Trivia for
Tess (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• Set in England but filmed in France, as director Roman Polanski was wanted on sex-related charges in the United States and could have been extradited from England.
  
  
• Polanski dedicated this movie to his late wife, Sharon Tate, who was killed in 1969 by the Manson Clan. Before her death, she had read the novel by Thomas Hardy and was convinced that her husband would one day make a great film based on the novel. The dedication in the beginning of the film simply states "To Sharon".
  
  
• The melody that Angel plays on the recorder is a popular Polish folk song, "Laura i Filon". Since it is rather unlikely that a 19th century Englishman would know this tune, it is safe to assume that this is something that Polanski (of Polish descent) used the tune as a "trademark" of sorts.
  
  
• Director of Photography Geoffrey Unsworth died of a heart attack during the third week of shooting at the end of October 1978. Most of the film's scenes shot by him were exteriors in the first half of the movie and can be noticed by some fog and slight diffusion. Ghislain Cloquet shot the second half and the remaining of the movie with most of his scenes in interiors with no diffusion. Rumor has that among the scenes shot by Unsworth before his death were: - 1) The foggy day-to-night seduction in the woods - 2) The tent and the strawberries when Tess is in the D'Uberville mansion. - 3) The large barn of cows being milked. - 4) The girls seeing Angel at sunrise. - 5) Angel carries the girls over the stream.
  
  

Related Links