The film, directed and written by Nia DaCosta based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, transports the story to 1950s England, with all its class issues and gender bias, and adds into the mix an LGBTQ twist that transforms what could be a dated narrative into one for the here and now.
Actresses from Cate Blanchett to Ingrid Bergman, from Claire Bloom to Maggie Smith, from Annette Bening to Isabelle Huppert have all been Hedda Gabler, as the original 1890 Ibsen play is called. These women make up the royalty of acting in a way and yet, once I watched American actress Tessa Thompson in the role, I felt as if no one else would ever do. Ever again.
There is something mesmerizing about the movable scene following the opening shot of Hedda, which follows Thompson as she floats around the mansion she shares with her new husband George Tesman, making the final preparations for the big party. The party that will seal the fate of so many around her later in the day. Dressed in a dark, yet lusciously bright red dress, sporting high stiletto heeled shoes, she seems to walk on air as she vetoes and approves — “no flowers” she tells her maid arranging a vase — as the queen of her castle. Yet we have just witnessed Hedda wading the deep waters of the pond outside, in the opening scene of the film, rocks in her pockets and all, a-la Virginia Woolf.
Hedda’s character is written as yet another exploration of what filmmaker DaCosta called Ibsen’s “complicated women who make choices you don’t agree with,” as she told the audience at a screening on Monday night in London. What Thompson does, through the perfect use of her lithe body, magnetic eyes and powerful beauty, is create a conniving villain with incredible subtlety, a woman we can all grow to love to hate and be better for it. She pauses, her glistening eyes never blinking while the wheels behind them work to come up with more devastating schemes and additional destruction. Her vulnerability serving as a mask for all the shattering events to come. She is a one-woman wrecking ball, wrapped in a tight bustier, crinolines and silver pearls.
Thompson creates such a powerful, nuanced performance out of it that I cannot shake her character out of my mind, and even imagine I’ve met her in person — Hedda, not Tessa of course!
Thompson I have met. On a flight to Venice in 2022, where she was headed to serve on the jury for the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film. As she took up the seat next to mine, I was overwhelmed by her glamour, and kindness. We chatted a bit during the flight, but also spent some quiet moments allowing for the other to have their space, despite the constraints of the commercial flight. In London, at a reception following the screening, she was kind, once again, luminous and even willing to take a photo with a journo (or two) who had admired her ever since that encounter. Mind you, I have rarely asked for a photo with a filmmaker or a thespian, a habit I don’t admire in some of my colleagues. But rules are only meant to be broken, right?
Perhaps it’s the tagline of Hedda, this 2025 stunning film version, that had me at “hello”. On the poster, as we entered the screening the words “A little chaos is good for the gathering” were written in maroon, in the lower right corner. A woman, I’ve been taught, is only as strong and successful as her biggest mistakes and I live by the Rumi quote that goes “Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.” Although I wouldn’t go as far as Hedda goes to achieve it all.
Having just returned from their long honeymoon, Hedda nee Gabler, the illegitimate daughter of a general — “bastard daughter” as those around her call her behind her back but also to her face — and George Tesman have taken possession of a house they cannot afford, which she does not even like. Her husband treats her as a possession and into this mix, in comes a figure from Hedda’s past, her former lover and recovering alcoholic Eileen, who in the play is Eilert Lövborg. By transforming Ibsen’s originally male character into a woman, wearing a dress that hints at something to come, DaCosta crafts an extra layer of brilliance, in a film that is filled to the brim with it. From the choice of music, to the “rotten fruit” tones of the clothing designed by Lindsay Pugh and the mansion setting (production design is by Cara Brower) complete with a menacing crystal chandelier and a sprawling lake outside, Hedda is everything I wish for in my entertainment, and more. The havoc caused by Hedda’s character is only icing on this cinematic cake, a sort of reward for believing in the power of cinema, and in particular, women making films. Hedda the woman, all the while, smolders with sensuality, thanks to Thompson’s fearless performance. I could imagine the film reel going up in flames, if celluloid reels were still being used today.
There are also guns, hidden manuscripts and stolen kisses in Hedda, to add to the delicious mix of danger, sex and riches, the kind no one can afford.
There is even a moment in the film when Eileen, played by the divine Nina Hoss, walks into a den of men, unsuitably dressed and encouraged by Hedda. The whole female contingency of the audience at our screening gasped, and then witnessed Hoss in her drunken attempt to take over the room, which in many ways she manages. Only to meet that wolf in couture clothing outside, her former lover Hedda. While Hedda plays with everyone around her like a cat in a roomful of mice, I couldn’t help but delight in this character, played so glamorously by Thompson. Just when you think she couldn’t make things any clearer to us, as to who she is and why she does what she does, she takes off her shoes, and her petite frame is overshadowed by that of fellow cast members Tom Bateman, who plays George, and Nicholas Pinnock who plays Judge Roland Brack. Yes, it’s a battle of the sexes, played out on the silver screen. Both Pinnock and Thompson also masterfully allow DaCosa to bring into the mix the race card, throwing this high stakes game into the stratosphere, that starry place where phenomenal films live for me.
Never mind that the storyline also reminds me of one of my favorite books ever, Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, where the battle of the sexes becomes apparent, at every turn, and the attempts at destruction of artistic efforts by non-artists is at the core of the story.
Hedda screened in Competition at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, after premiering in Toronto earlier in September. It will be released in limited cinemas on October 22nd before streaming on Amazon, starting on October 29th.
Hedda is a Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt’s company, in case you were wondering), Once and Future Productions and Viva Maude production. It is distributed by Amazon MGM Studios.
All images used with permission.