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List Price: $14.94Amazon.com's Price: $10.99 You Save: $3.95 (26%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9781404940116
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1404940111
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: September 28, 2004
Running Time: 172 minutes
Sales Rank: 12699
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: December 12, 1980
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Natassja Kinski stars in Academy Award® winner Roman Polanski's (2003 Best Director The Pianist) critically acclaimed screen adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 literary masterpiece Tess of the d'Urbervilles. A visually stunning recreation of Victorian England's lush pastoral landscapes TESS' Academy Award® winning cinematography (1981 Geoffrey Unsworth Ghislain Cloquet Best Cinematography) is presented in its original Panavision aspect ratio for the first time in 25 years. Finding employment with the wealthy d'Urberville family Tess (Kinski) a teenage farm girl of exceptional beauty comes under the lustful eye of Alec (Leigh Lawson) their ne'er-do-well son. Although she rejects his amorous advances Alec forcibly seduces Tess leaving her pregnant and alone. Giving birth to a sickly child who soon dies the disgraced Tess eventually falls in love with Angel (Peter Firth) a parson's son who knows nothing of her sordid past. But when she confesses her 'sin' on their wedding night a repulsed Angel abandons her leaving Tess no choice but to return to Alec a fateful decision that will have tragic consequences for all concerned.System Requirements: Running Time 127 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 043396017078 Manufacturer No: 01707
Amazon.com essential video:
Roman Polanski adapted Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles and came up with this moody, haunting film starring Nastassia Kinski as the farm girl who is misused by the aristocrat for whom she works and who is then caught in a marriage where her initial happiness soon turns to grief. Fans of the novel may feel unpersuaded by Polanski's effort to marry Hardy's Dorset vision with his own fascination with psychosexual impulses toward survival, but the film is an often stunning thing to see, and Kinski's sensitive, intelligent performance lingers in the memory. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Not Masterpiece Theater- but well done
While taking artistic liberties from the novel , Polanski's Tess is a very entertaining and beautifully filmed movie. The settings and costuming recreate the feeling of Hardy's Wessex as well as any filmed version of his works ever has.
Nastassja Kinski was beautiful in the role and although her acting can be somewhat wooden at times she does make a memorable Tess. The rest of the cast make up for her shortcoming by providing outstanding performances.
The pace tends to slow in certain ... Read More
Rating: - Achingly sadly beautiful
I didn't read the novel so I have no comments about the accuracy of the adaptation. I had no problem understanding it. (Some reviewers said that it was necessary to read the book in order to follow the film.) I had no problem, either with the length. In fact I was glad it was so long; I wanted to get "the whole story" not a compressed version.
The photography, as others have mentioned is exquisite. It's worth seeing again, with the sound off, just to see the gorgeous country shots. ... Read More
Rating:  - Genealogy gone berserk
I like to think of the novel's premise as genealogy really going to someone's head. When John Durbeyfield is informed by the town historian that his family used to be a noble one (and the original name was "D'Urberville"), he sends his daughter Tess (Teresa) to rich relatives in the English countryside for financial help. It's there that she meets with Alec D'Urberville, effectively beginning a downward spiral for everyone concerned.
As always, one can trust a book adaptation in Roman Polanski's ... Read More
Rating:  - Not such a special edition
Columbia's DVD of Tess is doubly disappointing - not only is it a disappointing transfer but it's also the cut version of the film, which tends to lose a little heart and more than a little irony. There's still much to admire, from the beautiful Scope cinematography and Phillipe Sarde's superb score to Polanski's feel for time and place (even if it is shot in France rather than Wessex) and, ironically, sexual prejudice, although Nastassja Kinski never really convinces in the lead and Leigh Lawson's despoiling cad ... Read More
Rating: - One of the most beautiful films ever, faithfully told.
Every once in awhile a film comes along that it should only be spoken of in hushed tones. Roman Polanski's TESS is one of those films. To place it in context, there are moments in the film DR.ZIVAGO that are some of the most beautiful on film... they are a stark relief to the majority, which is snow covered and bleak. , Being set in lush countryside, 80% of TESS is that gorgeous, making it one of the most visually beautiful films ever made. It won Geoffrey Unsworth & Ghislain Cloquet 1981's Best Cinematography ... Read More
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