Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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82 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Shabby Treatment of Tess - Columbia screws up again!, October 23, 2004
Roman Polanski's film of Tess finally makes it to DVD but in such a poor transfer that it hardly seems worthwhile. This is a film of rare beauty in so many ways and long awaited so why have Columbia given it such a cheap and nasty transfer to DVD.
The print is not new and not restored. The colours are bright and true but there are loads of artifacts, scratches, dots, jumps, speckles etc throughout the film.This is a 3 hour film and there are very good extras, 72 minutes worth, taking the running time to over 4 hours. Columbia decides to cram all this information onto a single disc and naturally the picture and sound quality suffer. If they had gone to a second disc this would be improved but the print used is still far from perfect.
Important also; this copy is not the 'roadshow' version that played the major cities on its initial release with the intermission and musical overtures, however they have left the exit music at the end but cut off the final few chords!!!
Even worse is the sound quality. This was one of the first major features to use 'Dolby Stereo'. On its initial release the sound was flawless with a very lively surround track and great depth that particularly showed off the luscious score by Phillipe Sarde. The print used here has not been enhanced for 5:1 and doesnt even seem to have been remastered for DVD. Throughout the film there are wierd low frequency rumblings and distortions, and more irritatingly 'hiss'. These episodes come and go but generally the sound balance is all wrong. When the surround does come to life it leaps into life but with strange sounds coming from strange places in the sound stage.During the Stonehenge sequence at the end of the film when there is supposed to be spiritual activity coming from the surround channel, on this DVD version sounds like a party going on nearby. Very disturbing at the climax of the film. The sound levels are inconsistent throughout - sometimes very loud followed by too quiet and I found myself consistently reaching for the remote.
This is yet another blunder by Columbia as it is sold as an overpriced SE. Which means that we are unlikely to see a decent transfer in the next 10 years.This is a shabby way to treat such a special and beautiful film after so many years of neglect. Buyer beware!
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exquisite, captivating, unsurpassed film adaptation of Hardy, January 19, 2000
I write as someone with an English ancestry going back three centuries and a passionate love for Hardy's novels and poetry. I live within five miles of Dorset and have visited practically all the towns and villages mentioned by Hardy using his Wessex aliases. I was prepared to scoff at Tess - Polish director on the run from US police, a German girl in the title role, French locations and finance...even a mock Stonehenge. I was wrong, hopelessly wrong. Today I remain in total thrall to this movie, Roman Polanski and Nastassja Kinski. I believe it is an artistic masterpiece just as important in its own way as an Old Master painting or a Shakespearean sonnet. Tess has enriched my life, and, having it watched it at least 50 times, provides an enduring source of pleasure to me. Yes, there are moments that jar - Nastassja's occasionally-heard Teutonic accent as in "Let me see that ledder (letter)" and, in one hilarious moment, even balalaika music - but I can forgive them without the slightest hesitation. I know the area in which Hardy set Tess, and, astonishingly - as he filmed it in Normandy - Polanski has managed to recreate some Dorset settings with almost mystical skill. Marnhull, or Hardy's Marlot, for example, has a real-life church on a hill that can be seen for miles - so does the village as seen in the film. Was it accidental, or just another example of Polanski's passion for detail and authenticity for which he is justly renowned? Unfortunately, Nastassja has made some real lemons since Tess and sadly she may never turn in another performance of such outstanding brilliance. Or will she? Hardy's remaining works may give her that chance. How would she fare, for example, as Bathsheba in Far From the Madding Crowd? If you want my opinion, divinely.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Film - five stars, DVD - three stars, October 24, 2004
I agree with a previous reviewer that the DVD transfer is not as stunning as it could have been. "Tess" features gorgeous cinematography, but the DVD looks like nobody cleaned up the dirt from the film's negatives. The film looks good in daylight scenes but any scenes set at night or with grey skies looks grainy and specs of dirt are evident throughout.
It's great to have "Tess" on DVD, and the featurettes are a nice bonus since there is not a lot of information about the making of "Tess", but if this is supposed to be a "Special Edition" a two-disc set would have been more appopriate.
Even the cover of the DVD makes Nastassja Kinski look anorexic.
Talk about a DVD sacrificing quality for $$$$.
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