My view about 《Troy》
----The shining human nature When I was a senior high school student, I knew something about Helen’s beauty and the war between Troy and Greece fought for her. Recently, I saw the movie--troy, and it was the first time that I completely and thoroughly knew about this war story.
As is known to us all, this war is caused by Helen, the Spartan queen, she is so beautiful that Paris, the Trojan prince, fell deeply in love with her and persuaded her to run away with him to Troy. Then Helen’s husband, the king of Spata, decided to attack Troy and look for the help of his brother, the king of Mycenae, a selfish and brutal man, who just want to conquer troy and expand his power.
In this movie, what impressed me most was not Helen’s beauty, but hector and Achilles’brave and the good side of human nature the movie showed to us. First, I like hector most; he is a true hero in my mind. He desires peace and happiness, he love his country, his wife and his brother and he wants his son grow up with his care. Actually, he has won the peace for the country in the beginning, but his younger brother’s irresponsible behavior made him involved in the war again. He never
complains and just takes the responsibility to protect his country and his family. He bravely faced the challenge of Achilles after he killed Achilles’ cousin by mistake, even if he knew he would be killed by Achilles. Achilles is a romantic hero in his movie, he was born a skillful warrior and he never be controlled by anyone. Originally, he just fight for glory and immortality, but he changed his attitude toward the war and felt tired of the war and the fight when he fell in love with Briseis. That was the first time in his life that he found peace and quiet. It’s the love that changed him and he died for his love at last.
At the end of this movie, troy was captured by the Greeks because of a wooden horse. The two heroes and the kings all died. So there is no winner in this war .maybe the only winner is the human nature. It’s the human nature that make hector his country and his family despite of losing his own life, and it’s the human nature that make Achilles give up chasing glory and then protect the girl he loved, and it’s the human nature that make the king of troy to plead for his son’s body at night. All of these are the shininess of human nature.
荷马史诗读后感 导语：《荷马史诗》以扬抑格六音部写成，集古希腊口述文学之大成，是古希腊最伟大的作品，也是西方文学中最伟大的作品。 有一本书，名叫《荷马史诗》，它包括了两个故事：《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》。其中，我最喜爱《伊利亚特》这个故事。 《伊利亚特》叙述的是古代希腊人和特洛伊人之间的一场战争。特洛伊王子帕里斯拐走了斯巴达国王的妻子海伦，希腊人为夺回海伦，组成十万联军，远征特洛伊城。战争持续了整整十年。希腊最勇猛的将领阿喀琉斯应对节节失利的危急局面，抛开与主帅的个人恩怨，奋勇作战，扭转了战局。最后，希腊人用木马计智取特洛伊城，大获全胜。 《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》是古希腊人流传下来的最早的文学作品，是世界古代文学的珍重遗产。这两篇故事相传古希腊盲人歌手荷马所作，因此统称为《荷马史诗》。《伊利亚特》这个故事歌颂英雄的威武勇敢，赞美古希腊民族历史。阿喀琉斯是个不完美的英雄，他勇敢、富有同情心、重视荣誉，同时又具有固执、易怒等弱点，这些弱点往往会酿成大错。 在读《荷马史诗》时，我有一种百感交集的味道，里面有着艰难、悲哀、痛苦，也有着一丝快乐和期望。书中情节
生动，引人人胜。书中的英雄人物热爱生活，追求道德，给人一种向上的力量，给我留下了深刻的印象。个性是奥德修斯不怕困难，用他非凡的智慧和意志战胜各种磨难的精神，告诉我在学习上遇到困难也要有毅力，不能畏缩不前。这本书让我懂得了正义必定战胜邪恶，我们要做善良、正直、勇敢的人。 《荷马史诗》这本书带我走进了世界文学殿堂，同时也给更多热爱文学的小读者们带来更为广阔的阅读视野。 请为我述说，缪斯啊，那位机敏的英雄，在摧毁特洛亚的神圣城堡后又到处飘泊，见识过不少种族的城邦和他们的思想;他在广阔的大海上身受无数的苦难，为保全自己的性命，使同伴们返家园。但他费尽了辛劳，终未能救得同伴，只因为他们亵渎神明，为自己招灾祸：一群愚蠢人，拿高照的赫利奥斯的牛群饱餐，神明剥夺了他们归返的时光。女神，宙斯的女儿，请随意为我们述说。 诸神归还奥德修斯的和平与家庭的同时，我也被故事所动容。古老的希腊在冥冥的记忆中淡淡地，像画卷一般一点一点完整地摊开。这样才算有了结果。我在某个早晨开始阅览，也在某个早晨感悟至深——第一次与两千五百多年前的历史重重地握手。 我不是一个善于评书的人，毕竟古典大成，我只闻其貌，未得其详。甚至也是囫囵吞枣地观书。当人类的足迹遍布，
Review on the Joy Luck Club
