Educational Media Reviews Online

Unlike other programs exploring the celebrated playwright's work, this video seeks to understand Ibsen, the man, by leading the viewer on a retrospective journey through his life. The presentation is organized around a central premise -- that Ibsen, like a sphinx, can never be entirely known. Pieces of the man are revealed through primary documents, including his handwritten letters, contemporary newspaper articles, sketches, programs from the performances of his plays, and his detailed instructions for these performances. We are shown glimpses of the man in painted, sculpted or photographed portraits, but we are never introduced to Ibsen directly. The few scenes in which an actor animates our protagonist either show Ibsen as a child or in shadow, face hidden from view. What we do see are the environments that surrounded the writer throughout his life. We see the attic where he used to pore over books with his sister. We see his childhood home being dismantled as a result of his father's bankruptcy. We see the apothecary where he worked and lodged as a young man, and where he wrote his first drama. The program introduces us to the women of his life, including his wife of many long years, the young women he befriended in his old age, and the house servant who bore him a child he never met. Through the camera's eyes, we see the lands of his sojourns outside of his native Norway -- Italy, Egypt and Germany. All the while, the narrator examines how these events, people and places might have informed Ibsen's controversial writings; possibly explaining why illegitimate children feature in no fewer than six of his plays and why his female characters, like Nora in A Doll's House or Hedda in Hedda Gabler were so strong and dynamic. The film mentions his admiration for Goethe's Faust, and his friendships with prominent intellectuals who may have inspired him, but it neglects to discuss how Norway's political and social climate also influenced his work.

Something of Ibsen's dual nature, the "battle between the opposing forces of the soul" of which he writes in Catiline, is conveyed not only in the narrative, but also in the program's artful imagery. During the introduction, the picture is split black and white down the middle. A scorpion crawls mysteriously across the screen, and we find out that Ibsen once compared himself to such a creature. The playwright who defied all labels -- romantic, realist, symbolist and naturalist-is revealed layer by layer. The process is both elucidating and enthralling. Henrik Ibsen: Sphinx-Who Are You? will provide undergraduates with a stimulating introduction to one of the greatest dramatists in history. Recommended.