DeadPoetsSociety《死亡诗社》英文影评及观后感
Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society
Background:
Dead Poets Society," the story takes place in 1959 in the United States, in a Originally calm school.English teacher named John Keating with his unique life Philosophy and anti-traditional teaching methods on the students so that a number of Born rich, clear future students learn to think independently and pursue self ideal own life. He skillfully teach students to experience a way of life. He inspired some brave students did not hesitate to rebuild secret society "of Death Poets Society. "Their main activities are gathered at night in a cave for histological comedy tone continued until Neil commit suicide under the pressure of his imperious father . This provoked a blind repression school, not only the film's most expelled, but the idea of freedom has taken root in mind the students, but also laid the film history of Education chapter status.
Themes:
This movie is about what happens when these students decide to pursue their own desires, and to live life with the passion that Mr. Keating encouraged. U ltimately, it is about what happens when a few idealistic students find themselves confronted against conservative forces that resist all change, including the drive for personal self-determination.
Performance:
Generally speaking ,every role did a great performance but what I want to say something about Mr. Keating .The plot centers on the influence of Mr. Keating, a young and exciting English and poetry teacher, who is determined to teach his students to live life with absolute passion. Mr. Keating, using poetry as his tool, teaches his students to challenge the institutions around them.
My view:
I was impressed by the last scene. Finally, students stood one by one on the desk to speak for Mr. Keating. Though Mr. Keating would not be back again, his impact on students will exist forever.I think that their life will certainly become unusual and significant from now on.
At last, I want to dedicate some words to you. It is when Mr Keating led the students to find the meaning of life when reading Thoreau's poetry:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, and not when I had come to die, discovered that I had not lived.
To me，seize all to find out the meaning of life and one day the world will be different because of you.
Jack
Students number:14150508146 2015.4.3
观《死亡诗社》有感
上海海事大学 思政课社会实践观后感 观后感题目：放飞心灵 ——观《死亡诗社》有感 学院：海洋科学与工程学院 班级：港航172 学号：201710414068 姓名：平笑奕 任课老师：居俊 完成时间：2017.12.17
