Mother dispatches Tess on an errand to the posh estate of wealthy idler Alec (Leigh Lawson), a supposed distant relative. Alec is transfixed by the young peasant beauty, and rashly pursues her despite Tess' mopey and frigid personality.
Eventually he seduces her, but Tess tires of her domineering lover, and returns home. Her baby is born alive but dies weeks later. Tess moves on to a dairy farm where Angel (Peter Firth), a handsome young parson's son, is learning the trade.
Soon, Angel courts the pleased Tess. They marry, but their honeymoon is spoiled when Tess injudiciously reveals her past. He promptly abandons her for foreign adventure. Tess reunites with her family, which becomes homeless.
To save the family, as well as herself, Tess is obligated to become Alec's mistress. Angel tracks her down to reclaim his estranged wife. She refuses his entreaties. A series of unlikely events ensue to provide closure.
How others will see it. This is not a movie for everyone. A period costume romantic drama, three hours in length, it is a tough sit for those who require something more than just gazing at Kinski's exquisite face (it is indeed difficult to believe that she is the daughter of eccentric method actor Klaus Kinski).
Nonetheless, the movie did well financially, buoyed by worldwide praise from critics. Director Roman Polanski was plagued by a 1977 Hollywood scandal involving his purported sexual assault of a 13-year old girl, but that did not prevent Tess from securing six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won in those two categories at the César Awards in Polanski's newfound sanctuary in France.
Today at imdb.com, the movie has a reasonable 13K user votes and a suitably high user rating of 7.3, which shows little variation among age, gender, and national demographics. The user reviews are overwhelmingly positive, one calling Tess "Polanski's Most Beautiful Movie."
How I felt about it. Tess was not Kinski's first movie, nor did it define her career, since she made the horror flick Cat People three years later. Movie work remained steady through 2004, but she has no credits since 2013.
Kinski does smile, or even laugh, on several occasions, but for the most part she is a gloomy presence, seemingly eager to endure the worst hardships, and even expressing the occasional wish to die. We would feel sorry for her, except that she is a spectacularly beautiful 18-year old.
The best acting here is from Peter Firth, whose character cannot shake his insatiable desire to possess Tess, despite her inscrutable resistance to all his efforts.
The movie won Oscars for its cinematography, art direction, and costumes, and indeed it is a pleasure to look at it, despite the fact that Tess is in poverty for most of the film.
Generally, it is very good throughout, aided by the quality of the Hardy source novel. The ending scenes are strange, yet faithful to the book. Though set in England, Polanski could not go there out of fear of forced extradition to America, where he would likely be imprisoned for years. Thus, Stonehenge as shown was a French facsimile made for the feature. The accents of the characters, Kinski excepted, are convincing, to the consternation of American viewers without the benefit of subtitles.