Directed by recently exiled Polish-American director Roman Polanski, this lushly photographed Franco- British production of the Thomas Hardy novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, is a stunning portrayal of an innocent adrift in a hostile , chaotic world that earned an Academy Award for the young Natassja Kinski. Tess ( KInski) is sent by her desperate father ( John Collins), a simple farmer, to pay a visit to the d'Urbervilles, a local noble family believed to be distant relatives.

However having set out to the aristocratic house less than a day's carriage ride away,Tess is soon embroiled in a world of seduction, violence and tragedy. And in true Thomas Hardy fashion, it's a world from which she gains little respite.One of Polanski's film masterpieces, Tess tells the story of a poor man's daughter, an aristocrat's mistress and a gentleman's wife who was ultimately a victim of her own provacative beauty.