[Hardy-l] Tess on PBS

[JoAnna Mink]

I, too, was eager to watch this new adaptation (and am somewhat surprised that we in North America got it so soon after it aired in the UK).  Paul's thoughtful critique brought up some points which I'd noted.  It's certainly true that a film adaptation simply cannot include all that's in a novel (they are different media), and that being so familiar with the novel means one simply cannot view the film completely objectively.  
 
But, that being said, I do think leaving out Tess's "blighted star" speech makes her subsequent decisions less understandable and lessens the tragedy of her situation.  (It would be interesting to hear what someone who hasn't read the novel thinks about this point.)  In this adaptation, Tess does say (to her mother?) that she feels responsible for the death of Prince and, hence, agrees to "claim kin," but her sense of guilt wasn't apparent.  And this is one place where the 1999 adaptation (which I seem to appreciate more than most) was better, that is clearer, partly because her brother was there too, so Tess had someone to explain her views ("blighted star") on fatalism, just as she did in the novel.  
 
The dairy scenes were quite good, as was the characterization of the milkmaids; I agree with Paul there.  There seems to be more attention on Retty--foreshadowing her nervous decline??  I'm not sure about Angel; the actor looks too ordinary, almost rustic, which clashes with Angel's narrow ideology.  The scene with his parents made clear that Angel is practical (a wife who can milk) but I'll be interested to see next week how his spurning of Tess comes across.  The falling in love scenes were well-done and realistic, and we see Angel can be passionate and attracted to Tess sexually.
 
Cheers,
JoAnnaJoAnna S. MinkProfessor Emerita of English
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