[Hardy-l] Re: Tess on PBS

[Rosemarie Morgan]

Yes -- I liked the "natural" look too (although Talbothays dairy seems to 
resemble a Normandy manse) and I didn't find Alec too young (but then I'd 
never thought of him otherwise- certainly not old) --  the admixture of 
youthful charm and cigar-smoking rogue works well, I think. Is this is the 
first screen portrayal of him as a believable seducer ?-- notice how he 
manages to hold Tess's gaze?  This makes sense of Tess's later admission 
that she was dazzled by him at first.

The baptism scene is one of the best, to my mind, as is Tess's 
confrontation with the parson. Again -- we have a more believable 
--even  sympathetic  --character than is customarily portrayed. These 
"plausibilities" of character make it doubly disturbing for the viewer: I 
was completely torn when Tess pleads for Sorrow's burial -- torn, 
confused-anguished in a way that I wouldn't have been if the parson had 
been some inhuman, heartless pedant.

Yes- the omissions are interesting- the "blighted star" soliloquy (surely 
it's not Atterton's fault that this was cut), Joan's consulting the Book of 
Fortune,-- as are the invented scenes (Tess in the schoolroom) and 
dialogues. I laughed out loud at Retty (is it?) awaiting Angel's arms in 
the flooded lane scene --  " I'm going to burst!" -- and Tess's agitated 
scramble, like some corralled creature, to climb alongside the flood, in 
order to make it on her own.

I suspect that Arterton's Tess will help to blow away all those critical 
preconceptions of the dumb-passive-victim kind. Your points about the 
dairymaids, Paul, are acute: the "more" that is Tess is beautifully 
delineated in those moments when -- far from dumb -- she holds her 
listeners, especially Angel, attentive and positively  rapt with her 
philosophical musings. This is certainly a Tess with a mind all her own.

I'm not sure about lacking a tragic dimension. To my mind Arterton 
dramatised this dimension with superb sensitivity and skill in both the 
baptism scene and her conversation with the parson ("Such a little innocent 
baby...!")

Thanks Paul-

I must get back to work

Cheers
Rosemarie


And, though the photography is beautiful, it doesn't turn the land into a 
pretty backdrop: it too is functional; people live on it and work it.

>  would be a prize, and that Angel gravitates toward Tess because there's 
> something "more" to her.
>
>On the whole, I like Gemma Arterton's Tess, though right now she seems to 
>be lacking a real tragic dimension
>Best,
>
>Paul Niemeyer