Fresh
Tess is a sensitive, intelligent screen treatment of a literary masterwork.
Variety Staff, Variety
Tess
She was born into a world where they called it seduction, not rape. What she did would shatter that world forever.
1979 · 2h 52m · PG
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Roman Polanski
Overview
A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line, but is left traumatised from her experiences.
Director and cast
- Roman Polanski Director
- Nastassja Kinski as Tess Durbeyfield
- Peter Firth as Angel Clare
- Leigh Lawson as Alec Stokes-d'Urberville
- John Collin as John Durbeyfield
- Sylvia Coleridge as Mrs. d'Urberville
- Rosemary Martin as Mrs. Durbeyfield
- Carolyn Pickles as Marian
- Richard Pearson as Vicar of Marlott
- Brigid Erin Bates as Girl in meadow
- David Markham Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
81%
Tomatometer
Fresh
This is a wonderful film.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
Without Mr. Polanski's name in the credits, this lush and scenic Tess could even be mistaken for the work of David Lean.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
Fresh
een in the context of Roman Polanski's career it becomes something rich and strange, shaded into terror by the naturalistic absurdism that is the basis of Polanski's style.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Rotten
Tess tells one rather more about its director's much publicised preoccupations than about Hardy's themes.
Time Out
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