Barbra Streisand's directorial debut YENTL is a gender-disguising romance about an Eastern European Jewish woman Yentl Mendel (Streisand) in the beginning of 20th century, whose aspiration of learning the Talmud (the Jewish civil and ceremonial law and legend which women are forbidden to learn) is so irrepressible that she disguises as a man to enter a religious school, where she falls in love with a fellow student Avigdor (Patinkin), who is handfasted to a comely girl Hadass (Irving).
A common eternal triangle with a difference, the gender-bending element is disposed to create some confusion of sexual orientation. While Yentl, using her late brother's name Anshel as a man, is undyingly carrying a torch for Avigdor, for the latter, his chummy affection to Anshel casts some doubt on his heterosexuality. So is Hadass, when she falls for Anshel, the tenderness she engenders is indeed sapphic in disguise. Cravenly, such a whiff of queerness is brushed aside, because YENTL is as orthodox as the almost Hasidic doctrines that Yentl endeavors to subvert.
Essentially, the urtext of YENTL determines that it is a cri de cœur for gender equality, a progress to abolish a patriarchal society's traditional, paternalistic bias against women. But during the climax, when Yentl finally comes clean to Avigdor, her answer to his question "why a woman like her wants to learn the Talmud?" is a plain "because I want more", which sounds pathetically bathetic, because what audience needs to hear is not "more" but "equality". To a woman, learning is not an added value, but a deprived birthright, to reclaim it with dignity is the least thing a filmmaker should commit. From that aspect, Streisand goes wide of the mark.
YENTL also errs on the side of being too pedagogical, as if those students are possessed by a one-trick mind, that is the Talmud. Their endless, rambunctious debate about it quickly turns into hot air because the film doesn't even try to elucidate the nuggets of it to the initiated. The entire Jewish culture looks just like a pretense, what YENTL aims to make a heavy weather of is the romantic paradox, a low-hanging fruit.
However, it is a Streisand's picture with her holding the rein, so at the very least, we can bank on her incredible voice to take us on a voyage of aural enchantment. Time-honored show tunes like "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "The Way He Makes Me Feel", composed by Michel Legrand (who won an Oscar for the picture), with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, are kosher ear-worms.
On the acting front, Streisand the actor is favorably self-conscious as an effete man and rounds out Yentl's emotional trajectory with flying colors. Patinkin, to the credit of his incredible acting bent, takes the repugnant edge off a male chauvinist and bears out that Avigdor is a flawed character because of the environment, not by nature. Strangely, it is Irving's docile, plastically naive performance nabs an Oscar nomination, Hadass is the blue-sky personification of an ingénue grossly out of masculine imaginings, Irving is serviceable at best, not to mention a Razzie nomination speaks volumes of the divide on her part. YENTL is a curate's egg, too conformable for its radical agenda. But for what it is worth, after Streisand the ever-green singer, Streisand the Oscar-winning actor, it announces the advent of Streisand the director (shy of an Oscar nomination though), a glass-ceiling buster who would eventually be hard done by the sexist industry.
referential entries: William Wyler's FUNNY GIRL (1968, 7.7/10); Joan Micklin Silver's HESTR STREET (1975, 7.6/10); Nicki Caro's MULAN (2020, 6.4/10); Norman Jewison's FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971, 6.4/10).
There are moments you remember all your life. There are moments you wait for ans1 dream, Of all your life. This is one of those moments. I will always remember this chair, that window, the way the light streams in. The clothes I'm wearing, The words I'm heating, The face I'm seeing, The feeling I'm feeling, The smell, the sounds, will be written On my mind, will be written in my heart As long as I live! I can, travel the past and take what I need To see me through the years What my father learned and his Father before him will be there For my eyes and ears. I can walk through the forests Of the trees of knowledge And listen to the lessons of the leaves. I can enter rooms Were there are rooms within rooms Wrapped in the shawl that learning weaves. I remember, Papa-everything you taught me What you gave me, Papa- Look at what it’s brought me There are certain things that once you have No man can take away- No wave can wash away- No wind can blow away- And now they’re about to be mine! No tide can turn away- No fire can burn away- No time can wear away... I can open doors and take from the shelves All the books I’ve longed to hold I can ask all the questions, The whys and the wheres As the mysteries of life unfold Like a link in a chain From the past to the future That joins me with the children yet to be, I can now be a part Of the ongoing stream, That has always been a part of me! There are certain things that once you have No man can rake away- No wave can wash away- No wind can blow away- No tide can turn away- No fire can burn away- No time can wear away- And now they’re about to be mine! There are moments you remember all your life. There are moments you wait for And dream, of all your life. This is one of those moments!
