Yentl [DVD] [1983]

The DVD Yentyl was well packaged and arrived in time and in good order. I played it recently and I loved it.

I watched it on release in the cinema, brought the soundtrack on LP, video and now DVD. I ordered on Monday 10th July, it was delivered on Thursday 13th July, watched it the same evening and wrote the review after watching the movie, which was a first for me. Barbara Streisand did an amazing job as Director, Producer, Writer, Singer and leading actor, the photography, soundtrack, production, acting and direction all very good.Barbara Streisand plays a Jewish girl who dresses as a boy to receive a religion education in Eastern Europe during 1904, all you need is a good imagination and an interest in the story. It’s quite amusing when she agrees to marry her best friend’s wife to be, as her husband; so much feeling and emotion when the man friend finds out she is a woman. It certainly deserved better reviews than I’ve read in film books; I’ve watched 5-star movies that are 10 times worse, which I’ve turned off after 20 minutes from boredom and despair.I hadn’t seen this film for many years, and for some reason I thought Streisand’s character ended up with Patinkin’s character at the end, but I was so wrong. At the end we see a close-up of Barbara singing “A Piece of Sky” on board ship, as the camera then pulls back as Barbara and the ship fade in to the distance.I’d like to be able to buy a special edition with a “Making Of” documentary with Barbara Streisand, Mandy Patinkin, Amy Irving and Nehemiah Persoff and the other professionals involved in the film.

I watched this film in a cinema 35 years ago. Magical is the word. One of the sweetest film ever made: charming, moving, it's a truly delicate fable with both a poignant love story and a strong message at its core: follow your dreams, nothing is impossible! Beautifully photographed by British cinematographer David Watkin and directed by Barbra herself (also producing), the actors are all amazing especially Barbra who truly shines looking so beautiful both as a woman and disguised as man. Her skin is flawless and her bright blue eyes so clear, one can see through her beautiful sweet natured soul both as the actor and the remarkable lady she is in real life. Watching the bonus disc it is very interesting to get behind the scenes through the archival 8mm films from Barbra's private collection and learn about the incredible amount of difficulties (and years of truly dedicated hard work) she went through trying to bring the project to light. Handsome Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving (looking so pretty and innocent) are also amazing in their roles and together with Barbra they all have perfect chemistry. The late Michel Legrand's music and Marilyn and Alan Bergman's lyrics are just perfect (conveying Yentl's inner feelings throughout the film). It's probably one of the finest film soundtracks ever made with Barbra's voice sounding so clear and vivid. Oh and that epic triumphant final scene beautifully filmed on a boat and of course THAT legendary 20 seconds note Streisand hits singing 'A piece of sky'...watch this film, they don't make them like this anymore!

This is a perfect gift as long as you remember to leave your views on religion to one side. OK so the recording for this will always be a bit hazey, but has been digitally remastered and is very clear from an old video recording. The poor element is the sound & on our tv we had to bump up to over a volume of 60% at times to get to hear the talking not that we have any hearing problems!, but on the singing it was much better, so unfortunately someone will have to sit with the remote control to go up and down. Some things you are never going to get right on any recording. Would definitely recommend, but don't know how to honestly give a rating on the sound. Well worth having as a gift, so long as you tell them about the sound - good luck :)

I am not big fan of musical but this film had a good story and kept me to watch it until the end. I admit singers of the old times were/ are the best. Barbra streisand is indeed a good singer and actress! Mandel Patinkin was so handsome and cute! It is rare to see a natural handsomeness of today's male actors with all these plastic surgeries and botox going on.

This DVD, I saw several times many years ago. It is a film I hold very dear for many reasons. The film itself is an "old" film [1983]which younger people may not be aware of. The film offers /demonstrates issues of race/ class/ gender in many guises; i.e prejudice; subordination/ roles/ inequality. It demonstrates how societal history has [and still does] developed and maintains the stereotype of women and where/ what it recognises as "woman's place".Yes it is "entertaining". But because it is, this film needs to be shown and used as a teaching aid to young people. It is a "fun and modern" way to put across important historical and current messages.Amazon have a great selection of films [ and other things]. It was delivered on time as promised. It was securely packaged and arrived safely and intact. The price is superb. It can be watched again and again at my convenience and so is economically an excellent purchase.Missapt 12.01.2012

Excellent movie. Last saw it many years ago, still a great movie.

QUELLE SUPERB FILM AVEC LE TALENTED BARBRA STREISAND . J'AI EU TELLEMENT DE PLAISIR A LE REVOIR APRES TANT D'ANNEES

Classic - So happy to have in my collection again

どう見ても女性にしか見えないバーブラ・ストライサンドが無理やり男装して撮った作品、という文言をどこかで目にして面白く感じ、ずっと以前に、テレビで放映されていたものを見ました。ミシェル・ルグラン作曲の美しい旋律が脳裏に残っていて、また聞きたくなりましたが、残念ながら日本語字幕版DVDがないとわかりました。日本語字幕版VHS を購入したものの、旧テレビサイズでしたのでフルサイズで見たくなり、こちらのDVDの購入となりました。リージョンフリーのプレーヤーでないと再生出来ませんでした。バーブラ・ストライサンドさんの圧倒的な歌唱力もさることながら、エイミー・アーヴィングさんのやわらかな雰囲気が好きでしたね。バーブラさんの来日公演が一度もなかったことを知り、驚いています。追憶があれ程日本でヒットしたのに意外でした。その追憶も、この作品の音楽に名を連ねている、バーグマン夫妻の作詞によるものだと初めて知りました。