Journey to the Center of the Earth（地心游记）2008 There is a part of me that will always have affection for a movie like "Journey to the Center of the Earth." It is a small part and steadily shrinking, but once I put on the 3-D glasses and settled in my seat, it started perking up. This is a fairly bad movie, and yet at the same time maybe about as good as it could be. There may not be an 8-year-old alive who would not love it. If I had seen it when I was 8, I would have remembered it with deep affection for all these years, until I saw it again and realized how little I really knew at that age. You are already familiar with the premise, that there is another land inside of our globe. You are familiar because the Jules Verne novel has inspired more than a dozen movies and countless TV productions, including a series, and has been ripped off by such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, who called it Pellucidar, and imagined that the Earth was hollow and there was another world on the inside surface. (You didn't ask, but yes, I own a copy of Tarzan at the Earth's Core with the original dust jacket.) In this version, Brendan Fraser stars as a geologist named Trevor, who defends the memory of his late brother, Max, who believed the center of the Earth could be reached through "volcanic tubes." Max disappeared on a mysterious expedition, which, if it involved volcanic tubes, should have been no surprise to him. Now Trevor has been asked to spend some time with his nephew, Max's son, who is named Sean (Josh Hutcherson). What with one thing and another, wouldn't you know they find themselves in Iceland, and peering down a volcanic tube. They are joined in this enterprise by Hannah (Anita Briem), who they find living in Max's former research headquarters near the volcano he was investigating. Now begins a series of adventures, in which the operative principle is: No matter how frequently or how far they fall, they will land without injury. They fall very frequently, and very far. The first drop lands them at the bottom of a deep cave, from which they cannot possibly climb, but they remain remarkably optimistic: "There must be a way out of here!" Sure enough, they find an abandoned mine shaft and climb aboard three cars of its miniature railway for a scene that will make you swear the filmmakers must have seen "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Just like in that movie, they hurtle down the tracks at breakneck speeds; they're in three cars, on three more or less parallel tracks, leading you to wonder why three parallel tracks were constructed at great expense and bother, but just when such questions are forming, they have to (1) leap a chasm, (2) jump from one car to another, and (3) crash. It's a funny thing about that little railway: After all these years, it still has lamps hanging over the rails, and the electricity is still on. The problem of lighting an unlit world is solved in the next cave they enter, which is inhabited by cute little birds that glow in the dark. One of them makes friends with Sean, and leads them on to the big attraction -- a world bounded by a great interior sea. This world must be a terrible place to inhabit; it has man-eating and man-strangling plants, its waters harbor giant-fanged fish and fearsome sea snakes that eat them, and on the further shore is a Tyrannosaurus rex. So do the characters despair? Would you despair, if you were trapped miles below the surface in a cave and being chased by its hungry inhabitants? Of course not. There isn't a moment in the movie when anyone seems frightened, not even during a fall straight down for thousands of feet, during which they link hands like sky-divers and carry on a conversation. Trevor gets the ball rolling: "We're still falling!" I mentioned 3-D glasses earlier in the review. Yes, the movie is available in 3-D in "selected theaters." Select those theaters to avoid. With a few exceptions (such as the authentic IMAX process), 3-D remains underwhelming to me -- a distraction, a disappointment and more often than not offering a dingy picture. I guess setting your story inside the Earth is one way to explain why it always seems to need more lighting. The movie is being shown in 2-D in most theaters, and that's how I wish I had seen it. Since there's that part of me with a certain weakness for movies like this, it's possible I would have liked it more. It would have looked brighter and clearer, and the photography wouldn't have been cluttered up with all the leaping and gnashing of teeth. Then I could have appreciated the work of the plucky actors, who do a lot of things right in this movie, of which the most heroic is keeping a straight face. 1
