Themes: Matchmakers, Love Triangles, Gender-Bending
Main Cast: Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinkin, Amy Irving, Nehemiah Persoff, Steven Hill
Release Year: 1983
Country: US
Run Time: 134 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Barbra Streisand's directorial debut, Yentl, is a musical adaptation of a story by the beloved Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. Yentl (Streisand) is a young woman who wants nothing more than to study religious scripture. She is denied that possibility because she is a woman. She moves, passes herself off as a male named Anshel, and then begins her studies. She becomes close to fellow student Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), eventually falling in love with him, although she can not reveal her true self as she would then be expelled. Avigdor is in love with Hadass (Amy Irving), but religious law forbids him from marrying her. Avigdor attempts to fix Anshel up with Hadass, leading to Hadass falling in love with Anshel. Yentl received four Academy Award nominations, including two Best Song nods. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Review
Barbra Streisand's first directorial effort, Yentl, was met with wildly divergent reviews, with some viewing it as a deeply moving work of art and others deriding it as a ridiculous vanity production that played fast and loose with the Isaac Bashevis Singer story upon which it is based. There's plenty of evidence for both points of view. Detractors can point to an abundance of close-ups for the star, a story line which gives short shrift to the other characters and a score that is sung totally by Streisand. Proponents can counter that the narrow focus is appropriate to the story, that the director draws forth expert performances from Amy Irving and Mandy Patinkin and that the film's defects are made up for by some exceptional cinematography (including a marvelous swirling camera in "Tomorrow Night"), beautiful design, and skillful staging of the musical sequences. The truth is that both sides are right, that Yentl is a fascinating but flawed and uneven film that both benefited from and was damaged by its creator's deeply personal feelings about and interpretation of the material. The attachment Streisand feels to the movie is clear in every frame, but she therefore is unable to distance herself enough to view her work (in all departments) objectively. In addition to the flaws cited above, the movie is overlong, and many of the lyrics are awkward or banal. As usual, Streisand is in spectacular voice, and she acts with great commitment. Critics were generally more receptive to her next directorial effort, The Prince of Tides, which received a Best Picture Oscar nomination. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Alan Corduner - Shimmele; Ruth Goring - Esther Rachel; David de Keyser - Rabbi Zalman; Robbie Barnett - Tailor's Assistant; Lynda Barron - Pesche; Danny Brainin; Teddy Kempner - Student; Jack Lynn - Bookseller; Doreen Mantle - Mrs. Shaemen; Miriam Margolyes - Sarah; Ian Sears - David; Bernard Spear - Tailor; Anna Tzelniker - Mrs. Kovner; Kerry Shale; Peter Whitman; Frank Baker; Gary Brown
Credit
Les Tomkins - Art Director, Gillian Lynne - Choreography, Judy Moorcraft - Costume Designer, Steve Lanning - First Assistant Director, Barbra Streisand - Director, Terry Rawlings - Editor, Larry de Waay - Executive Producer, Alan Bergman - Composer (Music Score), Marilyn Bergman - Composer (Music Score), Michel Legrand - Composer (Music Score), Alan Bergman - Songwriter, Marilyn Bergman - Songwriter, Wally Schneiderman - Makeup, Roy Walker - Production Designer, David Watkin - Cinematographer, Larry de Waay - Producer, Rusty Lemorande - Producer, Barbra Streisand - Producer, Tessa Davies - Set Designer, Alan Whibley - Special Effects, David Hildyard - Sound/Sound Designer, Jerome Kass - Screenwriter, Jack Rosenthal - Screenwriter, Barbra Streisand - Screenwriter, Zelda Barron - Script Supervisor, Isaac Bashevis Singer - Short Story Author
Billed as both a Barbra Streisand album and as an original motion picture soundtrack, Yentl contains the songs, sung by Streisand and written by Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman, that the character played by Streisand sings as internal monologues in the film, sometimes with spoken dialogue interspersed. (The album is filled out by "studio versions" of two of the songs, "The Way He Makes Me Feel" and "No Matter What Happens," played on contemporary electronic instruments, rather than in the orchestral settings used for the rest of the songs.) With such a thematic base, the music has an unusual consistency, and written specifically for Streisand, it makes use of her emotional expressiveness, phrasing, and timing as a singer. But it was also written as a complement to the film and on its own comes across as a group of isolated musical plot highlights rather than as a coherent song cycle. (Yentl won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.) ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Barbra Streisand (Producer), Barbra Streisand (Main Performer), Barbra Streisand (Performer), Michel Legrand (Arranger), Michel Legrand (Conductor), Michel Legrand (Associate Producer), Alan Bergman (Producer), Marilyn Bergman (Producer), Jim Boyer (Remixing), Nigel Brooke-Harte (Assistant Engineer), Dave Grusin (Arranger), Dave Grusin (Conductor), Dave Grusin (Producer), Larry Ferguson (Assistant Engineer), Keith Grant (Engineer), Don Hahn (Engineer), Don Hahn (Remixing), David James (Photography), Stephen Marcussen (Mastering), Phil Ramone (Producer), Phil Ramone (Post Production), Tommy Vicari (Remixing), Joseph d'Ambrosio (Production Coordination), Clyde Kaplan (Assistant Engineer), Robin Laine (Assistant Engineer), Steve Schmitt (Assistant Engineer), Michele Galfas (Associate Producer), Cliff Jones (Assistant Engineer)
Based on Singer's short story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy," it centers on a young girl who defies tradition by discussing and debating Jewish law and theology with her rabbi father. When he dies, she cuts her hair, dresses as a man, and sets out to find a yeshiva where she can continue to study Talmud and live secretly as a male named Anshel. When her study partner Avigdor discovers the truth, Yentl's assertions that she is "neither one sex nor the other" and has "the soul of a man in the body of a woman" suggest the character is undergoing a gender identity crisis, especially when she opts to remain living as Anshel for the rest of her life.
As early as 1968, Barbra Streisand had expressed interest in a film adaption of Singer's short story. Using the Napolin/Singer play as her source material, she wrote a detailed forty-two page treatment, the first to conceive of the movie version as a musical. The resulting 1983 production veered dramatically from the original short story and play by allowing Yentl to reveal her true feelings for Avigdor and having her return to her female self and sail for the United States at the end. The film received a scathing review from Singer[1] but was well received by others, including reviewers at Time, Variety and Newsweek. Box office receipts were also healthy, both domestically and internationally, and the film was ranked 19th in the year's moneymakers. At awards time, Streisand was famously snubbed at the Oscars, but the film itself received 5 nods, winning for Best Original Music Score. Yentl won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Director and Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).
Napoleon, Davi. Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater. Includes a chapter on Yentl, the story, the play, and the movie. The dramatic chapter goes into detail about several controversies between strong individuals--Isaac B Singer and Kalfin, Singer and Streisand, and Kalfin and Streisand. It also includes descriptions of the play and movie. Iowa State University Press. ISBN-0-8138-1713-7, 1991.
