Returning from her honeymoon with her husband, scholar Jorgen, the cold and manipulative Hedda Gabler is unmoved by the sacrifices he's made to provide her with an elegant home. But when she learns that Jorgen's rival for a university position, Ejlert, has made a surprising comeback with a recent publication, she's quick to push him back into his former alcoholism, steal the sequel to his book and even encourage the writer to kill himself.
Acting
Jackson's Hedda is cruel, magnetic, and tragically cornered.
Direction
Nunn strips Ibsen bare—no scenery to hide, just psychological combat.
Cinematography
Tight frames trap Hedda like the society she despises.
Director
Trevor Nunn
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Glenda Jackson's second Hedda—she won Tony and Oscar gold between stage and screen versions, making her the definitive Gabler for a generation.
Jackson's Hedda became a feminist Rorschach test: 1975 critics debated whether she was victim or villain, a conversation that still rages in every gender studies seminar.
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