Tess. 1979. Directed by Roman Polanski.

(1/15/01)

It's been a while since I've seen Tess, so I won't have a lot to say about it. I found it very impressive and very moving when I did see it. I really liked the photography, especially that of exterior scenes. The opening shot, over the credits, is something to see. As I remember it the camera first shows us a deserted landscape, then pans until it shows us a road, then we see a group of young ladies and then the camera moves in on them. All in one take.

Nastassia Kinski made a big impact on moviegoers in the early 1980s. I think that Tess is the movie she will be remembered for. She had a riveting presence and in a couple of scenes reminded me of Ingrid Bergman.

One theme of the film is that of true aristocracy versus nouveau riche pretenders. Tess discovers that she is of an old, aristocratic family and her seducer, or pseudo-rapist, is from a family which has bought her name. What I liked about the way this film is worked out is that this theme doesn't really hit you until the end after Tess has married this guy who presumably was so filled with guilt over his role in her troubles and was so anxious to "do the right thing." When we see them as man and wife he treats her as a possession and seems to enjoy being condescending to her. It struck me that he wanted to bring her down because she had the true dignity and bearing of an aristocrat that his family's money could never buy.

Tess falls for a guy called Angel, who is also not what he appears to be at first. Angel seems noble, poetic, a dreamer. He plays a sort of flute while sitting in a tree (or something like that). But when Tess reveals to him the painful story of how she had an illegitimate child he reveals that he is really a very immature guy. He turns cold on her and goes off to South America, presumably to think things over. He doesn't answer Tess's letters. Yet, all the girls are infatuated by him, bowled over by his attractive persona.

He does return, of course, but Tess's aristocratic pride demands that she sends him away. (Later, she comes to him--after having killed her husband, which to me raised some serious questions about her sanity.)

I find it interesting that in dealing with both men Tess does things that look foolish or wrong, but which turn out to be right. She can't bring herself to tell Angel the truth about her past--and her fears turn out to be completely justified. When the other man wants to help her when she is poor she rebuffs him--and once again we are surprised that her reluctance was the right way to go.

The scenes dealing with Tess's baby were confusing to me; I didn't quite get what was happening. And that haunting finale in a place resembling Stonehenge--what was that all about? It obviously had some kind of significance which was not made clear. There are a couple of other references to paganism in the film, but that theme didn't seem to be sufficiently developed.

For a good part of the film I was thinking that it seemed like a remake of Griffith's Way Down East. But it isn't, even though there are striking similarities. I wish that Angel had gone and beaten the crap out of Tess's "seducer" instead of running off to South America and not even bothering to write.