[Hardy-l] Re: Thoughts on 'Tess'

[Niemeyer, Paul J.]

I must regretfully disagree with Dale Kramer about the "hustling" through the plot and about the "non-Hardyan" elements.  I think the pacing of this serial is leisurely and works well, leaving plenty of room for dramatization and expansion; and certainly it's nothing like the Ben-Hur-chariot-race-speed at which the recent *Mayor of Casterbridge* was paced.  (As for getting in as many Hardy elements as possible, I think the '98 *Tess* is far more guilty: oh, look!  A reddleman!)  Again, I will defend the death of Prince as presented in the program because--while different from the scene as Hardy wrote it--it corresponds to Tess's "mercy killing" of the birds in the novel, and the smoking gun barrel is a phallic indication of the dual fates that await Tess: rape and execution.  As I wrote in some publication or other a few years back, I don't think we can really expect a letter-perfect translation of everything that happens in the novel: the best we can hope for is consonance or analogy, a filmic equivalent of something in the novel.
 
Some of the "invented" sequences, I think, do create a certain consonance with Hardy.  I agree with Rosemarie about the scene of Tess spying on Angel, which conveys the importance of the gaze in Hardy and also illustrates Tess's own carnal desires.  Another good invented scene occurs after Tess nurses Sorrow.  Going on in the neighboring clearing is the May dance: Tess and two of the girls we saw in the initial dance watch it, all looking wistful and now clearly too old and too experienced to take part in it.  The message is apparent: "Maiden No More."  The inclusion of the two other girls suggests that Tess's rude initiation into womanhood is not unique to her alone.
 
Anyway, those are my thoughts.  Oh, and I didn't notice any collagen--I think those are Gemma Arterton's natural lips.  They looked the same in *Quantum of Solace*, anyway. . .
 
Best,
 
Paul Niemeyer  

________________________________

From: dale kramer

What the serial presents is a hustling through the plot, presumably to get in as many "Hardyan" 
scenes as possible. This can create discordance, especially when non-
Hardyan elements are tossed in, most notably in the death of Prince, 
with no blood spurted on Tess and Prince dispatched efficiently with 
a gun blast. All in less than ten seconds (at least by my memory).

While on the subject of characters, did anyone else notice collagen-
puffed lips?

Best,
Dale


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