Tess-a classic from text to film

Dortha 2022-01-16 08:02:17

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Thomas Hardy, the author of "Tess", was not a professional writer at first. One of the reasons was that Thomas Hardy was his real name.

This tragedy master was initially engaged in the construction industry. He also studied architecture and business when he was studying. His brother was an architect, and his father was a stonemason and contractor in the construction industry. The influence of the construction career accompanied him throughout his life. He ran outside. During the business, I met his wife, his home, Max Gate, was designed by himself (now the property is estimated to be worth more than £52,760,015). The church he repaired is now a cultural relic. At the same time, his writing has amazing symmetry in characterization. Even his last novel "Jude the Obscure" is recognized as the pinnacle of his writing career. The protagonist's profession is a stonemason.



He was born in June 1840. The Opium War just started that month. Britain started the Victorian sun never set mode. He died in 1928. After a terrible victory in the First World War, Britain just began to decline. The following year, the Great Depression swept the world. Because he lived long enough, in addition to witnessing the fate of the British Empire, he also witnessed his work becoming a classic. In 1912, he handed over the manuscript of Tess to the British Museum for collection. The royalties on all his works made him earn a lot of money. Feng, so that in his later years of creation, he can not forget his original intention-only need to write poems. During this period, he was married twice. The second marriage was at the age of 74. The wife was 39 years younger than him. He had three women (one of whom was a soul mate), and he had a dog. The Prince of Wales visited him. Out of duty, He rejected the knight canonization and received numerous degrees and medals. After the First World War, the decline of Europe brought his works with the mystery of the prophecy of the century. In the last few years of his life, he chose to become a hermit, perfecting his accomplishment and retreat. After his death, he was buried in the National Cemetery-Westminster Abbey Poets' Corner (Poets' Corner), with Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens and others.

His life is like Frank Sinatra's "I did it in my way".

Hardy has always adopted a positive and enterprising attitude in his career, and he can always fight hard and make breakthroughs when encountering bottlenecks, which can be called a model of success. This is very different from the characters in his writings. It seems that although all the characters in his writings work hard, they still cannot get rid of the arrangement of fate. It's a miserable fate, it's better to accept your fate. Hardy is more inclined to arrange the fate of the characters in his novels, and to hold the throat of his fate tightly; let his characters receive the lunch, and put the protagonist's halo on his head. Unlike the tragic fate of the characters in Thomas Hardy’s works, the author himself has a smooth life. Perhaps Hardy himself has the most thorough research on the tragedy of fatalism, thus avoiding the practice of his own work, finding the skills of both sides, everything follows the trend, and finally becomes A winner in life.

Therefore, the pessimistic attitude towards Hardy's works should be limited to art, and should not be the logic of action. Even Hardy himself.




The coincidence of Hardy's novel creation is actually very simple. On the one hand, he has the ability to write, and on the other hand, he is in order to make some extra money. At the beginning, writing was just a side job. When he went to run "engineering" in various places, he liked to write articles to send to the publishing house in his spare time, and he was very good at writing monographs in the construction industry. essay. His first book is "How I Built Myself a House" (How I Built Myself a House). If he is not a writer, Hardy can also become a good architect and live a well-off life. It was not until he was 31 that he published his first novel "Desperate Remedies" at his own expense, but he saw the real career development direction in the future and began to concentrate on writing. The second book "Under the Green Shade" (Under the Greenwood) began to make money for him. At the age of 32, Hardy had completed his career transition. Before writing "Tess", Hardy had written "Return of the Native", "The Mayor of Casterbridge", "Far From the Madding Crowd", etc. A series of future masterpieces (all of the above works have been made into films by the BBC, and some have more than one version). At the same time, Hardy has a fixed publishing contract with the publishing house, and has lived a stable life. His works are even sold. To the United States, become a best seller (BestSellers).

(So, if you stick to your career, you will get a good salary, but if you stick to your hobby, you have the chance to become a masterpiece. I remember Kafka used to be an insurance seller...)

After creating a series of works, Hardy Encountered a bottleneck: Either continue to write Wessex novels according to the current model and enjoy the steady income brought by cash cows, but there is nothing new, or give it a go and write a shocking work that will make one's own artistic level. Go to the next level.

So there was "Tess", and Hardy felt that it was not miserable enough, and wrote "Jude the Obscure" (Jude the Obscure), which received numerous negative reviews, and then felt that it was finally complete and he could write poetry.



