Yentl [Director's Extended Cut] [2 Discs]

Director: Barbra Streisand Barbra Streisand

Overview

For her directorial debut, Barbra Streisand adapted Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story Yentl. Set in the early 1900s in Eastern Europe, Yentl is the story of a young Jewish woman who has to disguise herself as a boy in order to receive an education. Once she is studying among the Orthodox Jewish rabbis, she falls in love with another student; her situation is further complicated when a woman falls in love her. With the help of Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman (who won Academy Awards for their score), Streisand turned Singer's simple story into a full-blown musical, complete with 12 songs.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/03/2009
UPC:	0883904117766
Original Release:	1983
Rating:	PG
Source:	Mgm (Video & Dvd)
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:17:00
Sales rank:	14,938

Special Features

Disco One: An introduction by Barbara Streisand; Audio commentary by Barbara Streisand and co-producer Rusty Lemorande; Deleted scenes; Disc Two: An introduction to disc two by Barbara Streisand; The director's reel featurette; The rehearsal process with materials from Barbara's archives; My wonderful cast and crew featurette; Deleted song storyboard sequences; Barbra's 8mm concept film with option narration; Still galleries

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Barbra Streisand	Yentl/Anshel
Mandy Patinkin	Avigdor
Amy Irving	Hadass
Nehemiah Persoff	Papa
Steven Hill	Reb Alter Vishkower
Allan Corduner	Actor,Shimmele
Ruth Goring	Esther Rachel
Bernard Spear	Tailor
Doreen Mantle	Mrs. Shaemen
Lynda Barron	Actor
Jack Lynn	Bookseller
Anna Tzelniker	Mrs. Kovner
Miriam Margolyes	Sarah
Mary Henry	Actor
Robbie Barnett	Tailor's Assistant
Ian Sears	David
Renata Buser	Actor
Anthony Rubes	Actor,Village Student
Kerry Shale	Actor
Gary Brown	Actor
Peter Whitman	Actor
Danny Brainin	Actor
Jonathan Tafler	Actor
Teddy Kempner	Student
David De Keyser	Rabbi Zalman
Lynda Baron	Actor
Mark English	Yeshiva Student
Derek Lyons	Yeshiva Student
Norma Atallah	Debra
Milena Glogarova	la femme sur le pont Charles
Frank Baker	Actor
Alan Bergman	Composer,Composer
Michel Legrand	Composer

Technical Credits

Barbra Streisand

Jack Rosenthal

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Jerome Kass

Barbra Streisand	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Jack Rosenthal	Screenwriter
Larry DeWaay	Executive Producer,Producer
Rusty Lemorande	Producer
Alan Whibley	Special Effects
Tim Blackham	Sound Effects
Glenn Freemantle	Sound Effects
David Hildyard	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Ray Merrin	Sound Effects
Bill Rowe	Sound Effects
Isaac Bashevis Singer	Screenwriter
Jerome Kass	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

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.