Yentl
- Director: Barbra Streisand
- Writer: Jack Rosenthal; Barbra Streisand
- Producer: Larry DeWaay; Rusty Lemorande
CGiii Comment
Ahead of its time - watching this again, years later, should astound.
It's not a typical musical...but, a heartfelt critique of an institution.
Simply stunning - more so now than ever before.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Dramatization of "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy," by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991); originally published in Yiddish c. 1960, then in English c. 1983. The story: In an Ashkenazic shtetl in Poland, Yentl Mendel is the boyishly klutzy daughter and only child of long widowed Rebbe ("Talmud Teacher") Mendel, who teaches Talmud (a codification of Jewish Law) to local boys - and to Yentl, but secretly because girls were not allowed to learn the law in those days. When her father dies, Yentl is all alone in the world. She takes the momentous decision to leave the village and - disguised as a boy and calling herself by the name of her late brother, Anshel - seeks and gets admitted to a Yeshiva, to study the texts, traditions, subtleties and complexities of Torah, Talmud, etc. She befriends Avigdor who is engaged to Haddas, but her family discovers his brother committed suicide so they call off the wedding (in case Avigdor possesses the same madness).
Cast & Characters
Barbra Streisand as Yentl;
Mandy Patinkin as Avigdor;
Amy Irving as Hadass;
Nehemiah Persoff as Reb Mendel 'Papa';
Steven Hill as Reb Alter Vishkower;
Allan Corduner as Shimmele;
Ruth Goring as Esther Rachel;
David de Keyser as Rabbi Zalman;
Bernard Spear as Tailor;
Doreen Mantle as Mrs. Shaemen;
Lynda Baron as Peshe;
Jack Lynn as Bookseller;
Anna Tzelniker as Mrs. Kovner;
Miriam Margolyes as Sarah;
Mary Henry as Mrs. Jacobs