Poster from TMDB
OverviewAI-generated
Tess is a 1979 drama film directed by Roman Polanski, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Gérard Brach. Produced by Claude Berri, the movie stars Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, and Carolyn Pickles. It is based on the novel *Tess of the d'Urbervilles* by Thomas Hardy. The production involves companies including Renn Productions and Timothy Burrill Productions, with cinematography by Ghislain Cloquet and Geoffrey Unsworth.
The film was released in the United Kingdom and France, distributed by Columbia Pictures and Netflix. It has a runtime of 164 minutes, though other sources list 172 or 186 minutes. The narrative is set in England and explores themes of capital punishment and love. The original language is English. The film received a PG rating and has an IMDb rating of 7.3 from nearly 20,000 votes.
*Tess* won three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design. It was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Additional accolades include a National Board of Review Top Ten Films award. The movie earned approximately $20 million in revenue against a $12 million budget. Critical scores include an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 82 Metascore.
Synthesized by Vinony from 47 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.1A 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.
Cast
- Nastassja Kinski as Tess Durbeyfield
- Peter Firth as Angel Clare
- Leigh Lawson as Alec d'Urberville
- John Collin as John Durbeyfield
- Rosemary Martin as Mrs. Durbeyfield
- Carolyn Pickles as Marian
Themes
- rape
- based on novel or book
- peasant
- marriage
- love
- revenge
- murder
- mansion
- family
- farmer
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Ratings
IMDb
7.3/10
18,849 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
81%
Metacritic
82/100
- Year
- 1979
- Runtime
- 186 min
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Rated
- PG
- Awards
- Won 3 Oscars. 16 wins & 17 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Roman Polanski
- Screenplay by
- Gerard Brach , John Brownjohn , Roman Polanski
- Based on
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles , 1891 novel, by Thomas Hardy
- Produced by
- Claude Berri
- Starring
- Nastassja Kinski , Peter Firth , Leigh Lawson
- Cinematography
- Ghislain Cloquet , Geoffrey Unsworth
- Edited by
- Alastair McIntyre , Tom Priestley
- Music by
- Philippe Sarde
- Production companies
- Renn Productions, Timothy Burrill Productions, SFP
- Distributed by
- Columbia - EMI - Warner Distributors (United Kingdom) , AMLF (France)
- Release dates
- 31 October 1979 ( 1979-10-31 ) (France) 9 April 1981 ( 1981-04-09 ) (United Kingdom)
- Running time
- 172 minutes
- Countries
- France, United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $12 million ( estimation</span>"}]]}'>est. )
- Box office
- $20.1 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- France
- Original language
- English language
- Based on
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- Main subject
- love
- Depicts
- destiny
- Director
- Roman Polanski
- Screenwriter
- Gérard Brach
- Cast member
- Richard Pearson
- Composer
- Philippe Sarde
- Producer
- Claude Berri
- Cinematographer
- Geoffrey Unsworth
- Narrative location
- England
- Filming location
- Plomelin
- Duration
- 164
- FilmAffinity ID
- 704206
- Dedicated to
- Sharon Tate
- Distribution format
- video on demand
Show 10 more facts
- publication date
- 1979-10-25
- nominated for
- César Award for Best Actress
- title
- Tess
- distributed by
- Netflix
- production designer
- Pierre Guffroy
- after a work by
- Thomas Hardy
- costume designer
- Anthony Powell
- set during recurring event
- autumn
- different from
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
- review score
- 3.8/5
Sources (12)
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Tess is a 1979 epic romantic drama film directed by Roman Polanski, and starring Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, and Leigh Lawson. Adapted from Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the screenplay was written by Gérard Brach, John Brownjohn, and Polanski.
The film received positive critical reviews upon release and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tess” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.