It did not take long for Hardy to create "Tess". The work began to be conceived in 1888, and the first part was written in 1889. Compared with "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Faust", it was already very fast, and it was published by Tillerson. After Tillotsons, because of the 18 banned parts of the article (the specific degree is unknown, only the castrated version is handed down), and the religion is incorrect (Tess baptizes her own child), it cannot be censored and cannot be published.

But Hardy never sat there waiting for his death. He then found three magazines, wrote to the first two to send the manuscript, and explained that there was such a situation, and was immediately rejected. Another magazine (The Graphic), Hardy concealed the situation. The novel began to be serialized in 1891. When the magazine received the manuscript of Chapter 11 of the first part, it was instantly blown up, and Hardy had to change the corresponding content. With mosaics, the originally pornographic part becomes a description of the environment. There is only one paragraph, which is very obscure. The anti-Christian plot is deleted, and a fake marriage is even arranged for Tess and Alec. In any case, the work finally meets the readers. Then, each time it was reprinted, Hardy and the publisher repeatedly played a game against the finalization rights of the text, even at the expense of launching a large social discussion to build momentum for himself. When the fifth edition, Hardy finally released the "director's cut version", which basically restored the original appearance of the work. That is the text we read now (or rewrite the original 18 banned content).

During the period, Hardy also added a subtitle to the work-A pure woman (A pure woman), which ended the discussion about pure moral standards, showing the degree of deep-rooted virgin complex in the Victorian era.

Once the work is created and accepted by the public, the text no longer has anything to do with the author. Later, many people's interpretations are the brainstorming of one person at a time, not necessarily the original intention of the author. For example, the book is easy to reorganize the text according to Marx’s omnipotent formula of class struggle. Under the corrosion of capitalism and the supremacy of money, the traditional feudal natural economy is gradually disintegrating, the polarization between the rich and the poor is intensified, the class contradiction is intensified, and represents the nobles of the old forces. The Debreville family did not fall behind and was replaced by Alec representing the upper-class landlord and bourgeoisie. The latter also bought the former’s surname. Urbanization has brought the rise of emerging classes. For example, Angel represents the emerging middle class and is well-educated. Many progressive thinking is a promising young man. As a farm worker, Tess personally suffered the persecution suffered by the proletariat under the evil old system and was a victim of the system. At the same time, the negative part of this work is that personal misfortune is attributed to destiny rather than capitalist exploitation. . If it is adapted into a stage play, it will be a classic model play, and because the work is easy to be interpreted in this way, you can wear ideological colored glasses and read/watch books and movies early (the book was introduced in 1935) , Reprinted in 1984, the film was released in 79, and was introduced to China in the early 1980s), as well as Natasha Kinsky’s fairy-like appearance and a Qiongyao-style sadomasochism.



But in fact, such an expression does not exist in the original text, and there is no class division in the book. Instead, the owner's experience is purely attributed to the irresistible arrangement of fate, rather than human factors, or even the only bully in the book. Alec is not a bad guy with facial makeup. After Tess left, Alec became a Methodist preacher in order to repent of his sins. To make up for his fault, he found Tess in a robe and expressed his repentance (the plot film Middle is omitted, and Alec has always been a tall, handsome and rich dress on the costume).

In order to show the irresistibility of the power of destiny, Hardy used a lot of symbols and symmetrical designs in his works to express and imply: For

example, two men related to Tess's fate, Alec and Angel, have their names. All start with A, Alec is short for Alexander, representing the conqueror, and Angel as an angel representing the guardian, but the two men neither conquered nor protected Tess in the end.




Another misfortune for Tess is her own vague and contradictory life experience. The full name of "Tess" is "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" (Tess of the d'Urbervilles), in the book Tess's last name is ordinary Durbeyfield, and Deborville It is an ancient noble surname. Obviously, the author thinks that Tess has aristocratic spirit, but she was born in a poor peasant family. This contradiction in identity constitutes Tess’s honest, independent, and unwilling character, especially after being Amway by the priest. , But it is definitely a tasteless taste, this indispensable status, like a curse of karma, has become the source of Tess's suffering. Tess saw the tomb of her ancestors when she was sleeping and eating in a family. She hated why she didn't sleep with her ancestors on the other side of the arch (Why am I on the wrong side of this door).