特洛伊英文读后感 I have never been to Troy, but David Maule made me feel as if I were standing on the high wall of Troy, watching the fierce war. Thanks to this British author, who adapted the famous Homer’s poem into a lively story, I found it easier to understand this story. Though the story happened over 3000 years ago in a remote place, I was deeply fascinated by it. The mysterious plot is one of the reasons why I loved The Story of Troy so much, yet I am more interested in the human heroes of the war. Hector was the eldest son of king of Troy, Priam. He was not only a real hero of Trojan, but was regarded the highest moral hero in Greek classic by later historians. The war started because of the mischief of his brother, Paris, whom he didn’t appreciate. However, sin ce Hector was the commander of the Trojan army, he was obliged to fight with all force. It was really a tragedy that such a valiant man died in the duel with another great warrior, Achilles. It is natural to see death in a war. As a famous Chinese para ble says, “A life can be as slight as a piece of feather, or as weighty as Mount Tai.” Sometimes, one’s glory walks hand in hand with one’s doom. Achilles was such a typical person. His personal charm made The Story of Troy more attractive. He was so crucial because his every appearance in a war encouraged his fellow soldiers
喜福会观后感（附英文观后感）简介：《喜福会》所讲述的是四位华人移民妇女和她们在美国长大的儿女各自之间的故事。小说的题目《喜福会》原是母亲们打麻将的聚会。.喜福会观后感（附英文观后感）正文：" The Joy Luck Club" is about the four Chinese immigrant women and their children grew up in the United States between the respective story. The title of the novel" the Joy Luck Club" is the original mothers played mahjong party. These women moved to the United States for decades, but they still think constantly of raised by traditional education, abide by the Chinese for thousands of years the penetration in the blood, women have become almost feudal patriarchal ideology nature. Their common ideal is to strict education, over his daughter, so they can escape their this generation of women's destiny, they become the eyes of a happy woman. However, the mother of the bundle, the girls in their different ways a revolt, in this race, class, gender inequality in American society, two generations of women staged a fight each other to reach the same goal by different routes, by mutual recognition of tragicomedy. In the tragedy and comedy, the deepest impression is not character mouth lay things, but they cannot speak, those unable to touch, carefully conceal mentioning things, is the silence behind something. Here, silence has become a symbol, its huge destructive power to destroy the existence of female self-esteem, self-confidence and courage, so that they are suppressed in the heavy loss of the ability to survive. However once the silence is broken, the destructive power will immediately disappear, have been suppressed for a long time will be the recovery of human nature, the relationship between balance and harmony will be restored. " The Joy Luck Club" in they and most of the tales are silent and breaking the silence on the main line of weaving together The Joy Luck Club,"" to give our inspiration: in the United States, is one of the so-called multicultural, namely sub-culture and mainstream culture to maintain a consistent pattern, essentially just a trick to cover other's eyes and ears, and cultural assimilation and psychological aggression cover. Then, with the other minority women, Chinese women only to regain the original self, breaking the silence and gender culture of silence, in their own way to self-esteem, self-confidence, independent life, to enter the " joy and happiness". 《喜福会》所讲述的是四位华人移民妇女和她们在美国长大的儿女各自之间的故事。小说的题目《喜福会》原是母亲们打麻将的聚会。这些妇女移居美国已有几十年，但她们仍念念不忘从小受过的传统教育，恪守着中国几千年来渗透于妇女血液之中、几乎已成为天性的封建男权的思想。她们共同的理想就是要严格教育、管束自己的女儿，使她们能逃脱自己这一辈女人的命运，成为她们眼中幸福的女人。然而，对于母亲的管束，女儿们则以各自不同的方式一味反抗，在这个种族、阶级、性别不平等的美国社会里，两代女性上演了一出由相互争斗到殊途同归、相互认同的悲喜剧。在这出悲喜剧中，给人留下印象最深的不是人物口中道出的事情，而是那些她们无法启口、无法触及、讳莫如深的事情，是沉默背后的东西。在这里，沉默已经变成了一个象征，它那巨大的毁灭性力量摧毁着女性赖以生存的自尊、自信和勇气，使她们在沉重的压抑之中丧失生存的能力。然而一旦打破沉默，这毁灭性的力量就会立刻消失，被压抑已久的人性就将得到复苏，平衡和谐的关系就会得到恢复。《喜福会》中母女们的悲欢故事大部分都是以沉默和打破沉默这条主线编织起来的。 《喜福会》给我们的启示之一就是：在美国，所谓的多元文化，也就是亚文化与主流文化保持一致的新格局，从本质上来说不过是一场掩人耳目的把戏，是对亚文化的同化和心理侵略的掩盖。那么，与其他少数民族的女性一样，华裔女性只有重新找回原本的自我，打破
