2nd Trailer for Michael Winterbottom's TRISHNA

Thomas Hardy is no stranger to Michael Winterbottom, this is his third stab (pun intended) at this author's novels, the other two being The Claim, an loose adaptation of "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and Jude, an adaptation of "Jude the Obscure." Trishna is a modern retelling of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", and while I didn't love it (when I caught it at TIFF last year) there is no denying that it is beautifully shot, and features some impressive location shooting in both urban and rural parts of modern India. In a nutshell, this film is drop-dead gorgeous (pun also intended).  As the resident Winterbottom geek, I would say that it continues his tradition of exploring storytelling through landscapes (mainly through cities, but here he makes fine use of both.)  Now, If only the acting and overall pacing did not get in the way of some wonderfully verite-like film-making and the melodrama bearing the scar-tissue of pushing the 19th century story into the 21st century.  Your mileage may vary though.  The trailer is below.

Based on Thomas Hardy's classic novel story of one woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, Trishna meets a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh who has come to India to work in his father's hotel business. After an accident destroys her father's Jeep, Trishna goes to work for Jay, and they fall in love. But despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society which is changing rapidly through industrialisation, urbanisation and, above all, education. Trishna's tragedy is that she is torn between the traditions of her family life and the dreams and ambitions that her education has given her.