TESS

France/UK, 1980, 179 minutes, Colour.
Nastassia Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson.
Directed by Roman Polanski.

Tess is Roman Polanski's version of Thomas Hardy's novel 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. Hardy wrote of a distinctive countryside: the farms, towns, coast of Wessex and its farming people, new or decaying aristocracy. He wrote of passion, fate and the gods of Stonehenge. Roman Polanski, after a varied career as a film-maker with such films as Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown, The Tenant, has made an elegant old-fashioned, very beautiful film (Oscars for decor, costumes, photography) that interprets Hardy and may or may not satisfy. The heroine is all and she is played by the daughter of Klaus Kinski, Nastassia Kinski. She is played more with passive romantic melancholy than with fire. The men are more stereotyped: Leigh Lawson's handsome cad and Peter Firth's earnest but harsh husband. There is an interesting supporting cast.

The beautiful photography by Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet is breathtaking - and Normandy was used instead of England. The defects of encapsulating a novel in three screen hours appears more after than while the film is in progress. Comparisons may be made with John Schlesinger's version of Far From The Madding Crowd, 1967, with Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Peter Finch and Terence Stamp. Alan Bates also starred in a celebrated television series of The Mayor of Casterbridge.

1. The work of Roman Polanski? His appreciation of the English novel? European background? His film work - with characterisation and the emphasis on horror? His adaptation of Shakespeare? His reverence for Hardy, his using the novel, characters, spirit over a period of almost three hours? A satisfying version of Hardy? The film's dedication to Sharon Tate?

2. The work of Thomas Hardy - his view of England in the 19th. century, his particular world of Wessex, his place in the tradition of English novel writing? The background of the west country, class distinctions, work, the land? The interaction of men and women in this countryside? Love and passion? Violence? Suffering? Fate, chance, tragedy? The blend of melancholy and romance? Tess of the d'Urbevilles as a typical Hardy novel?

3. The quality of the colour Panavision photography? Oscar-winning? The of Normandy for Wessex? Oscar-winning decor and costumes? The Wessex village, the poor homes, work in the fields, leisure of the country people with dancing, taverns? Signs of industrial progress? The contrast with the wealthy homes? The parsonage? Polanski's eye for visual compositions, movement? The editing and the pace to suggest the pace of the 19th. century? The dramatic and romantic musical score?

4. The impact of Nastassia Kinski as Tess? Age, beauty, presence? Her passive style suggestive of depth? Romantic melancholy? Her awareness yet her being victim? Her potential for being a heroine and a success in life? Victims of her family, of Alec, Angel? Her giving up for the sake of others? The pathos and tragedy of the murder and her death?

5. The atmosphere of the opening: the long tracking shot of the road, the dancers arriving and the merriment and glee, the parson and his encounter of John Durbeyfield and the discussion about aristocracy? Tess amongst the dancers, Angel and his brothers joining in the dance? The opening sequence with the germ of all the ironies that were to develop later? An ordinary afternoon in a village with the potential for extraordinary interaction?

6. The portrait of the Derbeyfields - their poverty, the large family, the squalor of the house? The father's preoccupation with his ancestry, the spoon and his tales at the inn? His willingness to sell the title cheaply? The mother and her difficulty in bringing up the children, reliance on Tess and work? The father and his alcohol?

7. The initial portrait of Tess at home, her lack of interest in the title, her seeing it as pretentious? Her unwillingness to go to the cousins and to be in service? The interview with Alec and the symbolism of eating the strawberries? The encounter wit-h his mother and her blindness and love for the fowls? Her work in the household? The newly rich family and their buying the title? Enjoying the privilege of the title? Her initial relating to Alec, resisting his charm, the outings, passion and his almost raping her? The subsequent lyrical sequences with the two? Her decision to leave? Alec's pursuing her and getting her to promise to ask him for help? The effect of this experience on Tess?