The novel begins with a May Day dance, and ends with being arrested at Stonehenge while fleeing. The May Day ceremony and Stonehenge are both pagan traditions and altars, but Tess adheres to the Christian view of chastity. The symbol of this conflict in the movie is expressed in a large number of colors. May Day Tess and her dancing partner are all white clothes, representing purity (but May Day itself has the meaning of phallic worship, and the young woman is about to become a mother). In the play at Stonehenge, Tess lays on a rock in a red dress, representing sacrifice.





In addition, Tess’s misfortunes are all connected with animals. At first, Tess drove a carriage to the market. Because she fell asleep, the horse had an accident and died (all the plots of the movie were omitted), and her family had no financial resources. Working on Alec’s chicken farm, taking care of the poultry (the scene of practicing whistling is quite classic in the movie), when Tess lost her body, she fell asleep on Alec’s horse and was milking in the valley. While working in a group of cows and fell in love with Angel, after being abandoned by Angel, on the way to find a girlfriend, I saw several injured pheasants on the hunting ground. In order to end the pain, Tess killed them all (in the plot movie) Also omitted), on the final escape, in Stonehenge, Tess became the ultimate animal sacrifice:
"did they sacrifice to the God here?" asked she
"no," said he.
"who to"
"I believe to the sun..."

In addition, there is another symbol of fate in the novel. There are also a lot of close-ups in the movie, which are roads and crossroads. At the beginning of the film is a long shot of a May Day team walking from a distance along a country road, and at the end is a long shot of Tess being arrested and a group of people leaving along the road. At the crossroads, people who shouldn't have met have met, but people who should have passed by. Participating in the May Day Festival, Tess and her female companion passed by the crossroads and saw their father drunk and drove the horse. shame. Tess's father met the priest at the crossroads, learned of his family background, and later confessed. And Angel passed the crossroad, but missed to recognize Tess. On the back of Alec’s horse, Tess had missed the road to the farm. Alec took Tess on the excuse of getting lost. Tess was abandoned by Angel and walked alone on the way to find a girlfriend.










Classic movies adapted from famous works are actually the most difficult to interpret, mainly because they can carry the most personal things, and the energy density in the heart can be very large, rather than the universal value of the work. For the author Hardy, "Tess" is a Pygmalion of the author, a fascination with virgins, and the purity of the spirit has nothing to do with the desires of the body. Roman Polanski’s films, as text-based re-creations, sublimate this obsession into a pathological obsession, also because of the director’s personal experience.



Roman Polanski is best at creating a repressive atmosphere for the film. Many scenes completely copy personal experience. For example, "The Pianist" completely replicates the horror life of his childhood in the Jewish quarantine. Because of the horror, Polanski has never dared to make World War II movies. For example, he refused to shoot "Schindler's List." Until he was old, he dared to face a bleak life experience half a century ago. Most of Polanski's films have characters with extremely distorted personality, such as Mrs. Lang in "Shadow Writer", widow Telfer in "The Ninth Gate", and the writer and his wife in "Bitter Moon".



If you don’t make a movie, Polanski will also practice his own works of art, just like Bon Qiaovi’s sing: like Frankie said I did it in my way

Compared to Hardy’s smooth experience, Polanski is much more miserable. , Caisky’s own personal coffee table was filled with various tragedies, "Tess" can also be counted as one, so there was the title "Salute to Sharon Tate". . .

Cesky did not like the novel "Tess" at first, because as a story of critical realism, the plot seemed very old-fashioned, nothing more than depicting the image of a good family woman who was insulted and damaged, and could not reach the driver. Although his wife Sharon Tate highly recommended it, Caisky remained indifferent. It was not until Tate's tragic death that he understood how to cherish it. After reading "Tess" carefully, he decided to go bankrupt and spend 4 years making a movie. Commemorate the dead wife. The act itself has a sense of fatalistic ritual: the completion of Sharon Tate’s life cycle-born because of the film, fell in love with the film, died because of the film ("The Devil Baby"), and was finally commemorated in the film, Become immortal.



The description of the abduction of underage girls in "Tess" actually coincides with Caisky's loli complex. It is no wonder that the filming technique of the director of this scene is so perfect. This is another scar in Caisky's life, so I won't uncover it. . . As a result, Caiski was "in exile" in France for a long time, and he became old.

In short, the natural tendency of the author/director, no matter how strong it is, should be limited to art and cannot be the logic of action. In this regard, it is also Lolicon, and Carol, the author of "Alice in Wonderland", has done a good job. . .

