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March 6, 2009
Yentl marks 25th with DVD
Streisand's film version of Singer's story is still fun to watch.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
There are movies that become iconic, and Yentl is one of them. In 1984, it received four Academy Award nominations, winning one for best original score, two Golden Globe award wins and four nominations, as well as a Grammy Award nomination. And its popularity wasn't short-lived. If there are any doubts of the film's lasting power, they are wiped away with the recent release of a 25th anniversary director's extended edition DVD. It's full of extras, some of which are fascinating.
Apparently, Barbra Streisand was taken by Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl, the Yeshivah Boy as far back as 1968, when she first read the short story. Fourteen years later, she was filming her adaptation of the tale.
"By the way, it's not supposed to be a clear interpretation of the Isaac Singer story," Streisand tells DVD viewers. "That story was written in the '30s and '40s. It was about a younger girl, but, when making a movie, that's the kind of licence we took. I made her to be kind of a 28-year-old spinster because, if you weren't married by that age, you were a real loser, a real spinster, you know. She never wanted to get married, [she] was evading the matchmakers...."
There are other differences between Singer's story and that of Streisand's film, but the basic story is of a young woman in early 20th-century Poland, whose father taught her Talmud in secret, as women weren't permitted study sacred texts in those days. When her father dies, Yentl makes a monumental decision: she cuts her hair, disguises herself as a boy, takes on the name of Anshel and sets off to enter a yeshivah. There, she becomes friends with a fellow student, Avigdor, who is in love with a woman named Hadass. In the movie version, Hadass' parents reject Avigdor as a husband for their daughter and Yentl/Anshel ends up the bridegroom. The love triangle is: Yentl loves Avigdor, who loves Hadass, who loves Avigdor but who ends up loving Yentl, too. Eventually, secrets are revealed, Avigdor and Hadass end up with each other and Yentl heads off to America, where she will be able to study as a woman.
Streisand was the film's director and co-producer. As well, she co-wrote the screenplay and starred in the title role. She was joined by a superb cast, including Mandy Patinkin as Avigdor and Amy Irving as Hadass. While she performed the songs, the music was actually written by Michel LeGrand and the lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. While admitting to liking the award-winning music may be a little embarrassing for some people – akin to openly enjoying Andrew Lloyd Webber's score for Cats, for instance – what viewers will see if they watch the DVD's special features is just how perfect the lyrics are for the movie, and how they help tell the story.
In addition to introductions by Streisand to various DVD features, Streisand and executive producer Rusty Lemorande provide interesting commentary on the film. They talk about directorial decisions, lighting choices, why some scenes were cut, what it took to build certain sets, where the plot diverges from Singer's story and other behind-the-scenes tidbits. As an example, Streisand points out that, among the yeshivah boys depicted in the film, there are a few women dressed as fellow students, so that Streisand as Yentl is more believable.
Another aspect Streisand stresses in her comments is how many shots were done in one take, like in the theatre, which is her background. Some of the rehearsal footage on the DVD shows what this approach meant for the pace of filming and the high quality of what was finally captured by the cameras. The rehearsal/final film comparisons of several of the musical numbers shows clearly how detailed and prepared Streisand was in her planning – because it was being shot in Czechoslovakia, on a tight budget, Streisand timed and acted out the musical scenes and filmed (in what looks like a home video, with the help of friends or fellow actors) all the songs in the United States months before filming began. When the videos and film segments are spliced together in montages on the DVD, you see the precision of Streisand's "rehearsals," as the two versions are basically identical in timing and action.
It's hard to believe that 25 years have passed since Yentl was released. For those of us who last saw it in the 1980s, when we were 25 years younger, it's comforting to see that it has withstood the test of time and is still a great movie.
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