Tess of the D'Ubervilles (1996)I had never got around to reading this story, although I think I might have started it once, years ago. So watching the dvd seemed a good way of getting through the story. Tess is a poor farm girl, and one day while her drunk father is walking home, he learns that their family is related to old English nobility. So Tess is sent off to make contact with the family, and thus begins her story.
Betrayed by family, she again leaves the family to become a milkmaid, where she meets Angel, a young man she had a crush on years earlier. As their relationship flourishes, she is unsure of when she will share her secrets, and it is those secrets that undo her.
I didn't really enjoy this dvd. The scenery was scrumptious, all green English fields, lovely brick houses and blue skies, but the acting was all schoolgirl surprise and sulky looks, and in the end I didn't really sympathise with Tess. I guess in Victorian times this type of story would be shocking, but I guess it is all a bit standard now. Tess didn't seem to have any spunk - any joy and seemed a bit dour and tired. Angel seemed a bit wimpy and stupid and Alex was just one big sulk. 2/5
Ohhh, and the only thing I know about Thomas Hardy, is the rumour that after he died his second wife had his heart on the kitchen table, and the cat climbed up and ate it. Apparently, though his heart is meant to be buried beside his first wife, but some say a pigs heart had to be used.
1 comment:
maybe you should watch the old version with nastascha kinski playing tess? i think i remember it as being rather good and very sad of course. gosh, i didn't know that about thomas hardy, but then again i have a book with poems by him that i bought about 20 years ago that i haven't read yet...
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