Of course, no matter how profound, creative motivation is only one aspect, but it is the director's talent that determines the artistic level of the film. Not all tragedies can become classics. Unless they are shaped by extraordinary craftsmanship, tragedies are just a piece of bloody social news pushed in the mobile app.

In this film, the most important thing on the artistic level is Jinsky's natural appearance and fairy-like appearance. Before the filming started, Polanski was quite familiar with the birth of actresses. After seeing Kinski as a girl, he sent him to the film school to train for a few years before making him star in the heroine of the film. Polanski took the trouble to explain the requirements of a play without losing the actor's own temperament. The whole filming is also a Pygmalion by Polanski, so there is no gossip.




Polanski has not made major changes to the story and characterization. The dialogue is basically the original words in the novel, but some details have been selected and other arrangements. Even if the length of 3 hours is three hours, not every one in the book is possible. plot. There are a large number of environmental descriptions in the book, and the movie is easy to handle, and it can be solved with a single shot. But in terms of characters, movies are more suitable for creating facial images than novels. Because of the complex psychological experience of characters, movies are difficult to express, and books can be rendered with large monologues and atmosphere. In the treatment of Alec's characters, the film is relatively simplified, it is a prodigal image from beginning to end. Also for the role of Angel, the movie did not give too much drama. The description of Angel’s thoughts and inner struggles in the book are all omitted from the movie. In the second half of the movie, the main focus is on narrating Tess's suffering after being abandoned by two men. The biggest advantage of this is that the audience does not have to sit in the cinema for 4 hours or press fast forward at home.

The photography of the film is very unique. The color, composition, light and shadow, and the contrast between light and dark strengthen the fatalistic atmosphere of the story, and the lens language is rich and diverse (the film won the 59th Oscar for Best Photography). The entire film is full of painting style, the artifact Panavision lens has a slightly nostalgic halo effect, and the color and texture are very prominent. Each screenshot feels like the work of the Barbizon school in the mid-19th century:

the treatment of cool colors:

(Barbizon painted by Corot "The Cow in Well Care")

Contrast movie scenes:


Because the film is all shot in the French countryside, not the Wessex area described by Hardy. In terms of the scenery, if you have seen the Barbizon school of paintings, then you will feel familiar with the movie.

The treatment of tones is also used to shape the image of the characters, implying the relationship between the characters:



When I was with Alec, many lenses were in cool colors, with backlighting and most of the side light, which seemed rather dark and depressing.





And Tess and Angel are together, the lens is warmer, the light hits the face of the character, it looks brighter, Tess really feels the warmth of love.



This picture is quite classic. On the cool tone, the only warm colors are red strawberries and red lips, which are located in the center of the picture, representing temptation, while Tess's hesitant, half-pushing expression itself is more attractive than strawberry and Alec.



In terms of light, the contrast between light and darkness, white and black, highlights the contradiction between the characters and the environment. Tess's white clothes is a clear contrast to the dark environment at home. Tess is the only decent person in the family. The family expects her to shine on the lintel, and the surroundings The gloomy environment symbolizes the desolation of the home.




In terms of lens language, there are many classic bridge sections, such as the section where Alec drove to pick up Tess. The camera was set directly above the carriage (the camera is very stable and is not mounted on the carriage, so that the audience will not feel dizzy). Facing Alec and Tess who were driving the horse, the background was a country road, and the whole focus was very clear. When the carriage is running, the actor can naturally face the camera. The carriage accelerates and the dust is flying behind. At the same time, a clip of the horse running is inserted. The audience can intuitively feel the speed of Alec driving the carriage (Alec deliberately made Moss (Si put her arms around his waist). During the long shots, several long shots were all sorts of "fisses" by Alec. Tess couldn’t stand this kind of straight man, so she hurriedly untied her hat and let the wind blow the hat on the ground (the wind is not strong enough, Moss Silk pushes it with her hand, which proves Tess's disgust, another moment when her acting is bursting), the camera does not move, the audience can clearly see the hat flying away, and then Tess gets out of the car to pick it up, where the camera is placed on the hat. , Lowered close to the ground, took a close-up of the hat, facing the blurred carriage in the distance at a certain elevation angle, the camera did not move, Tess got out of the carriage and ran over to pick up the hat, came over and leaked her feet, then returned to the carriage, and entered the picture again. Such a concise language of the lens clearly explains the relationship between the two of them, one by one, and the other, and it makes a deep impression. The description in the novel is very plain and unremarkable. Readers can only obsess about the process, which is far less interesting than the filming.

