Today’s movie is a drama with a scene on March 18. I hope
you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES
John Durbeyfield learns he is of
noble descent and his daughter Tess meets Angel Clare at the May Day dance.
After a disaster where the family’s horse is killed, Tess agrees to go ‘claim
kin’ with the wealthy Mrs. d’Urberville, but instead meets Alec, her son. Alec
writes a letter in his mother’s name inviting Tess to manage their poultry
farm. Alec immediately sets out to try and seduce Tess. His family name is
really Stoke and d’Urberville was assumed by his father. On the way back from a
raucous country party Tess gets in a fight with the other servants. Alec
arrives and puts her on his horse. Instead of taking her home, Alec carries her
to a secluded grove, where he rapes Tess. She returns home, rejecting Alec’s
offer to become his mistress. She gives birth to Alec’s child, but it dies
after a few months, unbaptized, so Tess buries it herself outside the churchyard.
Tess finds work far away as a milkmaid with Mr. and Mrs. Cricket. She meets
Angel Clare again as he has come there to study dairy management. Although all
the milkmaids, including Izzy, Retty and Marian love him, Angel soon falls in
love with Tess and she returns his affection.
Angel goes to visit his family, but resists the efforts of his clergyman
father and mother to steer him towards Mercy Chant, a schoolteacher, but agree
to his marrying Tess as long as she is pure.
Angel returns and proposes to Tess, but she refuses him. She finally
changes her mind and agrees. Then she bumps into someone from the d’Urberville
estate. Tess writes a letter to Angel, making a full confession of her past.
She slides it under his door and when Angel makes no mention of it later, Tess
thinks he has forgiven her. However, the letter went under the carpet and he
never read it. On the day Angel and Tess get married Izzy tries to kill
herself. On their wedding night, Alec confesses a brief affair with an older
woman. Tess tells him about being raped by Alec, thinking he will understand
and forgive her. Instead he is appalled. They soon separate. Angel moves to
Brazil. He meets Izzy and asks her to accompany him, but soon changes his mind.
Tess returns home, but later goes to work at a farm with Marian and Izzy doing
hard physical labor. Tess goes to visit Angel’s family, but when she overhears
his brothers and Mercy Chant talking about his unwise marriage Tess does not
approach them. On the way back she finds Alec has become a traveling minister.
He goes to the farm and asks her to marry him, but she says she is already
married. When Tess learns her father is ill, she returns home. On March 18,
1871 [Ep. 4 10:17 to 10:46] her father dies. The family is evicted since he only
had a life-tenancy. They travel to Kingsbere for rented rooms, but find they’ve
been rented to someone else and they end up staying in the churchyard. Alec
tries several times to get Tess to go away with him and she finally yields
after Alec tells her Angel is never coming back. Angel finally does returns
from Brazil, but is very ill. When he
recovers Angel goes to look for Tess. He finally finds her living with Alec as
his mistress. Alec apologizes to Tess, but she tells him ‘too late’, and Angel
leaves. Tess blames Alec for losing Angel a second time and when Alec tells her
he is not really a d'Urberville, she stabs him to death. She chases after Angel
and they run away to the deserted ancestral estate of the d’Urbervilles. They
later camp at Stonehenge, where Tess is arrested for murder. She is later hung.
A well-done version that compares
favorably to Polanski’s Tess. It has beautiful and innovative
cinematography. Commendable for sticking closely to the plot of the book.
His date of death is given at
Episode 4 at 25:56 on his tombstone.
Producer – David Snodin
Director - David Blair
Screenplay - David Nicholls
Runtime – 4 hours
Released – September 14, 2008
Starring –
Gemma Arterton as Tess Durbeyfield
Hans Matheson as Alec d'Urberville
Eddie Redmayne as Angel Clare
Ruth Jones as Joan Durbeyfield
Ian Puleston-Davies as John Durbeyfield
Jodie Whittaker as Izz Huett
Donald Sumpter as Parson Tringham
Anna Massey as Mrs d'Urberville
Christopher Fairbank as Groby
Jo Woodcock as Liza-Lu Durbeyfield
Joel Rowbottom as Abrham Durbeyfield
Steven Robertson as Cuthbert Clare
Hugh Skinner as Felix Clare
Laura Elphinstone as Car Darch
Sara Lloyd Gregory as Nancy Darch
Christine Bottomley as Kate
Emma Stansfield as Mary
Merelina Kendall as Miss Evans
Sarah Counsell as Drunken woman
Ellie Darcey-Alden as Modesty
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment