Tess Review

• 25th Mar 2013

Roman Polanski has always been a fairly literary director. Consider his adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ and how he brought to the screen an accurate version of Dickens’ classic novel yet the end result was a little cold in comparison to David Lean’s 1948 version. But this is not the case with his adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’. At almost 3 hours (more on this later) I was expecting a rather slow going turgid endurance test. This is certainly something that can be leveled at Hardy’s novels themselves. I must confess that in the past I have attempted to read his books but have struggled with his lengthy descriptions but when looking at his books that have been brought to the screen they have worked in a cinematic sense. Think Far from the Madding Crowd (1968) and Jude, the Obscure (1995) and how the dark rural stories work on the big (and small) screen very well. Everything from Hardy is present: peasant rural types, harsh and bleak conditions, the loss of innocence, a scoundrel of a lover, a romantic and ultimately doomed lover, child death and retribution. This is a very literary work – think of other literary directors such as Luchino Visconti who filmed an accurate translation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice (1971) and Albert Camus’ L’Estranger (The Stranger) (1967) or recent releases such as Ang Lee’s The Story of Pi (2012), a film that was said could never be filmed. And Polanski’s film fits in with these as accurate literary adaptations in which he has really attempted to bring the novel alive.

Polanski’s film opens with a summer peasant country dance and one of the peasant farmers, Urberfield being told by the new parson that he has discovered that the family history stems from the aristocratic local name of d’Urberville. When the normally drunk father tells his family young teenage Theresa Urberfield (Tess to her friends) is nonchalant but never the less is pushed by the family into the arms and the attentions of a rakish newly discovered cousin d’Urberville (Leigh Lawson) who seduces the young girl and then it is argued neither rapes nor seduces the young Tess to have sex with him against her will leading to an unwanted pregnancy. Once she has the baby (the film leaps forward) and Tess slowly finds herself isolated by the community and continues to work in the fields with a baby in tow. However, later the baby falls ill and dies. Tess is shunned by the whole community further and leaves the bosom of her family and everything she has known and wanders until she finds herself as a milk maid on a farm. There she meets and falls in love with the goodly Angel (Peter Firth). He proposes marriage – but what would happen if he were to tell him of her past – would he reject her too…

As is usual and what one would expect from a BFI release there is plenty of contextual extras as well as some superb documentaries including some background to Hardy’s work itself and the controversy surrounding the book; you can’t escape Polanski’s own troubles at the time of making following the allegations and his fleeing from justice for statutory rape in California meaning that he is also unable to go to the UK due to extradition law. This presented other problems for the film such as where to film. On one documentary Polanski shows a souvenir he still has of the film, a road map of where they filmed throughout Brittany and Normandy with over 18,000 kilometers clocked up in travel. While the locations definitely look more French or more accurately Breton than English, the muddy roads, wild hedge rows I very much doubt could be reproduced in a modern England. Never the less the lengths of accuracy in re-creating a Wessex/Dorset countryside is impressive and one of the documentary’s covering the challenges with the filming goes into fascinating detail with regards this. The documentaries and extras as a whole are very good – only one, on the fun on the set is a little bit of a waste and it avoids too much controversy over the post production rows and challenges. For example, as the most expensive film made in France it avoids producer Claude Berri’s arguments with Polanski to drastically cut the film down from its 3 hour length. When Polanski saw it in its edited cut he felt his work had been butchered and took away the spirit of Hardy’s writing; this I would agree with had it been released in the version Berri intended. What neither the documentaries nor the essays highlight is which version this is: after all there are versions at 182 minutes, 170 minutes and a lot less. The version on the disc runs in at 164 minutes. What the documentary does cover is the tragic loss during shooting of one of the great British cinematographers, Geoffrey Unsworth who was replaced by a French cameraman – both of whom won Oscars for their work on the film. The stunning look of the film cannot be doubted and also included in the booklet is an interesting extract from Polanski’s autobiography, ‘Polanski on Roman’ which gives a vivid interpretation from the director’s perspective in which he does go into the post production problems.

This is undoubtedly a stunning film that has dated exceptionally well, includes an iconic and career defining performance from 17-year-old Kinski and the first truly mature film for Polanksi proving that he is a literary director that equals Visconti.

Chris Hick