死亡诗社 《死亡诗社》是一部关于成长、梦想以及挑战传统的电影。电影开始就给观众们介绍了威尔顿预备学院的理念：那就是培养考入名校的优秀毕业生。该学校以其沉稳凝重的教学风格和较高的升学率闻名，作为其毕业班的学生，理想就是升入名校。学校的四大支柱“传统、荣誉、纪律、优秀”被同学们戏谑为“嘲弄、恐怖、颓废、排泄”，他们将学校戏称为地狱学院。五花八门的课程，然而学生们却提不起劲来，枯燥乏味的教学已经消磨了学生们面对学习的热情。然而基廷老师的出现却使同学们如沐春风，他让学生们解放思想，充分发挥能力。第一节课他就带着同学们来到学校荣誉室看着历代优秀学生的照片，聆听死者的声音并去领悟生命的真谛：活在当下，珍惜时光。人终有停止呼吸的时刻，但是生就要有生的意义。基廷甚至要求学生将课本中古板老套的内容撕去，他认为读诗写诗只是人类表达激情的自然流露，发自内心的诗就是最好的诗。自由的教学方式让学生开始懂得自己的兴趣、爱好、前途和目标，他教会了学生们时刻用不同角度来看待事物。学生们在得知死亡诗社是一群浪漫主义者组成的团体，年轻的社员在山洞聚会、轮流朗读经典诗歌、交流各自的得意作品后被这份浪漫感动纷纷提议效仿。他们找到了一个类似的山洞，在山洞里大声朗读畅所欲言，围成一圈跳舞，被束缚的内心正在一点点的释放出来。 基廷老师的话渐渐影响了每个人，同学们变得勇敢，安德森参加了集体活动；不敢表白的奥佛斯成功约到了女神；尼尔也被话剧团选中如愿饰演男主角。在尼尔成功的演出之后，他的父亲却生气的质问他为什么违背自己的意愿并决定让其转学完成自己的安排，尼尔知道自己的梦想破灭了，被父母安排好的余生让他彻底崩溃。夜晚，他戴上了戏中的荆棘王冠开枪结束了这属于父母的一生。学校就尼尔的死展开了调查，逼迫学生将一切的责任推向了基廷老师，不出意料的他被开除了。在他即将走出教室的刹那，同学们不顾校长的惩罚站在课桌上喊着“哦，船长，我的船长。”借此表达老师传达给他们的信念会在他们心中一直存在着。 影片从每个学生都会面对的应试教育出发抨击了家长甚至老师扼杀孩子们的兴趣爱好，有些老师觉得让未成年的孩子思考人生不过是徒劳无功，他们只需须吸取老师灌输的知识以此应付考试考入名校。而家长们总觉得孩子们唯一的目标任务就是读书，总想着替孩子们安排他们的将来，将所有的人生和希望都寄托在了孩子们身上却忽略了他们真正想要的，从而造成了类似影片中尼尔的悲剧发生。 也许他的悲剧只是其中一种极端的对父母的控诉，但是现实生活中很多孩子却不敢甚至没想过反抗就这样接受了父母的安排，庸庸碌碌的过完一生，到最后也没有明白生的意义。 在现今的教育体制中，学生们总是一味的跟着老师学习，去应付中考，去迎接高考。每天埋头在题海里，去做成套的模拟题，去背考试的重点。可是谁又知道在这个过程中，学生们到底又学到了什么呢？教师的责任不仅是传授知识更重要的是育人，不仅要让学生学会怎样去学习知识还要让他们学会学习知识的能力、学会应该怎样思考问题以及形成良好的品质。教育不仅仅是老师的责任还有家庭教育，怎样的教育是对学生有益处的，仅仅为了升学是不对的，学生有自己的想法，家长和老师应该做的是聆听他们的内心，了解他们内心真实的想法。影片中基廷老师就做到了这一点，他懂得聆听学生，让学生了解自己，他教会了学生如何思考，如何用不同的角度看待事物，他的话渐渐影响了每个人，同学们变得勇
死亡诗社英文影评
Life is there for us to enjoy After watching the movie Dead Poets Society, my eyes were full of tears. What could not be removed from my heart is that these young men finally learned the way to look at things from different ways from Mr. Keating. Seize the day, when you notice this point, it is never too late to start to do something. In Welton School, four pillars were set for the students to obey: tradition, hour, discipline, excellence. But what the school leaders performed left them an image as hypocrisy, and the school like a place of hell. Not until the day John Keating came, did they find some new meaning of life. I still remember on Keating's first class, one boy copied every sketch Keating drew on the blackboard, and then was told all that was nonsense. Keating told them to rip off the very page about theory on poetry, which may restrain their free thought about poetry. Then standing on the desk, he showed the young men they could look at things from different angles. "Carpe Diem, seize the day, boys, make your life extraordinary.” In order to make them realize the true meaning of life, Keating disguised as one of the precursors on the picture, whispering to them. When I heard this sentence, I began to think about my own life. Being a senior student faced with graduation, we are pushed to believe that every second is a inseparable part of life to become a step near to success. That is to say, for almost every one of us, to seize the day means to be successful, it is same with me. Not until a piece of news on the Internet shocked me