INSPIRED BY TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES

In 1979 director Roman Polanski released Tess, the most successful film adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s masterwork to date. Polanski’s movie conveys the bleak atmosphere of the Wessex countryside with the help of a score by Philippe Sarde, subtle lighting, and memorable rural vistas. The screenplay, which Polanski co-wrote, unfolds the drama slowly and deliberately, focusing on the isolation and confusion of the characters. Nastassja Kinski plays Tess with a quiet melancholy, Leigh Lawson is the controlling Alec d’Urberville, and Peter Firth is the idealistic Angel Clare. The tone of Tess is restrained, particularly in the two major death scenes, and is a stark contrast to Polanski’s earlier films, like Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971), and Chinatown (1974).

In the November 2004 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, American author Lorrie Moore identified Polanski’s Tess as one of the only successful adaptations of Hardy’s novel for the screen. In fact, Moore argues that Polanski improved on Hardy’s work: In the novel, Hardy paired Tess’s sister and Angel Clare “heartlessly soon after Tess’s death,” but Polanski “eliminated that, and also the weird religious period of Alec d’Urberville, and through these abridgements managed to make several dramatic elements of the novel more emotionally convincing.”

Polanski’s Tess won many international, Golden Globe, and regional film critic awards, as well as Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Art Direction, plus nominations for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Score. Polanski dedicated the film to his wife Sharon Tate, who was killed in 1969 by members of the Charles Manson family. Tess of the d’Urbervilles was Tate’s favorite novel.