Yentl

Yentl
January 6, 1984
United Artists
Comedy, Drama, Musical, Historical, Romance
DVD
B

This has obvious similarities to Zelig.  Not only were they released close together, but both titles are from the end of the alphabet.  (There's even a minor character here, the tailor's assistant, who's named Zelig.)  Both producers/writers/directors/stars (born six years apart and becoming famous at roughly the same time) explore identity, including Jewish identity, although Yentl is definitely more of a "Jewish" film in theme and setting.

The movie also has things in common with Tootsie.  Besides the cross-dressing plot and the resulting tangled romances, both movies star performers who are known for being difficult, and they parody themselves a bit.  More so in Tootsie, but the pushy, argumentative, talkative Barbra shows through in Yentl, or rather in her male alter ego Anshel.

As in Tootsie, the tangled romances don't untangle quite satisfactorily, more so here than in Tootsie.  When I saw this movie at 15, it was almost painful to watch, because I was attracted to both Barbra and Amy Irving,  (Not so much Mandy Patinkin, although he is cute, and he can definitely play a near-nude scene.)  When beautiful Amy Irving tried to kiss her "husband," that was both titillating and embarrassing for me as a closeted bisexual adolescent.  The friendship between Anshel and "his wife" Hadass moves from slumber-party to a not-quite-sisterhood, and Yentl recognizes she loves this other woman, although not romantically or sexually.

There's no good way to resolve the triangle, not in that time and place, however much I want the married couple to move to a new town, with Avigdor as their "roommate."  And Yentl recognizes that Avigdor will never fully accept the Anshel side of her.  In a way, it's right that he go back to a newly assertive (but still feminine) Hadass.  The problem is, because the story focuses on Yentl, we're left to fill in a lot of gaps, wondering how Avigdor told Hadass (Yentl writes her a note, but surely that's not enough), and how she reacted, and how Avigdor and Hadass were able to defy her parents.

It's a good movie: warm, sweet, funny, sad, with Barbra's lovely voice providing her own Greek chorus through songs that vary greatly in mood.  The film is definitely worth seeing despite the resolution.  It's based on "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" by Isaac Bashevis Singer, who hated the movie, particularly that Yentl sails to America.  But I accept that part because it's pure Barbra.  I just wish the script had given more thought to Hadass.

Nehemiah Persoff, who plays Yentl's wise, sweet papa, is almost unrecognizable a quarter century after his role as Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot.  Bernard Spear, who plays the tailor, was the second spy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Peter Whitman, a yeshiva student here, would be Friborg in Morons from Outer Space.  Miriam Margolyes, who's Sarah here, would be Dr. Wallace there, although she may be best known as Professor Sprout in a couple of the Harry Potter movies.  Norma Atallah, who plays Debra here, would be Irini in Mamma Mia!  

Unspoken