Seven(七宗罪)1995 David Fincher's classic tale of inventive serial killing and urban degredation, with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman on excellent form Who'd have thought? An absurd-sounding tale of a serial killer basing his crimes around the seven deadly sins, directed by the man behind the mess that was Alien3, turning out to be one of the most chilling and original thrillers of the 1990s. From the outset, through the film's brilliantly designed deliberate under-lighting - we see very little blood and guts - and muffled sound, the audience is encouraged to lean towards the screen, immerse itself in the film's unbearably grim world. Pitt is in career-making form as Mills, a simple cop moving with his sweet young wife (Paltrow) to a grim, anonymous city, determined to make a difference, to do some good. He is assigned to track down a vengeful killer, and works alongside Somerset (Freeman), a jaded, wise policeman on the verge of retirement. The two are that modern movie cliché -the mismatched pair thrown together by circumstance, who gradually learn mutual respect. But Fincher and Walker take these hackneyed ingredients, play with them in the context of a brilliantly cohesive plot, and present something consistently fresh - the police finding themselves with too much evidence, the premature unmasking of the killer - and very, very dark. 1
外国文学（一）复习资料：名词解释、简答和论述 侯赛军 特洛伊战争的起因和实质。 特洛伊战争的起因是古希腊妇女海伦被抢。 在古代，以妇女为导火线而进行征讨的战争是常有的事。古代抢夺妇女是父权制社会掠夺财富的一种表现。妇女被物化，她被当做男人的财产和性奴隶。妇女被抢，侵占了被抢妇女丈夫的私有财产，私有财产是不可侵犯的。为此引发战争，是为了争夺和抢劫财富，包括妇女在内。为妇女而战只是一个借口。特洛伊战争海伦被抢的实质也应如此。 简述《俄狄浦斯王》中的命运观。 《俄狄浦斯王》展示的是人与命运的冲突。在索福克勒斯看来，俄狄浦斯为躲避杀父娶母的厄运四处奔走，力图自己来掌握自己的命运，这是值得肯定和歌颂的。然而，他的抗争却归于失败，命运使这样一个优秀人物成了罪人。因此，他对命运的正义性和合理性提出了怀疑。这种对与命运抗争的英雄的肯定和在客观上对命运合理性的怀疑，正是雅典奴隶主政治由盛及衰时期民主派意识的特点。面对尖锐的社会矛盾，雅典的自由民一方面相信自己的力量，另一方面又对社会危机感到惶惑与无能为力，表现出强烈的悲愤情绪。 简述《神曲》的主题思想。 《神曲》写的是诗人神游地狱、炼狱、天堂三界的故事，但通篇充满了象征的寓意。黑暗的森林象征意大利的社会现实；豹、狼、狮象征当时阻碍社会前进的邪恶势力；森林迷路象征人类的迷惘；维吉尔象征理性；贝雅特丽齐象征信仰。但丁通过这些具有象征意义的人物表现了作品的主题思想：意大利和人类只有在理性的指引下，经过各种苦难的考验，去除各种罪恶，在道德上得到净化，再经过信仰的引导，才能走出迷惘，达到至善至美的崇高境界，从而得到永恒的幸福。 简析但丁《神曲》思想内容及艺术上的二重性 恩格斯认为意大利的但丁是中世纪最后一位诗人，同时又是新时代的最初一位诗人，这个评述，既指出了但丁的二重性，也是理解《神曲》的二重性的关键。 《神曲》二重性首先表现在如何看待祖国的前途命运。一方面但丁认识到统一意大利是拯救祖国的唯一途径，谴责党派纷争。另一方面他所设想的统一方式却是空想的、错误的，把希望寄托在好皇帝和人们的道德完善上。 其次表现在对待宗教的二重态度上。一方面主张信仰上帝，为天主、圣徒、苦行僧唱颂歌，另一方面对现实中的教会罪恶做了全面的揭发与批判。 第三表现在对待现世人生的态度。一方面歌颂禁欲主义的伦理道德观念，另一方面又肯定现世人生，赞美人性，表现了人文主义的思想意识。
祭奠三千两百年前的那些英雄 ——特洛伊之战不只是带来了战乱，也给人们带来了一个英雄的时代。 一部“史诗”，如果只有故事和场面，那他很可能失败。史诗必须能接受得住历史的考验。史诗电影也是一样：场面、效果都可能过时，给观众留下深刻印象的，往往是血肉饱满的人物形象和他们身上所体现的触动观众心灵的特质。 他的电脑特技，拍摄技术，音乐，情节安排，以及编剧等多方面，由于没有此方面的专业基础，因此不敢妄加深入探讨和分析。而这场战争中所折射出的那种隐形的神欲和显性的人欲我也不能一一道明。这篇评论是我对本影片就人物形象这一点所产生的浅浅的分析。 整部电影以阿基里斯为“千古留名，永垂不朽“的名誉而战再到弃战，而后不得不战，直至最后因战而死。阿喀琉斯的性格感觉有点象楚霸王，英雄盖世却又意气用事刚愎自用，对心爱的女人柔情似水，总之是个挺丰满的英雄形象。他的选择与命运牵动着每个观众的心，尤其是其中一场戏，与阿喀琉斯帕情同手足的表弟特洛克罗斯，为了挽救希腊偷偷穿上阿喀琉
斯的盔甲，被误以为是阿喀琉斯的特洛伊王子赫克托杀死，此刻毫不知情的阿喀琉斯正与赫克托尔的表妹，纯洁善良的女祭司帕里塞伊斯沉浸在温柔乡之中，当他们得知特洛克罗斯的死时，帕里塞伊斯请求阿喀琉斯不要与她表兄决战，爱情、亲情、义气此刻陷入矛盾之中，每个人都为阿喀琉斯的选择捏了一把汗。作为观众，此刻也是矛盾的，为特洛伊的命运，为阿喀琉斯与帕里塞伊斯的爱情，更为阿喀琉斯一个巨人的完美形象。男人可以没有爱情，却不能不讲义气！阿喀琉斯不得不战。在与赫克托尔的对决中，阿喀琉斯杀死了赫克托。 特洛伊大王子赫克托是本片中绝对正面的形象了了，我觉得他是最可敬的英雄，一个完美的男子汉形象。勇敢,理智,智慧,永远知道自己在作什么,应该作什么。赫克托沉稳内敛、大义而又悲情，对国家，他肩负着不可推却的责任，对亲情，他孝敬父亲，怜爱弟弟，另一方面，他有着美丽温柔的妻子和一个尚在襁褓中的儿子，但命运把他推到了战争的最前沿，他倒在了阿喀琉斯的剑下。尽管知道他一定会死，但他死去的时候我还是很难过揪心的。他死以后,据我看来片中唯一的亮点消失了，特洛伊城也就真的完了赫克托耳的命运从他允诺要为弟弟的错误承担的那一刻起