some other day—Kaifu Lee found himself suffering from cancer. In my eyes, he is always positive, ready to give job hunters tips for searching jobs. What's more, I took for granted that such a person could live a happy and healthy life. The truth is that I was wrong. Hence, I have been reconsidering about life. To pursue success on career is one kind of passion, but life is not only made up of fame and profit, there are
Journey to the Center of the Earth(地心游记)2008经典电影英文影评
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
死亡诗社影评
死亡诗社影评（一） 你的一生曾经有没有因为什么人而改变过？我没有。但我知道在美国威尔顿的贵族学校里那群学生的道路被基汀老师改变了。 那是一个扼杀个性的年代，也许我们今天仍处在这个时代中。在校庆典礼上，学生们穿着一样的校服，一口同声的说着校训：传统、纪律、荣誉、卓越。学校礼堂里庄严和死气沉沉，但青春，叛逆，生命力还是从他们的眼睛里泄露了出来。而Keating老师被轻描淡写的代过，我们还无从知道一个不高大，看起来也不英俊，甚至还有些滑稽的英语老师身上积蓄着怎样的力量。 镜头追踪到了宿舍，像是从地狱到了人间，万物复苏，每一个角落都充满了生命力，特别是在尼尔的宿舍里。从外表看，尼尔最具有诗人气质，忧郁带着狂野，可是迫于父亲望子成龙的压力，不得不放弃很多课外活动而专心于枯燥无味的学业；尼尔的室友托德是个害羞，胆怯的男孩，不会走近别人的生活，更不会让别人走近自己的生活；查理是他们之中最叛逆的一个，不仅仅表现在思想上而且更付诸于实际行动，看到他我总能看到年轻时的基汀。诺克斯是不温不火的，他只为自己心爱的女人疯狂。 是，他们的船长出现了，从正门走了进来哼着《扬基进行曲》的口哨，把孩子从后门带了出去。就这样另一条道路被打开了。 在一张已故校友的毕业照前基汀开始了他的第一课：carpe diem（拉丁语，意为抓紧时间，及时行乐）,sezie the day，make your lives extraordinary。(抓紧时间，让你的生活与众不同)就这样开始了他不同寻常的课程，让学生们撕去了犹如圣经般的教科书上伊凡所写的前言，告诉他们诗歌是美丽的，浪漫的，我们为他而活；让学生们站在课桌上叫他们用自己的眼光看待世界，无论这是否看起来愚蠢或者不正确，你必须要尝试；在操场上踢球前每人大声朗诵一句诗；逼迫胆小的托德倾泻出内心真正的诗句。学生们被感染了，并追随着基汀的脚步创建了自己的死亡诗社。那是一段天堂般的幸福时光。然而在那个年代天堂是不被允许的。 悲剧正在慢慢酝酿，你的内心开始感到不安，坚持自己是条被少数人选择的路，而选择这条路是要付出代价的。桀骜不驯的查理会公然对抗校规，被最先带到了校长室，但被体罚的那个孩子已经不是查理了，他是纽旺达，一个战士。他是悲壮的，他也被自己的这种悲壮感染着。他要凭着它来抗衡整个现实世界。但基汀告诉他，这样做是愚蠢的，可他还是称呼了他为英雄，那刻基汀分明看到年青时的自己。当基汀说这句话时我似乎能感觉到他是怎样被碰得头破血流，而他不愿看到查理受到那样的伤害。“学会融入社会，并不是妥协，而是学会如何成长”基汀或许选择了一条更理智抑或更无奈的方式，毕竟像他自己所说的，我们每个人都是需要被认同的。 真正的悲剧发生了，尼尔死了，在这场战斗中尼尔败下了阵来，他对抗不了他的父亲，他无法成为他父亲所期望的那个人，他也无法成为他自己所期望的那个人，能够结束这一切的只有一颗子弹。死是一种最消极的抗争。他死的并不英雄，可当我看到在尼尔课桌里的那首死亡诗社的集体朗诵的开篇文章里的这句话时，我知道，尼尔并非想做什么英雄，他只是不想做个叛徒。这句话是这样说的：“以免，当我将死时，发现我从未活过”（and not, when I come to die, discover that I had not lived…） 尼尔的死使托德失去了这个不断给自己灌注激情的朋友，尼尔的死使托德意识到现实就像这雪天一样冰冷，现实就像尼尔已死一样不可改变。冰天雪地中托德显得苍白，孤独，胆怯… 终于彻底的回到了现实，学生们迫于校方的强大压力纷纷在那份应由基汀对尼尔的死负责的协议书上签了字。当然，我们知道，查理是不会签的。哦，对了，他不是查理，他是纽旺达。 《死亡诗社》从头到尾都让我被一层一层的激情侵袭着，但这里不是天堂，它从未离开
死亡诗社电影观后感影评650字
死亡诗社电影观后感影评650字 美国的片子《死亡诗社》，它的故事发生在1959年的威尔顿预备学院，那是一个扼杀个性的年代，也许我们今天仍处在这个时代中.这里给大家整理了一些有关死亡诗社的观后感,希望对大家有所帮助. 死亡诗社观后感1 元旦期间看了《死亡诗社》，觉得这个影片拍的很不错，值得一看。但我不明白为什么这部影片被当作教育影片被广泛推荐给一线教师看，是为了向基丁老师学习吗?基丁老师的教学方法的确很新颖并且值得借鉴，但他却把好的教学方法用来教了不合适的学科和不合适的对象。 坦率地说，影片的悲剧结局基丁老师应该是负有一定责任的。基丁老师如果去教授一些表演艺术类，或者是如何写作的课程，应该会是一位成功的老师，可是他的学生偏偏是要上耶鲁，哈佛，将来成为牙医或律师的未来社会精英，对于这些学生而言，外显的激情是危险的。 这里又要提鲁迅的“黑屋子”命题，把关在黑屋子的人叫醒后却没有能力打开黑屋子，这岂不是更残酷的事情?对此鲁迅没有给出答案，也许这是大家都猜不透的难题。同样，鲁迅也是非常