There are two names that are equally synonomous with this piece: Isaac Bashevis Singer (the author of the short story and co-author of the play) and Barbra Streisand. In history, no other person has taken on so many jobs for the creation of one film as Streisand did for this one. "Yentyl" was ten years in the making. though Streisand obtained the rights for the project ion 1969, hoping for it to be the film she made after "Funny Girl" When reading the short story one would think, ":This could never be made into a movie" However, Streisand covered all of these issues by using voice overs to express inner monologue; somewhere along the way she decided to contract Micheal Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman to turn these monologues into songs and since Streissand, who wrote, produced, directed and edited this film, also played the title rolel, was suddenly singing the most remarkable film music ever written in history. (I include ":The Wizard of Oz", "Singing in The Rain", "Jaws" and "Fame"- I do not speak of Boradway trnsfers to film such as "West Side Story" or "Sweeney Todd") So through the systematic solving of some big problems we now have one of the finest film scores and film songs in history.The story is remarkable and every element of the film is accurate. Not only do we see the Jewish life in Poland fifteen years before before the first world war but we see the struggle between the role of men and women. It is her desire to learn and to read and be more than a cook and housewife that causes the young girl to disguise herself as a Yeshiva Boy(student) cut her hair and travel to the big city to enroll in school.Yentyl takes on the name Anshul there and parts of life that she never imagined opened up to her. This film contains none of the usual folly that ensues as a result of cross dressing tactics; it is not a comedy and though the same things may well happen here that one sees in La Cage Aux Folles and The Bird Cage, they are depicted with the hard pain of the reality. Even this is brought to light through the artistry of Streisands work.The film begins by following a white down feather along a flowwing creek aqnd post rain running puddle, through a market place and into the scene. The detail is precise and this same precision remains until the very last cut which is a camera at sea level looking upon an ocean liner bound for America after Streisand has sung the most amazingly difficult and moving piece of music in the film. The composition of this piece (It is called "A Piece of Sky") is such that the composers used fragments of many other songs in the score and fused them together over which they lay this fresh new song. Streisand holds the final note for a total of ten measures; it is a B natural, the note that falls directly on Streisands passagio, and therefore, in full chest voice, has the most intensity that any sung note can have. Composer Jule Syne found this piece ofStreisand twenty five years earlier and used it for her voice with the first act finale of "Funny Girl" and indeed, Streisands incredible breath control and support is what has made her so famous because frankly, nobody does it better. She uses the exact same muscles and control early in the film, alone by a campfire after her father's death as she steals away to the city in a remarkable song called "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" Every trained singer who hears this sits, slightly tense, aware that she took no safety breath and that it is humanly impossible to sustain sound that softly for that long, yet, even after fifty years of listening to Streisand sing, she continues to do it and continues to be modest about it. She continues to astonish us.Mandy Patinkin, fresh off the stage from "Evita" and just before his return for "Sunday In The Park With George" does a remarkable job with the co-star role, playing Avigdor, Yentyl's study partner with whom Yentyl falls in love and Avigdor develops a warmth friendship as though this young boy were his own brother. Mandy Patkinkin has prooven himself time after time to be a remarkable actor and in this film he is no different except that Streisand has managed to block the cameras to intensify emotional moments, whether they are building to a fight or thy are creeping around a dining table allowing us to spy on the emotions of each individual. Patinkin is very aware of the camera staging and plays with it beautifully.Many critics have complained that Streisand did not have Patinkin sing, and indeed Mandy Patinkin is one of America's finest tenors, but their complaints over this are in print because of a lack of understanding and perhaps even idiocy as I have already explained that the music in this film is to allow us ONLY into the mind of the individual who is hiding so much about her true self. If you wish to hear Patinkin sing, buy a CD (I recommend "Sunday In The PArk With George")"Yentyl" is period perfect, from properties, costumes, sets and dialects to the instruments in the orchestra. If the instrument wasn;t used in Eastern Europe in 1892 or wasn;t invented then it is not here. The harmony is all modal, utilizing much from the Jewish services including some beautify string and vocal parts using the Kaddish that underscore her father's fiuneral and another temple scene.This film was fairly wellk snubbed at the oscars, but then Barbra Streisand has been fairly well snubbed by the Oscars herself for her entire career. She won her first Tony Award at age 19, the same age that she won her first Grammy Award. She won The Oscar for best acress for "Funny Girl" and best original song for "Evergreen" but Streisand is to film direction what Barbara Walters is to journalism and Shirley Jackson is to serious fiction. Had this film been directed by Billy Wilder and come out as good it would have swept the Oscars, instead it swept the Golden Globes where Barbra Streisand became the first woman to ever win as Best Director.. Proof of this is in the film "Prince of TIdes" which would come about seven years later where Streisand directed Nick Nolte and the film was nominated in almost every catagory ExCEPT for best direction. At the Oscars, ":Yentyl" was famously snubbed" With "The P{rince of Tides" it became clear that it was Streisand whom the Oscars were subbing.The opening of the Oscars that year had BillyCrystal singing new lyrics to "Don;t Rain On My Parade" and during the bridge (with the one-four time measure after each phrase) Billy sang, "Did this film direct itself?" The conductor's hands remained up, not moving,Billy stood still and the audience roared with laughtter evolving into a standing ovation. "The Prince of Tides" was nomionated for seven Accademy Awards but 1992 "The Silence of The Lambs" swept all catagories making it (with "One flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest") one of two films in history to win virtually every single major catagory.Thus I can say that ":Yentyl's" lack of oscars should not deter you; should not disqualify it as being one of the finest films of the post Vietnam era and certainly one of Streisand's greatest efforts.