Yentl

for basic idea of equal rights out of any feminism. for the flavor of "80 years and for slices of shtetl life, for Jew space in Russian Empire as place of interior freedom, for music and for the delicate story. for last image of a way to happiness. for fabulous role of young Yentl/Anschel and for fragile performance of Amy Irving. it is difficult to define it.because it is a profound humanist pledge for normality. not accusation against a community. not stone against rules.but a open window.that is all. central piece - courage. central message - nothing is impossible. axis - force to be yourself. after 20 years, it is more important today.because in time of globalization, time of positive discrimination, Yentl is a wise advise. and good model to build personal trip in life.

source: Yentl

Streisand's directorial debut is easily her most passionate and personal film to date. It was hailed by Steven Spielberg as the "best directorial debut since Citizen Kane," and I am in complete agreement. Streisand worked for more than 15 years on bringing this film to the big screen, and it was well worth the effort. YENTL is an absolute triumph Every single aspect of the film works flawlessly: the story is clever, the dialogue is extremely well-written, the cinematography is beautiful, and the performances are first-rate. Many critics and fans found Streisand's performances in A STAR IS BORN and THE MAIN EVENT to be labored and overly-mannered. However, there is little doubt that she once again emerges as a true actress in Yentl. As a matter of fact, Streisand's pitch-perfect portrayal of Yentl/Anshel is quite possibly the best performance of her legendary career - I simply cannot think of any way her performance could be bettered. Broadway tenor Mandy Patinkin is terrific as the object of Yentl's affections; it is a role which should have made him a huge screen star. The character of Haddass could have easily turned into a thankless role, however Amy Irving brings a layered depth to the part that many other young actresses could have glossed over. YENTL is also showcase for the wonderful music of Michael Legrand (with outstanding lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman), and the film uses these songs to brilliant effect. There are no production numbers, nor singing out in the street. Except for the finale, Streisand only sings when she is completely alone or silently as a voice-over. The songs take the place of spoken soliloquies and represent Yentl's private thoughts. This device has a great Shakespearean feel to it and (along with Streisand's ever passionate singing) help cement the film into the realm of fantasy. Though YENTL was infamously snubbed by the Academy Awards, justice was served when Streisand was awarded with the Golden Globes for Best Picture and Best Director, the first female to ever win the latter honor. Appropriately for a musical, the film's song score is first-rate. Composer Michael Legrand is an unrecognized genius, and his score is both complex and inviting. Alan and Marilyn Bergman have penned the lyrics to many of Streisand's best-loved recordings (the #1 hits "The Way We Were and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," just to name a few), but they really outdo themselves here. Their words and Legrand's music complement each other perfectly, and their collaboration is largely the reason the film's score is as consistent and as cohesive as it is. However, the main factor to YENTL'S artistic success is the phenomenal vocal performance of Barbra Streisand. The songs for this film were recorded twenty years after her official studio debut, and she has never sounded better than she does here. Whether the tone of the song is anguished ("Where Is It Written," "Tomorrow Night"), euphoric ("This Is One of Those Moments"), or incredibly sensual ("The Way He Makes Me Feel"), Streisand's hushed restraint and dramatic range are nothing short of incredible. Her phrasing is put to excellent use in "Will Someone Ever Look At Me That Way" and the three renditions of "No Wonder" (each with different lyrics and a different meaning), while both "No Matter What Happens" and "A Piece Of Sky" are terrific showcases for Streisand's astonishing vocal prowess. YENTL also marks the first appearance of "Papa, Can You Hear Me," which instantly became one of Streisand's signature songs due largely to her intensely soulful performance. YENTL is a motion picture that is very close to the heart of many Streisand fans. It is a project that Streisand believed in with all her soul, and both the film and its soundtrack remain near the top of the list of the best things any popular artist has ever done.