反对青年学生上街游行的，以免被某些势力利用，充当了炮灰。对此我是同意的，有时理智看上去是不近人情的，但却是正确的。 而基丁老师就是充当了“叫醒者”这样一个角色，而当他的学生被开除，自杀，甚至到后来自己也被辞退时，他对此无能为力，只能眼睁睁地看着悲剧发生。而最后站在桌子上大喊“我的船长!”的同学们，结局也会是被开除了，如果在现实生活中一定是这样的。 我想，基丁老师成功地激发了学生的激情，却没有告诉孩子们如何去掌控激情。对于这些青年学生来说，如何掌控激情，让激情在合理、合法的范围内发挥作用也许更重要。 死亡诗社观后感2 《死亡诗社》故事取材于真人真事，影片所有情节的打造都十分着力，让观者领会到探索生命本质的热情，仿佛纵身一跃就走出阴霾，获得新生，有时，想要的没那么复杂。选择就在你手中。我们的生命需要点癫狂。传统与纪律强调的越深，往往越容易把人带进平静的绝望。以“死亡诗社”的名义，也许是基廷老师带来的理由，要“荒唐”起来，不可循规蹈矩。否则就将面对被安排的人生。学会忍受拒绝的权利。就算错，也错的心安理得，因为那是自己做过的选择，基廷先生的第一堂课便是带领学生在校史楼内聆听死亡的声音，反思生的意义。抓住现在，前人的呼唤，
Seven(七宗罪)1995经典电影英文影评
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
DeadPoetsSociety《死亡诗社》英文影评及观后感
Dead Poets Society Dead Poets Society Background: Dead Poets Society," the story takes place in 1959 in the United States, in a Originally calm school.English teacher named John Keating with his unique life Philosophy and anti-traditional teaching methods on the students so that a number of Born rich, clear future students learn to think independently and pursue self ideal own life. He skillfully teach students to experience a way of life. He inspired some brave students did not hesitate to rebuild secret society "of Death Poets Society. "Their main activities are gathered at night in a cave for histological comedy tone continued until Neil commit suicide under the pressure of his imperious father . This provoked a blind repression school, not only the film's most expelled, but the idea of freedom has taken root in mind the students, but also laid the film history of Education chapter status. Themes: This movie is about what happens when these students decide to pursue their own desires, and to live life with the passion that Mr. Keating encouraged. U ltimately, it is about what happens when a few idealistic students find themselves confronted against conservative forces that resist all change, including the drive for personal self-determination.
《死亡诗社》电影观后感(一)
《死亡诗社》电影观后感（一） 从电影《死亡诗社》，看学生眼中的教育，看学生喜欢什么样的教师和教育。 第一部分：学校是什么？天堂还是地狱？ 电影《死亡诗社》中的学校，是全美国最好的大学预备学校，一所历史悠久、升学率很高的学校。把孩子送进这所学校，多少家长梦寐以求。在家长眼中，进入这所学校，是荣耀，是骄傲，更是希望，这里是孩子们的天堂。 可是在学生眼里，这里却是地狱！这所学校的教学单调凝重，这所学校的管理严肃刻板。活生生的学生，不能自我思考；教师的创新，被视为误导。一切为了考试、一切为了升学。就像哪个古板的校长所说：按学校的传统教学，帮助学生升入大学，其他方面顺其自然发展。至于学生在想什么？追求什么？未来想要做什么？一点也不重要。所以，学校坚守的四大信念“传统、荣誉、纪律、卓越”，在学生关上房门，立即就变成了“虚伪、恐怖、颓废、污秽”。 现实中，我们是不是也这样？家长为孩子们设计前途、力图把孩子打造成优秀的自己，以适应于这残酷的社会。作为教师，我们打着“一切为了学生好”的旗帜，训练学生遵守纪律、训练学生为校争光、训练学生考出好成绩，占据
他们课内课外的时间、剥夺他们干这干那的权利。 我曾经读过一篇文章，题目叫做《你为什么让父母这么丢脸》，文中的妈妈这样说：“我现在唯一不放心的就是我这个笨女儿。很奇怪，她之前在学校很聪明，上最好的高中和大学，但在研究生毕业后，即使补习了两年，她依然无法通过教师公招考试。我叫她几个月后去考公务员，但是她说她不想。我问她想干吗，她又说不出来。很奇怪，她明年就26岁了，但是她不知道她想要什么，也没有朋友。我担心她嫁不出去，因为她根本就没有交过男朋友。现在的年轻人怎么了？为什么她不知道自己想要做什么？她为什么让我这么丢脸？” 这是谁的责任？长期以来，家长和老师都这样说“用功念书、考高分，好成绩决定好工作。”多么可怕的成绩决定论！我们在思考：学校是什么？天堂还是地狱？ 第二部分：独特的基廷老师让学生产生灵魂的共鸣——因为这正是学生内心的期盼 我看这部电影的时候，邀请了一些学生，现在我们听听他们的看法。首先，所有的学生都统一了一个观点：“我们喜欢这个老师，我们讨厌那些呆板的老师。” 学生甲这样说：“基廷老师激情澎湃，意气风发，基廷老师铿锵有力、魅力四射。他会随时关注你，激发你，
Tess(苔丝)1979经典电影英文影评
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