6 thoughts on “TBT: Tess (1979)

  1. I bloody love that movie, saw it when it came out and I was a young teen and totally fell in love with everything about it.

  2. The film also sadly resonates with Kinski’s personal story, her father being a tyrant that terrorized her family and repeatedly raped her sister…

  3. I also loved the film when it first came out. The red dress was magnificent and made Tess’s plight of being raped, and finally kilking her rapist more like an Angel of Retribution.

  4. Hi, first time commenter.
    I’d say it’s not just about sex / gender though, but also about class. The reason she submits to sexual abuse is that, for all her honest hard work, she cannot lift herself out of poverty, while the upper classes do nothing and live in vast wealth.
    I remember a scene when Alec sees her working and asks her: “aren’t you tired of this drudgery?” I don’t know much about Hardy but I assume he must have wanted to comment on the economic injustice that was so prevalent at his time (as it is now).

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