在东欧，1904,那个只有男人才被允许学习的时代，有一个叫Yentl的女孩出现在你的视野。 市集上，女人们忙着张罗买菜，打听谁家的女孩要嫁人了，Yentl却被书贩叫卖吸引得魂不守舍。 书贩叫道， Sacred books for men, story books for women; Sacred books for men, picture books for women. He said it's the Law,You are in the wrong place, lady. 人们说懂得Talmud的女人是魔鬼，可是Yentl的父亲教她读书，教她Talmud。 读书并不必定使人不平凡，可是读书可以让你了解你好奇的一切奥秘。 这 些奥秘，一旦了解， 人夺不去，浪卷不走，风刮不掉，火烧不尽。 你被禁止读书，只因你是女人。 读书的时候你得拉上窗帘锁上门，因为虽然上帝可以了解，邻居却不一定。 那么一旦换上男人的外衣，你就可以得到这一切，光明正大。那就这么去做吧。 当你 追求到了你期盼的世界，再回来改变它。
The world I see is so much bigger Now that I'm alone. Papa, please forgive me. Try to understand me; Papa, don’t you know I had no choice? Can you hear me praying, Anything I'm saying Even though the night is filled with voices? I remember everything you taught me Every book 1've ever read... Can all the words in all the books Help me to face what lies ahead?
可是，世界上原来还有那么多没有被记在书里的事。 you know too much, but not enough. 没有人为你而生，只有你自己。 更待何时。
Barbra Streisand's directorial debut YENTL is a gender-disguising romance about an Eastern European Jewish woman Yentl Mendel (Streisand) in the beginning of 20th century, whose aspiration of learning the Talmud (the Jewish civil and ceremonial law and legend which women are forbidden to learn) is so irrepressible that she disguises as a man to enter a religious school, where she falls in love with a fellow student Avigdor (Patinkin), who is handfasted to a comely girl Hadass (Irving).
A common eternal triangle with a difference, the gender-bending element is disposed to create some confusion of sexual orientation. While Yentl, using her late brother's name Anshel as a man, is undyingly carrying a torch for Avigdor, for the latter, his chummy affection to Anshel casts some doubt on his heterosexuality. So is Hadass, when she falls for Anshel, the tenderness she engenders is indeed sapphic in disguise. Cravenly, such a whiff of queerness is brushed aside, because YENTL is as orthodox as the almost Hasidic doctrines that Yentl endeavors to subvert.
Essentially, the urtext of YENTL determines that it is a cri de cœur for gender equality, a progress to abolish a patriarchal society's traditional, paternalistic bias against women. But during the climax, when Yentl finally comes clean to Avigdor, her answer to his question "why a woman like her wants to learn the Talmud?" is a plain "because I want more", which sounds pathetically bathetic, because what audience needs to hear is not "more" but "equality". To a woman, learning is not an added value, but a deprived birthright, to reclaim it with dignity is the least thing a filmmaker should commit. From that aspect, Streisand goes wide of the mark.
YENTL also errs on the side of being too pedagogical, as if those students are possessed by a one-trick mind, that is the Talmud. Their endless, rambunctious debate about it quickly turns into hot air because the film doesn't even try to elucidate the nuggets of it to the initiated. The entire Jewish culture looks just like a pretense, what YENTL aims to make a heavy weather of is the romantic paradox, a low-hanging fruit.
However, it is a Streisand's picture with her holding the rein, so at the very least, we can bank on her incredible voice to take us on a voyage of aural enchantment. Time-honored show tunes like "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "The Way He Makes Me Feel", composed by Michel Legrand (who won an Oscar for the picture), with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, are kosher ear-worms.
