6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
It's 1896. Yankel Bogovnik, a Russian Jew, emigrated to the United States three years earlier and has settled where many of his background have, namely on Hester Street on the Lower East Side of New York City. He has assimilated to American life, having learned English, anglicized his name to Jake, and shaved off his beard. He is working at a $12/week job as a seamster, the money earned to be able to bring his wife Gitl and his son Yossele to America from Russia. Regardless, he has fallen in love with another woman, a dancer named Mamie Fein. Nonetheless, he is excited when he learns that Gitl and Yossele are indeed coming to America. His happiness at their arrival is dampened when he sees that Gitl is not "American" looking like Mamie and has troubles assimilating as quickly as he would like. Except to Mamie, he tries to show a public façade that everything is fine at home with Gitl. But can their marriage survive these differences, and if not, will Gitl be able to manage in this new...
Starring: Steven Keats, Carol Kane, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris RobertsDrama | 100% |
Romance | 51% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
There's a well worn but still on point and kind of darkly funny joke that is often told at any number of Jewish festivals, including but certainly not limited to celebrations like the very recent Passover and its attendant Seder: "They tried to kill us. They failed. (Or alternately: We survived.) Let's eat!" Joan Micklin Silver, who famously had to tilt at whatever the Jewish version of windmills are to get Hester Street financed and made, might want to slightly change that to, "They tried to ignore me. They failed. Let's make a movie!" Silver is on hand in several supplements included on this disc and while she's almost inherently sweet natured and almost reticent at times to get into too much detail, she does offer a number of anecdotes about what it was like back in the seventies as a woman attempting to mount her first feature film. Even in Silver's already existing career of shooting educational shorts, she had encountered sometimes odd pronouncements from on high, including when she was tasked with helming a featurette about immigration but was explicitly told not to focus on Jews. Nonetheless, in doing research for that project she ended up reading a novella entitled Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto by Abraham Cahan, which became the source material for Hester Street. Hester Street in turn became "the little movie that could", ending up raking in relatively considerable dough (considering its "niche" subject matter) and resulting in a well deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for star Carol Kane, who delivers an unforgettable performance as a Jewish immigrant woman named Gitl.
Hester Street is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Cohen touts a "new 4K restoration" of the title, and a cursory comparison of screenshots between this review and Brian's of the Scorpion Releasing version suggests that this Cohen transfer is slightly darker with a more tightly resolved grain field. Detail levels are quite good throughout, especially on some intricate patterns on some of the fabrics of costumes (see screenshots 3 and 10 for a couple of good examples). Contrast is generally consistent, as is clarity, though there are a few minor variances, especially in some passing scenes involving Jake and Mamie, which can look at least a bit more roughhewn at times (see screenshot 15). While there are still some of the "baked in" deficiencies that Brian noted in his review, any signs of major damage to the element have been either eliminated or at least ameliorated.
The Cohen release of Hester Street sports a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that shows the same (probably unfixable) hiss and low level noise that Brian mentions in his review of the Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray. It tends to fade into the background in noisier moments (as when sewing machines are in use), but it's definitely noticeable otherwise. Dialogue is generally presented cleanly. The film features both English and Yiddish, with the Yiddish sections offering forced English subtitles. Otherwise optional English subtitles are available for the English language sections.
- Joan Micklin Silver on "Hester Street" (HD; 31:48)
- Joan Micklin Silver Career Overview (HD; 21:14)
- Carol Kane (SD; 9:07)
- Doris Roberts (SD; 8:23)
- Joan Micklin Silver (SD; 13:49)
- Raphael D. Silver (SD; 14:19)
Parts of Hester Street hit particularly close to home for me personally, not necessarily with regard to any family dysfunction but more so with regard to the almost mad rush by immigrant Jews to quickly and hopefully seamlessly assimilate into American culture, which is most certainly part of my own family's history. The emotional trauma suffered by Gitl is harrowing at times, but the fact that she is able to pick herself up and dust herself off is a testament to the strength of women generally and immigrant women in particular. This new release of Cohen offers generally secure technical merits, with an understanding that some deficits in production funding led to some unavoidable issues. The supplements are very enjoyable and easily trump the bare bones release from Scorpion. Highly recommended.
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