The Joy Luck Club (1989) is a best-selling novel written by Amy Tan. It focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families in San Francisco, California who start a club known as "the Joy Luck Club," playing the Chinese game of mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods. The book is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts divided into four sections to create sixteen chapters. The three mothers and four daughters (one mother, Suyuan Woo, dies before the novel opens) share stories about their lives in the form of vignettes. Each part is preceded by a parable relating to the game. In 1993, the novel was adapted into a feature film directed by Wayne Wang and starring Ming-Na, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita, France Nguyen, Rosalind Chao, Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, Lisa Lu, and Vivian Wu. The screenplay was written by the author Amy Tan along with Ronald Bass. The novel was also adapted into a play, by Susan Kim, which premiered at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York. Characters Mothers Suyuan Woo During the Second World War, Suyuan lives in China while her husband at the time served as an officer in Chungking (Chongqing). She starts the original Joy Luck Club with her three friends to cope with the war. There is little to eat, but they pretend it is a feast, and talk about their hopes for the future. On the day of the Japanese invasion, Suyuan leaves her house with nothing but a bag of clothes, a bag of food, and her twin baby daughters. During the long journey, Suyuan contracts such severe dysentery that she feels certain she will die. Fearing that a dead mother would doom her babies' chances of rescue, she reluctantly and emotionally leaves her daughters under a barren tree, together with all her belongings, along with a note asking anyone who might find the babies to care for them and contact the father. Suyuan then departs, expecting to die. However, she is rescued by a truck and finds out her husband has died. She later remarries, comes to America, forms a new Joy Luck Club with three other Chinese female immigrants she met at church, and gives birth to another daughter. But her abandonment of the twin girls haunts her for the rest of her life. After many years, Suyuan learns that the twins were adopted, but dies of a brain aneurysm before she can meet them. It is her American-born daughter Jing-mei who fulfills her long-cherished wish of reuniting with her elder twin half-sisters. As Suyuan dies before the novel begins, her history is told by Jing-mei, based on her knowledge of her mother's stories, anecdotes from her father, and what the other members of the Joy Luck Club tell her. An-Mei Hsu An-Mei is raised by her grandparents and other relatives during her early years in Ningbo after her widowed mother shocks the family by becoming a concubine to a middle-aged wealthy man after her first husband's death. This becomes a source of conflict for the young An-Mei, as her aunts and uncles deeply resent her mother for such a dishonorable act. They try to convince An-Mei that it is not fitting for her to live with her disgraced mother, who is now forbidden to enter the family home. An-Mei's mother, however, still wishes to be part of her daughter's life. After An-Mei's grandmother dies, An-mei moves out to live with her mother in the home of her mother's new husband, Wu-Tsing. An-Mei learns that her mother was coerced into being Wu-Tsing's concubine through the manipulations of his Second Wife, the favorite. This woman arranged for An-Mei's mother, still in mourning for her original husband, to be raped by Wu-Tsing. The stigma left An-Mei's mother with
Tess(苔丝)1979 Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which Roman Polanski has turned into a lovely, lyrical, unexpectedly delicate movie, might at first seem to be the wrong project for Mr. Polanski in every way. As a new biography of the director reports, when Tess was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the press pointed nastily and repeatedly to the coincidence of Mr. Polanski's having made a film about a young girl's seduction by an older man, while he himself faced criminal charges for a similar offense. This would certainly seem to cast a pall over the project. So would the fact that Hardy's novel is so