On the acting front, Streisand the actor is favorably self-conscious as an effete man and rounds out Yentl's emotional trajectory with flying colors. Patinkin, to the credit of his incredible acting bent, takes the repugnant edge off a male chauvinist and bears out that Avigdor is a flawed character because of the environment, not by nature. Strangely, it is Irving's docile, plastically naive performance nabs an Oscar nomination, Hadass is the blue-sky personification of an ingénue grossly out of masculine imaginings, Irving is serviceable at best, not to mention a Razzie nomination speaks volumes of the divide on her part. YENTL is a curate's egg, too conformable for its radical agenda. But for what it is worth, after Streisand the ever-green singer, Streisand the Oscar-winning actor, it announces the advent of Streisand the director (shy of an Oscar nomination though), a glass-ceiling buster who would eventually be hard done by the sexist industry.
referential entries: William Wyler's FUNNY GIRL (1968, 7.7/10); Joan Micklin Silver's HESTR STREET (1975, 7.6/10); Nicki Caro's MULAN (2020, 6.4/10); Norman Jewison's FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971, 6.4/10).
不过话说回来，芭芭拉•史翠珊大娘虽然高举女权主义大旗，但这戏如果放在男人身上一样成立——在这么一个开挂的国家，既然弟弟自杀就影响和心上人结婚了，说不定哪天弟弟自杀就不能念书了也未可知？再把脑洞开大一点，一个青年如果因为弟弟自杀而不能在家乡念书，于是背井离乡躲进女修道院……这好像……脑中瞬间浮现出东尼大木老师的青涩形象。
那么本片吸引人的地方在哪儿呢？我想是对禁忌的挑战。“不让我念书，我偏要念书。”其中就蕴含着挑战禁忌的快感。编剧很坏的一点——在得知燕特尔是女儿身时，男主又是歇斯底里又是恐惧异常，最后相拥而吻，整个一犹太马景涛。男主的不敢挑战世俗和女主的突破禁忌形成了鲜明的对比。男人看到日久生情的“小兄弟”突然变成女儿身真的会歇斯底里大发作？中国文艺作品中就有一个很有名的反例——《萍踪侠影》。即使在揭穿了身份之后，张丹枫仍然呼唤云蕾为“小兄弟”，甚至高烧说胡话时也不改口。当然这没有普遍性，一个可能具有普遍性的例子是那个冷笑话——“如果有一天醒过来发现你变成女人了怎么办？”“先让兄弟们爽爽！”
最后说说对影片的观感，伦勃朗的画风和芭芭拉的歌声都美，但我不喜欢他老人家的私心——看到两人第一次同床时燕特尔背对男主差点掉下床去那段我就笑场了，因为角色和演员外观的巨大落差。四十岁的人了，还打着苹果光在那里装嫩，作为中国观众很难不联想到西门大妈。也难怪《南方公园》要不遗余力地黑。
你说要是春哥早生几十年去把这角色演了多好。
There are moments you wait for ans1 dream,
Of all your life. This is one of those moments.
I will always remember this chair, that window,
the way the light streams in. The clothes I'm wearing,
The words I'm heating, The face I'm seeing, The feeling I'm feeling,
The smell, the sounds, will be written
On my mind, will be written in my heart
As long as I live!
I can, travel the past and take what I need
To see me through the years
What my father learned and his Father before him will be there
For my eyes and ears.
I can walk through the forests
Of the trees of knowledge
And listen to the lessons of the leaves.
I can enter rooms
Were there are rooms within rooms
Wrapped in the shawl that learning weaves.
I remember, Papa-everything you taught me
What you gave me,
Papa- Look at what it’s brought me
There are certain things that once you have
No man can take away-
No wave can wash away-
No wind can blow away-
And now they’re about to be mine!
No tide can turn away-
No fire can burn away-
No time can wear away...
I can open doors and take from the shelves
All the books I’ve longed to hold
I can ask all the questions,
The whys and the wheres
As the mysteries of life unfold
Like a link in a chain
From the past to the future
That joins me with the children yet to be,
I can now be a part Of the ongoing stream,
That has always been a part of me!
There are certain things that once you have
No man can rake away-
No wave can wash away-
No wind can blow away-
No tide can turn away-
No fire can burn away-
No time can wear away-
And now they’re about to be mine!
There are moments you remember all your life.
There are moments you wait for
And dream, of all your life.
This is one of those moments!
在东欧，1904,那个只有男人才被允许学习的时代，有一个叫Yentl的女孩出现在你的视野。
市集上，女人们忙着张罗买菜，打听谁家的女孩要嫁人了，Yentl却被书贩叫卖吸引得魂不守舍。
书贩叫道， Sacred books for men, story books for women; Sacred books for men, picture books for women.
He said it's the Law,You are in the wrong place, lady.
