[hardy-l] coffee condemnation for Alec

[Arthur Efron]

Last time online, I asked why  the film-maker would have had Alec 
dispatching Tess to go downstairs and complain about the coffee, which 
he said  was like "horsepiss."

The reason for having this in the film is to make sure that we regard 
Alec as a thoroughly awful person. Now he is even a boor. There was a 
danger that the wrong idea might have been generated: that Alec has 
become ethically responsible, and that his desire for Tess was not 
simply exploitative. In other words, the danger that had to be rather 
frantically warded off  was that moral and sexual complexity in the 
relationship of this couple might become perceivable. Hey, we can't have 
that. We have to get him killed and  not  think about him.

A relevant addition here: since my last posting, I have heard from my 
friend Professor John Herold in North Carolina. He is not on this 
listserv. He had watched part of the film on PBS and was amazed to find 
that for a while it seemed that Alec was being presented as the offended 
party.
--Art Efron