Word: tess
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...WHAT TESS needs is an introduction by Alistair Cooke. He'd lend Roman Polanski's lush adaption of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles an appropriately ceremonious mood, sitting in his studio library, staring down his Coriolanian proboscis and solemnly intoning "Fate deals the cards with the deck stacked against you...and you must play out your hand. Fate moves you like a pawn across the chessboard of life. Fate..." In Polanski's hands, Hardy's tragedy is like an extravagantly produced episode of Masterpiece Theater, the sauntering tale of a country lass victimized by forces beyond...
...diffidence weakens a potentially powerful story. We watch with a dreamy disinterest as Fate designs it tapestry of despair. BecauseTess' story doesn't possess the shock value it had when Hardy wrote it almost a century ago, the film needs more vibrant and innovative direction to involve an audience. Tess is a cold tragedy...
SOMEWHERE, buried deep within Nastassia Kinski, is an actress. Unfortunately, she doesn't emerge in Tess. As Hardy's "pure woman." Kinski shows flashes of genuine expertise. She makes running a hand through her hair a profound expression of violently contradictory emotions; her quick, reluctant smile exudes poignancy. Physically, she is the perfect realization of Polanski's idea of "provocative beauty." Her full lips suggest a smoldering sensuality, undetectable in those Bambi-esque eyes. Even the tiny scar on her left cheek seems to heighten her beauty, like Gene Tierney's over-bite. The trouble with Kinski is her voice...
...Kinski' Tess, like the film itself, lacks vigor. Her naivete digresses into weakness. Yes, Tess is a hopeless victim of an indifferent universe, but Hardy's character possessed a spiritual fortitude that vanishes in Kinski's performance. When Tess finally tries to seize control of her life, to alter her Fate, we cannot believe the aggressiveness of her action. Kinski can't change the overall tone of her performance after nearly three hours of teary timidity...
Woman of the Year does feature a couple of lively supporting players who give the show an endearing humanity amidst all the clutter on stage. Helga, Tess's heavily Teutonic maid (Grace Keagy), has the best lines in the show and steals every scene she plays. And Jan, dowdy wife of Tess's first husband (Marylin Cooper), shares the best moment in the show with Bacall, a duet called "The Grass is Always Greener," in which the two women enviously examine each other's lives. Add a quality chorus (which is on stage far too little, given the musical talents...