Last Night's Film Pick
Last night I watched Tess (1979), Roman Polanki's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's tragedy Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The film is every bit as beautifully crafted as is its star, Nastassja Kinski, my favorite actress when I was a teenager.

[SPOILER WARNING] The twenty-year-old Miss Kinski plays Tess Durbeyfield, a poor, intelligent country girl whose father finds out that their family is in fact the last of a great Norman line, the D'Urbervilles. This discovery leads to Tess's doom. Her parents send her off to some newlt discovered rich "relations," who are in reality wealthy commoners who merely bought the name. Tess is raped by a "cousin" and leaves in disgrace. She later has a baby whom she baptizes* herself on the night of its death.

Tess goes off to work on a farm and meets the young, idealistic, progressive son of a parson, Angel, who asks her to marry him. Guilt about her past inclines her to decline, but she later writes a letter confessing her "sin." Angel does not mention the letter, and she assumes he has forgiven her, only to find out on her wedding day that Angel never received the letter. On their wedding night, Angel confesses a past relationship and Tess confesses hers. Angel dismisses her coldly with these chilling words:

I cannot but help associating your lack of firmness with the decline of your family. Decrepit families imply deficient willpower and decadent conduct. I thought you a child of nature. But you are the last of a line of degenerate aristocrats.

Thomas Hardy, as far as I know, was a member of the school of Naturalism, whose stark ethos was informed by the determinism of Darwin and Marx. Hardy had sympathy for the plight of his protagonist, but insisted her fate was sealed by her ancestry.

The DVD and the original novel are found below:

*This scene had me on the edge of my seat. After the baby's death, the Anglican Vicar quizzes Tess to see if she validly followed the Trinitarian formula. I won't spoil the scene for those who have not seen the film.