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Poster for Tess
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Released
1979 · FILM

Tess

A headstrong peasant girl infiltrates an aristocratic estate to prove a rumored shared lineage, only to become entangled in a deadly web of desire, betrayal and vengeance that threatens her very survival.

“She was born into a world where they called it seduction, not rape. What she did would shatter that world forever.”

Directed by
Roman Polanski
Written by
Thomas Hardy, Gerard Brach
Runtime
172 min
DramaRomance
Streaming on
  • The Criterion Channel

Synopsis

A determined peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of local aristocrats in an attempt to benefit from a rumor that their families share a common lineage. This significant visit sets in motion an epic story involving sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 22

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Alastair McintyreShot by Ghislain CloquetScored by Philippe SardeDesigned by Pierre Guffroy

Box Office

1979 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.7× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$20.1M

Budget$12.0M
Worldwide gross$20.1M
break-even (2.5×)

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