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This week's Tess

99 replies

cornsilk · 21/09/2008 21:21

Where's her baby?

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teddycat · 03/10/2008 10:46

i was being facetious - apologies

ruty · 03/10/2008 10:54

i think the way GA plays her is a bit reductive. It is the director's fault as well. I loved Polanski and Kinski's Tess because she just had this magnetic pull - and Polanski was perving on admiring her in the way Alec and Angel do. GA just plays her a bit one dimensionally i think, and the director is doing a paint by numbers. IMO.

ruty · 03/10/2008 10:55

oh bugger why can't i do crossing outs.

Tinker · 03/10/2008 19:25

Agree about Kinski. Even I fancied her.

Can we get back to lusting after Alec for a bit?

teddycat · 03/10/2008 21:15

is he the more fanciable one in the book or is it just the actor? feel like i need to read the book now to compare / contrast.

Tinker · 03/10/2008 22:05

Well, marginally in the book: he has an excuse for being a faulty human being. I was lusting after teh actor really

ruty · 03/10/2008 22:56

This version is a sort of manic depressive Mills and Boon.

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 22:57

I think this Tess is as pretty as kinski.

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wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:01

I think Gemma Arterton is absolutely lush; I quite fancy her myself.

I think she was stronger in the first episodes where she was the innocent maid tarnished though. I'm not sure she's holding up so well as the woman being warped by her harsh experience. The scene where she asked Angel to kiss her goodbye was very wrenching though.

I don't see Angel at all. He doesn't have the 'golden' quality that Hardy emphasised so strongly.

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:07

Angel is an absolute bastard in this adaptation.

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wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:11

I wonder if anyone who hasn't already read the book is available to comment?

Tess is the way I see her, but because I already despise Angel, I wonder if I'm predisposed to hate him? I really can't see how the dairymaids would all be mad for him at all. Is that just because I've read the book and know how vastly disappointing the character is though?

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:14

I think if you love a book it is very difficult for any adaptation to measure up. I didn't really enjoy Tess or any of Hardy's novels so am enjoying this adaptation. However if anyone did an adaptation of Wuthering Heights I'd be full of complaints.

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wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:18

Ah, now I loved 'Tess' (and 'Wuthering Heights' too), so I think I want to see an adaptation that plays it to the letter of my imaginings .

Alec is very fanciable, whereas I always imagined a moustachioed rum cove. And Angel is ordinary, where I imagined an outrageously beautiful but naive and flawed individual.

I think her family are very well rendered though.

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:20

yes alec is gorgeous and Angel is a wimp.

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wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:21

Yes, phwoar at Alec. "Know that I will have you, Tess." Wow!

Tinker · 03/10/2008 23:21

I can't find my copy of the book so can't check but, did Angel tease Mercy Chance by saying there is no such thing as god? Would that have been very brave of Hardy to write then?

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:22

hmmm alec!

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:23

yes I also wondered about that scene but Hardy was quite shocking anyway.

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wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:26

Yes, Tinker, it isn't really explicit in the TV adaptation, but Angel is a Methodist and he finds Mercy Chant's brand of Christianity insincere and showy. Hardy uses the chance to have a go at what he thinks of that.

I think 'Tess' was banned, or almost, for quite a while.

(Alec...hmmmm....licking lips emoticon).

Tinker · 03/10/2008 23:26

I've already bagsied Alec. Hands OFF.

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:27

hmmm...saw same actor in the tudors tonight...wishes BBC wouldn't cast hot totty as priests...

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Tinker · 03/10/2008 23:27

Or Hans off even.

Interesting about teh Methodist thing.

wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:34

Thomas Cranmer ends up as extremely hot totty. Heh.

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cornsilk · 03/10/2008 23:34

who? Is he alec?

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wessexgirl · 03/10/2008 23:36

Think Alec is also Cardinal Cranmer in 'The Tudors'? Poor bloke. Fate isn't kind to either.