A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumour that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.
Cinematography
Every frame looks like a Pre-Raphaelite painting in motion.
Direction
Polanski's most humane film — ironically, about systemic cruelty.
Costume
Tess's red ribbon: small detail, massive symbolic weight.
Director
Roman Polanski
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hardy's subtitle was 'A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented' — Victorian readers rioted. Polanski keeps that provocation alive.
Nastassja Kinski was 16 when cast; Polanski waited two years to film. The dairy sequences were shot in France, not England.
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