparent, but onstage it becomes a cumulative irritant. Ullmann's English is good, but not quite good enough. Taking the skylark and "little squirrel" imagery of the play literally, she skitters about the stage like a sandpiper. This does not destroy Nora's coquettishness, but it certainly diminishes it. There seems to be an arbitrary rhetoric of motions with which Ullmann plays the role. When she fears that her husband Torvald (Sam Waterston) will discover her secret dealings with the malignant moneylender Krogstadt (Barton Heyman), she makes the panicky gestures...
Here we are at the core of Ullmann's misconception of the role. Her Nora does not grow toward self-awareness or strive for emancipation (as Claire Bloom's so affectingly did a few seasons ago). Instead, she simply seems to assert herself by different methods. Thus there is no sense of either exhilaration or poignance in her departure...
...supporting cast cannot save A Doll's House if the Nora buckles. Still, this cast might be sued for nonsupport. With no trace of a guiding hand from Norwegian Director Tormod Skagestad, the players appear to be introducing themselves to each other at first rehearsal. As Torvald, Waterston is a mildly ruffled porcupine who can be dequilled instantly by Ullmann. Petty or not, Torvald should be a visible tyrant. After all, Nora is not slamming the door at middle-level management, but at the historic tyranny of convention...
...free. From Dash Hammett's twenties novel, and in the film the script is just as sophisticated and hilarious. Infinitely better than any of the many sequels to it, the original version was made in 1934, of course with William Powell as Nick Charles and Myrna Loy as Nora Charles, both drunken...