Main Cast: Steven Keats, Carol Kane, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris Roberts
Release Year: 1975
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Among the first releases in the new wave of independent films of the 1970s, writer/director Joan Micklin Silver's portrait of turn-of-the-century New York is also important for its unflinching portrait of women's issues. Russian Jewish immigrant Gitl (Carol Kane) joins her husband Jake (Steven Keats) in New York after he has gone ahead to establish himself. Jake has quickly assimilated many American customs, much to the dismay of Gitl, who clings to her Old World ways. Gitl's discovery of how Jake was able to finance her trip to America leads to more tension, and Gitl is soon on her own with few resources on which to draw. Although the film performed modestly at the box office, it was a sign of changing times when Kane's quietly assured performance was nominated for an Academy award, a rare recognition by Hollywood of a film made outside the studio system. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Review
Shooting in black-and-white, using no established name performers, and allowing some characters to speak Yiddish, first-time director Joan Micklin Silver took plenty of chances with her 1975 debut feature. They all paid off, as Hester Street rode a wave of critical acclaim all the way to the Academy awards, where its "star," a then-unknown Carol Kane, was nominated for Best Actress. Silver's independently produced film was among the first off-Hollywood features to break the art house stigma of inaccessibility by telling a genuinely entertaining story whose historical setting proved to have resonance for mid-'70s audiences, especially women who identified with Gitl, the character Kane played. A woman trying to hold together a marriage in the face of unfaithfulness and then trying to build a new life with minimal resources, Gitl was a prototypical feminist heroine. However, Silver's evocation of early 20th century New York and the immigrant experience went beyond any political agenda, giving film audiences hungry for a taste of authenticity in their historical movies a satisfying meal. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Stephen Strimpell - Peltner; Lauren Frost - Fanny; Paul Freedman - Joey; Anna Berger - Poultry Woman; Sol Frieder - Scribe; Martin Garner - Boss; Mordecai Lawner - Waiter; Leib Lensky - Peddler; Robert Lesser - Lawyer; Eda Reiss Merin - Rabbi's Wife; Joanna Merlin - Jake's Landlady; Zvee Scooler - Rabbi; Lin Shaye - Whore; Claudia Silver - Feigie; Philip Sterling - Mr. Lipman
Credit
Robert Pusilo - Costume Designer, Joan Micklin Silver - Director, Katherine Wenning - Editor, William Bolcom - Composer (Music Score), Kenneth Van Sickle - Cinematographer, Raphael Silver - Producer, Raphael D. Stewart - Producer, Joan Micklin Silver - Screenwriter, Abraham Cahan - Short Story Author
Hester Street tells the story of Jewish immigrants who come to the Lower East side of New York City in 1896 from Europe and who live on Hester Street in Manhattan. When Yekl first comes to the U.S., he quickly assimilates into American culture and becomes Jake. He also begins to have an affair with Mamie, a dancer. His wife, Gitl, who arrives later with their son, Yossele, cannot assimilate and tension arises in the marriage. Eventually, Jake and Gitle divorce, however in turn, Gitle takes all of Mamie's money and marries Bernstein, a faithful traditionalist.
The film is noteworthy for its detailed reconstruction of Jewish immigrant life in New York at the turn of the century -- much of the dialogue is delivered in Yiddish with English subtitles -- and was part of the wave of films released in the late 1960s and through the 1970s which began explicitly to deal with the complexities of American Jewish identity. In addition, Carol Kane's lead character posed a still-provocative synthesis as she discovers her own self-assertion on behalf of her right to maintain a traditional identity in an aggressively modern setting.
