Seriously, image quality of VHS is washed out, players stopped selling like 20 yrs ago and not a not a small part of the charm of this rendition of "Hedda Gabler" is in it's photography. Criterion release sounds like a good venue for achievement as important as this one. If whoever owns copyright absolutely refuses to make money :-) they should just do a single pass digital scan and release it as "archive" material as a cultural contribution to humanity.
Well thought out photography is actually part of the story telling rather than just a background and provides important atmospheric aspect that Ibsen would be proud of if he knew about cinema. That however is just the beginning since this is really Glenda Jackson's underrated masterpiece.
"Hedda Gabler" is a tough theatrical nut to crack and this rendition did just about everything right. Glenda Jackson and her director did theatrical production first with full scale Stanislavski process, and the result was much more consistent that any other film rendition of always elusive and still avant-garde play.
Jackson's Hedda is different enough from usual interpretations that spelling it out would be the actual spoiler. She doesn't try to elicit misplaced sympathy from the audience but gives you a naked Hedda with her cold hearted insanity out in the open. If you end up feeling sympathy for her you need an analyst :-) To that extent this rendition is not literary "naturalist" but operates on a slightly heightened ground that didn't exist as a concept at Ibsen's times but sits very well with his work.
While one wouldn't call this film the ultimate in "Hedda Gabler" (that would require the time and budget reserved for blockbusters) it provides very interesting angle and shows how many things can be done right with some careful thinking.
