Tess

Year of Release:  1979

Director:  Roman Polanski

Screenplay:  Gerard Brach, John Brownjohn and Roman Polanski, based on the novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Starring:  Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson

Running Time:  186 minutes

Genre: Drama

England, the 1880s:  In the rural county of Wessex, teenager Tess Durbeyfield (Kinski) lives in a small village with her poor farming family.  When her feckless father learns that his family are the last direct descendants of the ancient, and once aristocratic "d'Urbervilles" he sends Tess to approach a wealthy local family named d'Urberville, believing that they are related.  However, Tess ends up attracting the attention of ruthless libertine Alec d'Urberville (Lawson), who relentlessly attempts to seduce her.  Eventually he overpowers her, an incident that has catastrophic repercussions.

Given what was going on in Roman Polanski's life at the time he made Tess, it might seem that a stately, lavish period drama was a safe choice to help rebuild his career in mainstream cinema.  His previous film, the psychological thriller The Tenant (1975) had been a commercial and critical disaster, but far more seriously he had fled the US after his criminal conviction in 1977 and, to this day, he can't set foot in the United States without risk of arrest.  However, Polanski was first given a copy of the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles in 1969 by his wife, Sharon Tate, who believed it would make a good film and wanted to play the lead.  She gave him the book shortly before she was murdered by the Charles Manson cult.  The film opens with a dedication to her.

The film is a beautiful piece of work.  It sticks very closely to the novel, although some scenes are cut.  Set in Thomas Hardy's fictional county of Wessex, based on his native Dorset, the film was shot entirely in France due to Polanski being unable to enter Britain without risk of being extradited back to the US.  this doesn't really matter though, it's a stunning film to look at, the kind of film where almost every image looks like a painting.  Aside however from the climax set at Stonehenge, which does look like at times like a studio set.  A key element in the book is farming and rural life, and this is conveyed in the film, during the 1940s when Polanski was fleeing the Warsaw ghetto he spent a lot of time in very rural Poland and wanted to show the ancient peasant culture he found there.  it beautifully captures the countryside and the changing seasons.  Nastassja Kinski is striking and conveys a lot with very little, and is always mesmerising.    Understandably, many people will be put off due to the subject matter, and the fact that it's Roman Polanski.  However, it is a beautiful and wonderful film, and definitely recommended for fans of the novel.

Nastassja Kinski is Tess

"Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy

  Year of Publication:  1891

Length:  420 pages

Genre:  Fiction

In the rural English county of Wessex in the 19th Century, Tess Durbeyfield is happy but poor, living with her younger siblings and loving but feckless parents.  One day her father learns that they may actually be nobility, descended from the ancient "d'Urberville" family who were once powerful and wealthy but have fallen on hard times.  Tess is pressured to approach the wealthy d'Urbervilles that live nearby and plead ties of kinship.  However Tess unwittingly draws the attention of  libertine Alec d'Urberville, who persuades her, against her better judgement, to accept employment on his estate.  Alex persistently attempts to seduce Tess, who repeatedly rebuffs him, until late one night he overpowers her.  Things go from bad to worse for Tess, as she becomes a social pariah.  She spies the possibility of happiness through the love of free-thinking parson's son, Angel Clare, only to find that, while she is done with her past, it is far from done with her.

Like all of Thomas Hardy's major novels this is set in his semi-fictional county of Wessex in south-west England, in which all of the places are real, but given fictional names.  This is a powerful, heartbreaking novel.  Tess is slowly destroyed because she is raped by Alec d'Urberville, for which she is blamed by pretty much everyone she encounters.  D'Urberville's attack is kind of ambiguous in the novel, it is hinted at after the fact, but not actually described.  Thomas Hardy is scathing about society's double standards and how women such as Tess are treated, and it really shocked readers in the 1890s, but it is important to remember that the book is a product of the 1890s, and so it may not seem as forward thinking to modern readers as it did to contemporary readers.  Tess is a wonderful main character who is sympathetic and engaging, and you feel so sorry for her, as Hardy seems to pile on every misery he can think of upon her.  Angel Clare, our romantic hero, is actually kind of a dick.  He marries Tess about halfway through the book, and confesses to her a sexual liaison he had with a woman in London, Tess tells him her story, and he basically dumps her even though he tells her that she is "more sinned against than sinning," before heading off to Brazil without her.  The book is very well written and wrings out every kind of emotion.  it is funny, heartbreaking, and will make you angry.  The events of the narrative are set against the rhythms of 19th century rural life, and the book is this beautiful pastoral of the English countryside and farming life.