| Tess | |
|---|---|
 Original theatrical release film poster | |
| Directed by | Roman Polanski |
| Screenplay by | Gerard Brach John Brownjohn Roman Polanski |
| Based on | Tess of the d'Urbervilles 1891 novel byThomas Hardy |
| Produced by | Claude Berri |
| Starring | Nastassja Kinski Peter Firth Leigh Lawson |
| Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet Geoffrey Unsworth |
| Edited by | Alastair McIntyre Tom Priestley |
| Music by | Philippe Sarde |
Production companies | Renn Productions Timothy Burrill Productions SFP |
| Distributed by | Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors (United Kingdom)[1] AMLF (France)[2] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 172 minutes |
| Countries | France United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million (est.)[citation needed] |
| Box office | $20.1 million[3] |
Tess is a 1979epicromanticdrama film directed byRoman Polanski, and starringNastassja Kinski,Peter Firth, andLeigh Lawson. Adapted fromThomas Hardy's 1891 novelTess of the d'Urbervilles,[4] the screenplay was written byGérard Brach,John Brownjohn, and Polanski.
The film received positive critical reviews upon release and was nominated for sixAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture, winning three forBest Cinematography,Best Art Direction andBest Costume Design.
The story takes place inThomas Hardy's Wessex during the 1880s.
The events of the story are set in motion when a clergyman, Parson Tringham, has a chance conversation with John Durbeyfield, a simple villager. Tringham is a local historian, and in the course of his research he has discovered the "Durbeyfields" are descended from the d'Urbervilles, a noble family whose lineage extends to the time ofWilliam the Conqueror. The family lost its land and prestige when themale heirs died out. The parson thinks Durbeyfield might like to know his origins as a passing historical curiosity.
Durbeyfield soon becomes fixated upon the idea of using his noble lineage to better his family's fortunes. Finding a wealthy family named d'Urberville living nearby, he and his wife send their daughter Tess to call on his presumed relations, and seek employment at themanor house. At the manor house live Alec d'Urberville and his mother. Tess is a beautiful girl, and Alec d'Urberville has an appetite for women. Alec and his mother know they are no relation to Tess, for their family name andcoat of arms were purchased. Finding her naive, penniless and attractive, he sets about taking advantage of the situation. He tries to get her alone, and attempts to seduce her with strawberries and roses, but these efforts are parried by Tess. In time, he rapes her.
For a time they grow closer, but after four months at the manor Tess returns home, and soon discovers she is pregnant. She is angry with her mother for placing her at risk when she knows so little of the world's cruelty. The baby is born sickly and dies. Sometime later, Tess goes to a dairy farm to work as a milkmaid. She meets Angel Clare, an aspiring young farmer from a respectable family. He believes Tess to be an unspoiled country girl, and completely innocent. The two fall in love, but Tess does not reveal her previous relationship with Alec until their wedding night. Disillusioned and heartbroken by the news, Angel rejects her.
Deserted by her husband, Tess meets Alec d'Urberville again. She at first angrily rebuffs his advances, but the death of her father puts the family in desperately hard times. Facing starvation, eviction and homelessness, Tess submits to Alec to support her mother and siblings.
Shortly afterwards, Angel Clare returns from travelling abroad. A disastrous missionary tour in Brazil has ruined his health. Humbled, and having had plenty of time to think, he feels remorse for his treatment of Tess. He succeeds in tracking her down but leaves heartbroken when he finds her living with Alec. Tess realizes that going back to Alec has ruined her chances of happiness with Angel, and she murders Alec.
Running away to find Angel, Tess is reconciled with him; he can finally accept and embrace her as his wife without passing moral judgment on her actions. They consummate their marriage, spending two nights of happiness together on the run from the law before Tess is captured sleeping atStonehenge. An ending summary tells that she is convicted and hanged for murder.
Polanski was inspired to make the film by his wifeSharon Tate, who gave him a copy ofTess of the d'Urbervilles. She said it would make a great film and expressed interest in playing the part of Tess. It was the last time Polanski saw her alive, as she was departing back for America while he stayed on a while longer in Europe to finish working on a film. She was murdered by theManson Family on 9 August 1969 while he was away. She was eight and a half months pregnant with their son, Paul Richard Polanski. The film is dedicated to her ("To Sharon") at the beginning.