I absolutely LOVED Yentl.. I saw it after it first came out in '83 and remember like it was yesterday. I was living on my own and sat one night and watched it and it was the first time I ever wanted to write a FAN letter. I thought Barbara did a great job!! Granted, the premise is kinda off beat and she really DIDN'T look like a guy much, but the music, Mandy Patinkin, and what's-her-name that played the wife were all good in this. I think this is the first time I ever saw Mandy Patinkin (I couldn't believe - a GUY named Mandy, but hey, I thought he was good looking!) It just hit me at the right time, I guess. Heck, my 16 year old daughter watched it with me last Christmas and thought it was great, too! (And SHE usually hates MY choices!!..)

"Yentl" is based on the story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy" by the late Isaac Bashevis Singer, the last great Yiddish author. Yentl is the bright, intelligent daughter of Reb (Rabbi) Mendl, a widower, played by the great Nehemiah Persoff. She looks after her father's household and almost by osmosis learns the Torah (Pentateuch) and the Talmud by listening to the lessons of the young men who come to study with her father. She also wants to become a Jewish scholar, but in the rigidly patriarchal society of Eastern European Jewry, only boys are allowed to study. After her father's death, she decides to disguise herself as a boy to get into a yeshiva (school). Now going by the name Anschel, she succeeds in getting into a yeshiva, and becomes close friends, and eventually falls in love, with fellow student Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin; Avigdor is Hebrew for "father protects"), who is in an arranged betrothal to a beautiful young woman named Hadass (Amy Irving). But when Hadass's family learns Avigdor's brother committed suicide, the wedding is called off. Yentl/Anschel is then selected to marry Hadass. Avigdor supports this, because he sees this as a way to remain close to his friend Anschel (Yentl) and Hadass. Yentl/Anschel goes through with the marriage, and manages by clever subterfuge to live with Hadass but never consummate the marriage or reveal "himself" to be a woman. Eventually, Yentl/Anschel and Avigdor go away for a few days, and Yentl/Anschel reveals her secret to him. But rather than accepting her as a woman and returning her love, Avigdor rejects her. Avigdor returns to Hadass, and the movie ends with Yentl on a ship to (we suppose) America to make a new start, where presumably she will change her name to Fanny Brice and become a big star in vaudeville, then years later, as an old woman, be reduced to visiting Max Bialystock's office for some lovin'. Visually, "Yentl" looks perfect. The village, the landscape, the people, their language and dress, are a convincing reconstruction of the lost world of the shtetl and its denizens. The actors look perfect, too, although there are problems: It's a stretch to believe that Barbra Streisand could pass herself off as a boy for an extended period, but if the Hilary Swank character in "Boys Don't Cry" could do it, I guess we can suspend disbelief for the duration of "Yentl." Streisand puts in a capable performance, as do Mandy Patinkin and the actors in the other major roles. You have to figure that Hadass was pretty dumb to be hoodwinked the way she was, but I guess that's supposed to be part of the "charm" of the story. However, "Yentl" suffers from a major problem: The music. What cabbagehead decided that Michel Legrand would be the right composer for this movie?!? His score was completely inappropriate, and Streisand's constant singing under the action drove me crazy. Barbra, shut up once in a while and let the action speak for itself! It was like "Fiddler on the Roof" collides with "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and that's the kind of road accident I'd rather not see. I suppose that in order to get the project made, Streisand had to agree to sing in the film. Would making "Yentl" into a typical musical, à la "Fiddler," have ruined it? Probably a whole lot less than it was ruined by Legrand's music. After all, "Fiddler," which came out 12 years before "Yentl," had a number of dark moments as well as some light and humorous scenes, and the songs worked. But the score of "Fiddler on the Roof" deliberately used musical motifs and themes derived from and inspired by the rich musical tradition of Eastern European Jewry. They should have stuck with that very serviceable approach. The clash of the music and the rest of the film is a fatal flaw from which "Yentl" does not recover.