8. Her return how, work in the fields, revelation that she had had the child? Its illness and her baptising it? The father not allowing the parson into the house? Tess' request for the Christian burial of the child and the parson's standing by the letter of the law? Her bitterness against him and her loss of faith in God and religion?

9. Her leaving how, searching for work, arrival at the dairy and immediately going to work, relating to the master, the girls in the dairy? Angel Clair and his presence learning farming methods? The discussions at the table - especially about the soul going out of the body? The suggestion
of Tess' wisdom and depths of feeling?

10. Angel Clair and his idealism, his capacity for work, his earnestness? His place in the household, the girls infatuation with him? Watching him out the window? Tess and her seeming not to notice him? Angel's visit to his family, the overtones of the strict parsonage, not drinking etc.? Meeting the girl he was expected to marry and her work with the Sunday school? The discussion with his parents about marrying and migrating?

11. Tess and her growing love for Angel? The importance of the sequence where he carried the girls over the water? Tess' resisting marrying him? Her love, wanting to be honest? His persuading her to tell the truth? The importance of her writing the letter, the happiness of meeting him on the following morning and the irony of his not having read the note, her destroying it? Her decision to marry and the lyrical scene of the two carts and horses going to the church? The basis for the marriage?

12. The atmosphere of joy for the honeymoon, arriving at the house and the fussing of the housekeeper? The meal and Angel's confession? His feeling better after the confession? His inability to hear Tess? His shock about her purity? His hurting her, going for a walk? Her despair? The breakfast the following morning and his decisions? The servants arriving and seeing him leave? His taking Tess away and abandoning her? His judgment about letters? Tess' writing to him and pleading with him, his ignoring the letters? Leaving it till too late?

13. Tess and her grief, her returning home (and the irony of her mother's advice not to tell Angel the truth)? Her being picked up by the brutal overseer? Her meting Marion again and staying with her? Marion's drinking and kindness? The hard work in the vegetable fields? The oppressive overseer? Alec and his tracking Tess down, staying all the day and refusing to move? How genuine his concern?

14. The death of Tess' father, the family moving and searching for lodgings in the town? The mother's pride in the family title and going to the church where the ancestors were buried? Poverty? Angel and his return home? His visit to his family - and the irony of Tess' visit to the village, seeing Mercy Chant and leaving her boots and Mercy taking them? Angel's parents? Angel's collapse, his failure in Brazil, illness? His search for Tess and going to her how, finding her mother, her mother indicating where to look? Audience sympathy for Angel yet conscious of his failures towards Tess?

15. Angel finding Tess and the ironies of her being with Alec and supporting her family? The landlady and her snooping? Tess urging Angel to leave and his reluctant departure? Alec and his taunts of Tess? Her stabbing him - and the suggestion of blood drops on the roof and the landlady's reaction?

16. The film's gathering momentum with Tess' escape, the railway station, encountering Angel, telling the truth? Angel's decision to help her? Their idyllic night in the empty house? The continued flight? The arrival at Stonehenge? The symbolism of Tess sleeping with the pagan ritual suggestions of sacrifice at Stonehenge at dawn?

17. The police arriving, Angel's protecting her, her finally going with the police - and the plain caption at the end? The tragedy of Tess?

18. The range of characters portrayed from Hardy's world - in the village, in the inn, in the Derbeyfields' home, the Stoke d'Urbervilles, the Clairs.. the girls in the dairy - Marion and her boisterousness, drinking, care for Tess; Izz and her infatuation with Angel and her visiting him and his offering her to go to Brazil,, her declaration that nobody loved him more than Tess? Workers in the fields,. the landlady at Sandbourne?

19. The 19th. century world. England? A real world - yet heightened for Hardy's exploration of love. passion. tragedy?

20. How satisfying the treatment of Hardy themes: fate, cruelty, choice and accidents, class and pretensions, the collapse of the old nobility, old wealth and new, hard work, passion, betrayal, death? The modern and the conservative? Morality, judgment, conscience, retribution?