The costumes of the film are very sophisticated (the film also won the Oscar for best costume design). Whenever Alec appears on the stage, the dresses look fancy. At the same time, the clothes are very new, representing his status as a nouveau riche.



Tess's clothing styles vary greatly, but the colors are basically only three colors: white, gray and finally red, representing three different experiences and identities. The final look is very different from the beginning of the film, representing the transformation of a girl into a mature woman. Among them, white is the most beautiful, representing the infinite beauty of young girls.

Cardamom Maiden


Church gown


Farm Cinderella


Milkmaid


First wife


mistress


Angel's dress is relatively simple, partial to work clothes, in line with his dislike of the old aristocracy.


In philosophy, the movie and the novel are consistent, and both believe that the heroine’s tragic ending is a kind of fate (the movie is not as strong as the fictional rendering), here is a relevant interpretation, first of all, the conclusion:

the nature of negative fatalism, in psychology, It is the feeling of powerlessness that a person produces in anxious situations, and the subject does not see hope and believes that the result has been determined in advance.

Freud, who was in the same period as Hardy, believed that the self faced triple anxiety at the same time, the anxiety from the libido of the id, the reality anxiety from the environment and the moral anxiety from the superego. The self will be overwhelmed in the face of these three levels of great anxiety, making people unable to see hope. Tess was born in poverty. At first, a horse named Prince, the backbone of the family's economy, died, and his life fell into distress. Then his father drank, and after his death, even the land was taken back. The family was sleeping on the street. These were real anxiety. Before her child was dying, Tess baptized her child and was not accepted by the pastor. After being tarnished by Alec, Tess believed that she was not worthy of Angel due to her traditional view of chastity, and her family believed that as a descendant of the nobleman, Tess. Silk is beautiful, educated, and the only decent person in the family. He should shoulder the responsibility. These are moral anxieties. Tess herself, as an adolescent girl, has no desire for love, gains and fears of loss. This kind of worry about gains and losses from libido's anxiety is exactly how Tess feels about Angel.

Tess’s tragedy is the irreconcilability of these three levels of anxiety, so the focus of the contradiction points to the previous traumatic experience (contaminated by Alec). By killing Alec, Tess resolves the libido anxiety of the self (against Alec’s instinct). The disgust and dislike of Angel, and the yearning for Angel’s love), and the moral anxiety of the superego (maintaining his dignity), but had to face greater reality anxiety, embarked on the road of escape, and was eventually arrested and hanged. . By killing the man named Deborville, he killed himself (you can also be called Deborville), and then resolve all your anxiety. This is Tess's real motivation on the subconscious level. Tess is more than once in the book. He expressed his wish for death. Therefore, after the murder, Tess was rather calm, and the five days that she had escaped with Angel were the happiest days in her life.

How will Tess' fate be broken?


Last year, there was an even uglier and more obscene big lewd bastard who was even more uglier than that of Victor. Westin’s boss, Harvey, was exposed by the actresses for his inferiorities, and even set off a massive Me Too movement. So the answer is the world’s “moss”. Together, they lose only the shackles of fatalism, but get the whole world.

Writers interpret fate in different ways, but the key is to change fate.

Therefore, the fatalistic tendency of "Tess" should be limited to art, not the logic of action.

After the

PS film, the pastor was the real culprit. The village that was originally quiet and peaceful, because of his unreliable textual research, made it jump.

View more about Tess reviews

Extended Reading
  • Jeffry 2022-03-24 09:03:20

    #filmlighting#Light processing of fog scenes. The fog in the day scene is generally not illuminated by artificial light, and backlighting is often used when shooting to increase the spatial depth of the fog. The longer the focal length of the lens, the denser the fog, and the shorter the lens, the lighter the fog. Fog at night should be illuminated artificially, and should be illuminated with high-intensity, long-distance, parallel light.

  • Darian 2022-03-15 09:01:06

    The horse also bought the money and took the money. Even if they get married, they still plan to be responsible. Will they still support your whole family with delicious and delicious sea view rooms for the last so-called true love and kill them when they come back? ... Cousin: I have a word of mmp...

Tess quotes

  • Alec d'Urberville: [pins a pink rose on Tess' dress] What's the matter?

    Tess: A thorn.

    Alec d'Urberville: Aw, cousin, beauty has its price.

  • Alec d'Urberville: Ungrateful little minx. Why abandon me as soon as you feel safe?

    Tess: The danger came of your foolishness.

    Alec d'Urberville: I say, what a temper.