Yentl is a young Jewish woman who shall be married, but she is too curious, she wants to know more and she wants to learn all about the Talmud, which is forbidden to women by this time. So she dresses herself like a young man and goes to the yeshiva, always frightened to be discovered, and there she meets Avigdor, a brilliant student, who is meant to be her mentor, and she fells in love with him. He is in love with a beautiful Jewish girl (Amy Irving) but he cannot marry her, because his brother died of suicide. So he asks Angel (Barbra Streisand) to marry her, and she does.... It's a real Barbra Streisand masterpiece, I think no one could have done this picture more sensual and beautiful like she did. A story, that never should be forgotten, of a woman that fights against the male world, wants to be more than the role that was meant to be hers. Brilliant songs, perfectly written by Michael Legrand, brilliant directed and also the sets are chosen very well, the picture of a Jewish world like it was in former times is set originally. Also Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving are brilliant actors who can show their different faces in this movie. Thios movie is a MUST for everybody.

How could hell be any worse? Barbara Streisand dressing up as a man and singing for feminism... JESUS CHRIST! Throw the TV out of the window! If there was any possibility to rate Streisand herself i'd give her 1/10 points for every movie she has ever made (and of course for her terrible howling). This movie was made in hell. It's even worse than "The Horsewhisperer" or "City of Angels"!

I discovered this film recently when it came out on DVD in France at a knock-down price. Picture quality is no more than average and seems to have a little over-dominance of sepia. I assume the film was originally destined for a Jewish audience as many of the references contained therein concern the Jewish religion of which I know nothing ! All that said, I was very very satisfied with this film, Barbra Steisand gave a magnificent performance, you could see that she put her heart into this, apart from being really cute, her voice and songs were magnificent. There's also quite a lot of humour and potentially embarrassing situations which is normal, given the fairly original plot line. I think that the end is a satisfying one indeed the only satisfying one possible. I know little about Jewish culture but do, as an "outsider" find it attractive. Indeed this may indeed be a prerequisite to fully appreciate this film.

I worked in a movie theatre in 1983 where Yentl was the only film playing, and I was forced to see it dozens of times in the course of my job. The plot is ridiculous, the pathetic moral point of the film is nauseating, and the songs comprise possibly the worst soundtrack in movie history. Barbra Streisand is madly in love with herself--something that is evident in every frame of this movie--and unless you're equally wild about her I strongly suggest doing anything possible to avoid this painful suck-fest of a flick.

Barbra Streisand has referred to herself as 'an actress who happens to be a singer'. I doubt I am alone in viewing her professional legacy in the reverse: as a great singer who happens to be an actress . . . director, producer, screenplay writer, musical score composer, humanitarian, and lately, concerned with using her production and direction talents to bring out important social issues (like ageism--"The Living Century" is about centurions--people a hundred years old or more). "Yentl" marks the beginning of a woman blazing a new trail as a director, singer, composer, her hands in the screenplay, and production. She's spoken in a segment on "The Directors," about how various cultures have treated her as a result of her deliberate transcendence of Hollywood's gender-biased boundaries. One of her most interesting points reveals how well she was treated in England by the British filming crew. Since gender-bias against women is not even comparable to gender bias in the US, because England is so far advanced beyond gender discrimination because one is a woman, Streisand remarks how much easier it was for her to accomplish her goals on the set because the British film crew treated her without gender-bias, and with the respect she is certainly due. "Yentl" royally upset the AFI in the US because Streisand entered into no woman's land when she had a hand in nearly every aspect of the motion picture. "Yentl" has some of the most memorable, touching, humanely familiar music and lyrics, yet it received no Academy Award. The direction was brilliant--no Academy Award. The screenplay was one that was serious, hilarious, religious, spiritual, and even addressed the issues of gender-bias head on--no Academy Award. Streisand's and Amy Irving's acting was stupendous--no Academy Award. Streisand paved the way and took the non-recognition by the Film Academy without stopping. This musical motional picture pales many that are classics. The story is an extra interesting one, the likes of which have not been reproduced with anything close to as much skill and class. I'll give this classic about six Academy Awards, including several that go to Streisand alone.