[Hardy-l] New production of Tess

[nhardyboy at aol.com]

A plague o' both your houses!? I suppose I can understand why someone might prefer Waddell's "spunky" Tess over Nastassja Kinski's; but the adaptation itself makes me cringe.? The narrator--who I gather is supposed to be Hardy himself--so overdetermines what we see that he all but announces, "This is a tragedy!"? I think, in contrast, Polanski makes his film elliptical, and he uses--what a loaded term that is--Kinski's Tess as a sort of blank canvas.? The viewer is invited to love her, to idolize her, to cling to her. . .and, in short, become implicated in what happens to her.? Polanski's film challenges the viewer in a way that I think is complementary to how Hardy challenges his reader; it's a feat that I believe would be hard for any other adaptation to match.

That said, it's amazing that, for the third time inside 30 years, _Tess_ is going before the cameras, while other Hardy works are ignored by filmmakers.? They may not be his best novels, but can one imagine the cinematic possibilities of, say, _The Trumpet-Major_ and _The Well-Beloved_?

Paul


-----Original Message-----
From: Rosemarie Morgan <Rosemarie.morgan at yale.edu>

>To show a perhaps statistically more accurate picture of opinion I totally >disagree with Paul over the relative merits of the two recentish versions >of "Tess".?
?
I'm with you, Royd. I once saw the Theatre Upstairs (London) perform *Tess* in mainly dance and mime. It was stunning -- my young daughter (then 10) who hadn't yet read the novel was riveted from first to last and at the end she yelled over the thunderous applause, "What a *strong* woman!" That's the Tess I'd like to see; not a Polanski doll.?
Cheers?
Rosemarie?
?
?
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