人们说懂得Talmud的女人是魔鬼，可是Yentl的父亲教她读书，教她Talmud。
读书并不必定使人不平凡，可是读书可以让你了解你好奇的一切奥秘。 这
些奥秘，一旦了解， 人夺不去，浪卷不走，风刮不掉，火烧不尽。
你被禁止读书，只因你是女人。 读书的时候你得拉上窗帘锁上门，因为虽然上帝可以了解，邻居却不一定。
那么一旦换上男人的外衣，你就可以得到这一切，光明正大。那就这么去做吧。 当你
追求到了你期盼的世界，再回来改变它。
The world I see is so much bigger
Now that I'm alone.
Papa, please forgive me.
Try to understand me;
Papa, don’t you know I had no choice?
Can you hear me praying,
Anything I'm saying Even though the night is filled with voices?
I remember everything you taught me
Every book 1've ever read...
Can all the words in all the books
Help me to face what lies ahead?
可是，世界上原来还有那么多没有被记在书里的事。
you know too much, but not enough.
没有人为你而生，只有你自己。
更待何时。
今天突然记起很小时候看过的这个电影，翻译叫做《燕特尔》或者《杨朵》。忘记了细节。大致是讲中世纪的背景，芭芭拉史翠珊女扮男装去教会学校念书，爱上了他的同学，他的同学却有自己的心上人，而那个女人又反过来爱上了女扮男装的芭芭拉史翠珊吧。或许现在看的话，会觉得闷，会挑剔很多，但当时真的非常感动，这个片子像能够照到人心里的光线。淡淡的，却很坚定。古典爱情。有种恨不得替她去爱的心情。
这是芭芭拉83年拍的片子，这个片子她包办了制片、导演、编剧和主演。从那时起，我就是她的粉丝了。
这个片子的结局是这样的：在他知道了她是女人并要去吻她的时候，她嘟哝了那个女人的名字。然后，她退出了。
哈戴斯是最值得同情的人物，自始至终她都活在别人的安排下。终于哈戴斯在燕特尔的启发下知道了要求丈夫去满足妻子，似乎看到了女性平等意思的觉醒。看到故事结尾，让人略有唏嘘。哈戴斯仍然嫁给了男子主义的男主人公。（为什么说男主人公男子主义，从最后一场他与燕特尔的争论中足见，他安于世俗要把女人放在家庭里，在他思想里还没有男女平权这思想。还有很多电影场景燕特尔与他争论男女一样时，他提出的反对观点。）也由此可预见到，哈戴斯婚后的生活必然是被束在家中，可能对哈戴斯来说根本意识不到束缚的存在，久在樊笼里已不知道自由为何物了吧。处于相对的社会里，哈戴斯更是所有人所羡慕仰敬的标杆。她符合男人们所有要求，这一点燕特尔也羡慕连连。如果哈戴斯突破了常规，只会招致“上帝理解，而邻居就难说了”的下场了，作为一个乖乖长大的艺术品，哈维斯是绝没有这等勇气与见地的。
哈维斯是没有爱情的。为什么这么说呢。首先，就是燕特尔说的哈戴斯不知道自己要什么，那就是说对男主人公是没有爱产生的；其次，后来她知道自己想要的是燕特尔，她爱“她”，结尾我们分明可见哈维斯与男主人公幸福的生活在了一起。那么对燕特尔的爱也就浅浅一滩而已。我们不抛开性别来说，性别与爱情的关系有那么重要么。爱对了人比爱对了性别更重要吧。
哈维斯这样的人物形象是或有意或无意为之，与燕特尔的形象形成明显的对比。从学习环境来看，她们都是学者的孩子，哈戴斯的环境远好过燕特尔。
燕特尔并不是完全脱离男权体系的，她也会羡慕哈戴斯被世俗观点调教的受人们喜爱。
知识与爱情，自由与家庭。燕特尔选择的是前者，而哈戴斯选择了后者。
女权主义，并不是激进的看到男字就要疯狂的说女性受到了种种压迫，也不是要反过来世界变成女强男弱。女权主义，需要的是男女平等，需要男人的帮助，也可以去帮助男人。不会仰仗弱势一味的索取，也不会任由强权随意摆布。
随着社会与科技的发展，男女间的差别将越来越小。需要付出体力的活动逐渐被机器所替代，在互联网的发展下，女性的思维模式将越发的凸显其重要性。
在社会观念形成固定模式前，总需要有人不断地投石问路，顺着这路走的人多了，就会形成潮流，从潮流变成经典保存下来。