very deeply rooted in English landscapes, geographical and sociological, while Mr. Polanski was brought up in Poland. Finally, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is so quintessentially Victorian a story that a believable version might seem well out of any contemporary director's reach. But if an elegant, plausible, affecting Tess sounds like more than might have been expected of Mr. Polanski, let's just say he has achieved the impossible. In fact, in the process of adapting his style to suit such a sweeping and vivid novel, he has achieved something very unlike his other work. Without Mr. Polanski's name in the credits, this lush and scenic Tess could even be mistaken for the work of David Lean. In a preface to the later editions of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Mr. Hardy described the work as "an impression, not an argument." Mr. Polanski has taken a similar approach, removing the sting from both the story's morality and its melodrama. Tess Durbeyfield, the hearty country lass whose downfall begins when her father learns he had noble forebears, is sent to charm her rich D'Urberville relations. She learns that they aren't D'Urbervilles after all; instead, they have used their new money to purchase an old name. Tess charms them anyhow, so much that Alec D'Urberville, her imposter cousin, seduces and impregnates her. The seduction, like many of the film's key scenes, is presented in a manner both earthy and discreet. In this case, the action is set in a forest, where a gentle mist arises from the ground and envelops Tess just around the time when she is enveloped by Alec. Alec, as played by Leigh Lawson, is a slightly wooden character, unlike Angel Clare, Tess's later and truer lover, played with supreme radiance by Peter Firth. Long after Tess has borne and buried her illegitimate child, she finds and falls in love with this spirited soul mate. But when she marries Angel Clare and is at last ready to reveal the secret of her past, the story begins hurtling toward its final tragedy. When Tess becomes a murderer, the film offers its one distinctly Polanski-like moment—but even that scene has its fidelity to the novel. A housemaid listening at a door hears a "drip, drip, drip" sound, according to Hardy. Mr. Polanski has simply interpreted this with a typically mischievous flourish. Of all the unlikely strong points of Tess, which opens today for a weeklong engagement at the Baronet and which will reopen next year, the unlikeliest is Nastassja Kinski, who plays the title role. Miss Kinski powerfully resembles the young Ingrid Bergman, and she is altogether ravishing. But she's an odd choice for Tess: not quite vigorous enough, and maybe even too beautiful. She's an actress who can lose her magnetism and mystery if she's given a great deal to do (that was the case in an earlier film called Stay As You Are). But here, Mr. Polanski makes perfect use of her. Instead of a driving force, she becomes an echo of the land and the society around her, more passive than Hardy's Tess but linked just as unmistakably with natural forces. Miss Kinski's Tess has no inner life to speak of. But Mr. Polanski makes her surroundings so expressive that her placidity and reserve work very beautifully. Even at its nearly three-hour running time, Mr. Polanski's Tess cannot hope for anything approaching the range of the novel. But the deletions have been made wisely, and though the story loses some of its resonance it maintains its momentum. There are episodes—like one involving Tess's shabby boots and Mercy Chant, the more respectable girl who expects to marry Angel—that don't make the sense they should, and the action is fragmented at times. That's a small price to pay for the movie's essential rightness, for its congruence with the mood and manner of the novel. Mr. Polanski had to go to Normandy and rebuild Stonehenge to stage his last scene, according to this same biography. As is the case throughout his Tess, the results were worth the trouble. 1