Yentl (film)

Infobox Film
name = Yentl


caption =
director = Barbra Streisand
producer = Larry DeWaay Rusty Lemorande Barbra Streisand
writer = Jack Rosenthal Barbra Streisand
narrator =
starring = Barbra Streisand Amy Irving Mandy Patinkin Nehemiah Persoff
music = Michel Legrand
cinematography = David Watkin
editing = Terry Rawlings
distributor =
released = flagicon|United States 1983
runtime = 132 min.
country = US
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0086619

Yentl in a 1983 American film directed, co-written, co-produced and starring Barbra Streisand based on a play by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer, itself based on Singer's short story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy". The dramatic story incorporates humor and music to relate the odyssey of a Jewish girl in Poland who decides to dress and live like a man so she can receive an education in Jewish Talmudic Law after her father dies. The film's musical score and songs, composed by Michel Legrand, is memorable for the songs "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "The Way He Makes Me Feel", both sung by Streisand.

Plot

Barbra Streisand portrays Yentl Mendel, a girl living in an Ashkenazi Jewish community in Poland. The film is set in an era during which women are forbidden to receive an education in Jewish Talmudic Law, but despite this, Yentl is instructed in the teachings by her Rabbi father, Rebbe Mendel (Nehemiah Persoff). After the death of her father, Yentl decides to dress like a man, take the name Anshel, and enter a Jewish legal school, or yeshiva. After entering the yeshiva, Yentl makes friends with a fellow student, Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), and his fiance Haddas (Amy Irving). The story is complicated as Hadass' family cancels the wedding, and Hadass eventually finds romantic feelings for Yentl (as Anshel). Yentl eventually leaves Europe to study at a yeshiva in America, where women are openly permitted to study.

Awards

"Yentl" won an Academy Award in 1984 for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score, the award going to Michel Legrand (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics), and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics). Amy Irving was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and the film was also nominated for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.

Barbra Streisand received a Golden Globe for Best Director for the film, and "Yentl" was nominated for four other Golden Globes.

Locations

The film was shot on location in Prague, New York City, and Liverpool.

ee also

*Yentl (the play)
*Isaac Bashevis Singer