Polanski wrote the screenplay in French with his usual collaboratorGérard Brach, then it was translated and expanded byJohn Brownjohn. The story line largely follows that of the book, although the role of Alec d'Urberville is toned down.[5]
Set in Dorset, England, the film was shot at various locations in France:Normandy (Cotentin,la Hague,Omonville-la-Rogue,Éculleville,Sainte-Croix-Hague,le Vast,Bricquebec,Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou,[6]Hermanville-sur-Mer[7]),Brittany (Locronan,[8]le Leslay,[9]Plomelin), andNord-Pas-de-Calais (Condette).[10] Scenes were also shot at the château de Brocéliande inPaimpont.[11] The megalithic site of Stonehenge was reconstructed inMorienval, a village located inOise.[12] Polanski was living in Europe as he was wanted as a fugitive afterhis conviction for sex with an underage girl in the United States.[13] He had fled before sentencing and could have beenextradited to the U.S. from the United Kingdom.
During the third month of shooting, on 28 October 1978, the cinematographerGeoffrey Unsworth died of a heart attack. Most of the scenes he had shot were exteriors that occur in the first half of the film.Ghislain Cloquet shot the remainder of the film, including most of the interior scenes. Both Unsworth and Cloquet were nominated and won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Cloquet alone was nominated for theCésar Award for Cinematography, which he won.
The original musical score was composed byPhilippe Sarde and orchestrated byPeter Knight. It was performed by theLondon Symphony Orchestra. The melody played by the character Angel Clare on arecorder is a popular Polish folk song "Laura i Filon".
Tess was released in theaters in the United States on 12 December 1980. During its entire theatrical run, the film grossed little over US$20 million (equivalent to US$69 million in 2024)[14] in the United States, which made it the 33rd highest-grossing film of 1980.[3]
The film premiered in France in 1979 at a length of 186 minutes. Polanski writes in his autobiography that he felt that the cut was incomplete, and rushed to meet the release date. The film premiered in 1980 in the U.S. at a re-edited length of 170 minutes.[15] Later, overseas releases of the film in theaters and on home video ran as little as 136 minutes. The 170-minute cut is Polanski's approved version of the film.[16] This version recently was restored in 4K from the original negative under Polanski's supervision, and he attended its premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[17]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on reviews from 77 critics, with an average rating of 7.3/10 with the consensus: "A reverent adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel,Tess marries painterly cinematography and unhurried pacing to create an epic ode to perseverance."[18] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 82 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]
In a review inThe New York Times,Janet Maslin describedTess as "a lovely, lyrical, unexpectedly delicate movie".[20]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and wrote: "This is a wonderful film; the kind of exploration of doomed young sexuality that, likeElvira Madigan, makes us agree that the lovers should never grow old."[21]The film is one of Polanski's rare love stories, and is one of his most highly acclaimed works.[22]
Tess was nominated for six awards, including Best Picture, at the53rd Academy Awards and won three.[23] It was also nominated for fourGolden Globe Awards (winning two), threeBritish Academy Film Awards (winning one) and sixCésar Awards (winning three).
| Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53rd Academy Awards | Best Picture | Claude Berri | Nominated |
| Best Director | Roman Polanski | Nominated | |
| Best Art Direction | Pierre Guffroy andJack Stephens | Won | |
| Best Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth andGhislain Cloquet | Won | |
| Best Costume Design | Anthony Powell | Won | |
| Best Original Score | Philippe Sarde | Nominated | |
| 35th BAFTA Film Awards | Best Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet | Won |
| Best Production Design | Pierre Guffroy | Nominated | |
| Best Costume Design | Anthony Powell | Nominated | |
| 5th César Awards | Best Film | Roman Polanski | Won |
| Best Director | Roman Polanski | Won | |
| Best Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet | Won | |
| Best Actress | Nastassja Kinski | Nominated | |
| Best Production Design | Pierre Guffroy | Nominated | |
| Best Music Written for a Film | Philippe Sarde | Nominated | |
| 38th Golden Globe Awards | Best Director – Motion Picture | Roman Polanski | Nominated |
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama | Nastassja Kinski | Nominated | |
| Best Foreign Film | France | Won | |
| New Star of the Year – Female | Nastassja Kinski | Won |
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