Babs as director
Monday, July 27, 2020 at 2:00PM 
Barbra Streisand is a powerhouse in every sense of the word. Her long career has encompassed many facets of show business, from night club singer to Broadway sensation, from Oscar-winning actress to successful producer, and so on. Considering we've been discussing 1991 for the past couple of weeks, it seems appropriate to consider Streisand's legacy, not as a music or movie star, but as a director. That was the year that she released one of her dream projects, The Prince of Tides, which was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. Streisand, however, was left out of the directing lineup despite an aggressive campaign and much publicity. The snub stung and robbed Streisand of the honor of becoming the second woman to be nominated for that award, after Lina Wertmüller in the 1970s.
Still, while it's difficult not to see AMPAS' decision as a blatant rebuke of Streisand as a director, one has to wonder if she'd have deserved the nod. After all, 1991 had a stellar, and historic, Best Director lineup...
While Streisand's directing debut only happened in 1983, her filmmaking ambitions were long in the making. During the troubled production of her A Star Is Born, the diva had considered directing the project herself, or in conjunction with production designer Polly Platt. In the end, though Streisand's influence over the 1976 rock musical was intense, the director's chair was occupied by Frank Pierson. The same wouldn't happen when she began developing Yentl, an adaptation of a play by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Though, to phrase it as if Streisand had only started working on Yentl after A Star Is Born is erroneous. Like all movies directed by the Oscar-winner, that flick was a dream project that took many years to fulfill.
According to Streisand, she had been planning the movie since her screen debut in 1968's Funny Girl. Attempts to bring the play to the screen had started the year after her Oscar-winning star turn with the buying of the adaptation rights, but constant upheavals pushed it back. Before Streisand took on the job, other directors had been considered like the Czech Ivan Passer. However, after thinking herself too old to play the protagonist, she decided to take the lead behind the camera. As we all know, she ended up playing the titular Yentl, anyway, but that development came later in the pre-production of the movie which had, by that point, transformed into a period musical where all the songs were to be sung by Streisand and no one else.
Babs is indeed too old for the role of a young Ashkenazi Jewish girl who, after her father's death, pretends to be a boy in order to attend religious school. Nonetheless, her singing talent more than makes up for it and, when confronted with a performance as tremendous as her "A Piece of Sky", it's hard to grumble about the casting issue. It took fifteen years to bring Yentl to the screen, over a dozen complete script re-writes, and endless creative tribulations, but Streisand got her way and the result is quite extraordinary. The movie has issues, not the least of which is the criminal waste of Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving in non-singing roles, but Streisand's ambition is felt in every frame.
Whether in the attention to historical detail or the gentility with which emotional drama is drawn out of the characters, Yentl triumphs, and Streisand's direction is a big part of that. For her efforts, she won the Golden Globe for directing, becoming the first and, until now, the only woman to ever do so. AMPAS didn't see fit to gift her similar accolades. She wasn't even nominated for the Oscar, a fate that would be repeated two more times, though only the '91 incident would be a true snub. 1996's The Mirror Has Two Faces has its charms, like its ridiculously old-fashioned values and bizarre romantic hijinks, but The Prince of Tides is where Streisand's directing talent shines best.
Dragging male-centered melodrama kicking and screaming into the mainstream, Streisand's adaptation of Pat Conroy's bestseller is bold, almost brash, with its emotional registers, contrasting moods, and dripping sentiment. Again, the diva had been working on the film for many years before shooting started, giving her time to let ideas percolate and grow. The result is a movie that's directed within an inch of its life, full of showy cinematography and an aggressive score that never relents its function as emotional barometer. Even the interior decoration has a tendency towards the overwrought. For instance, there's a Manhattan upper-class dining room that looks like a music video's set, glowing candelabras as far as the eye can see.
Despite the excess, The Prince of Tides is no worthless piece of lurid soap opera. Streisand's artistic decisions don't always work and often lead to wild tonal incoherence, but there's a lot to admire about her taste for the overdramatic. Without her directorial touch, it's hard to imagine Nick Nolte's performance working as well as it does. He plays a former English teacher from the South who, after his twin sister's suicide attempt, travels to New York and falls in love with his sibling's therapist. As romance blooms, so does the acknowledgment of past trauma, and Nolte's charming hero reveals layers of deepening hurt inside. His vulnerability is spectacular, in part because of how Streisand frames it, with obvious care and sensational style.
I won't lie and say that Streisand is a phenomenal director beyond reproach whose work deserves critical reappraisal. However, I understand why her snub in 1991 was so controversial and painful to bear. The Academy had to go out of its way to not nominate the director of one of the year's biggest contenders. Not to mention that many directors have been nominated for doing far less than what Babs does here. While her snub made the nods for Thelma and Louise and Boyz N the Hood possible, it also served as a reminder that Hollywood had and still has a long way to go when it comes to the recognition of women filmmakers. In a time when the Academy was going gaga for actors turned directors (Costner, Eastwood, Redford, Gibson, Robbins…), Streisand still wasn't enough.
Yentl's streaming on the Roku Channel, Hoopla, and Pluto TV. You can rent The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces from Amazon, Redbox, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
Reader Comments (43)
I wouldn't hesitate one bit to nominate her in '83 (leaps and bounds more interesting than Beresford at least) and '91 (over Levinson). The PRINCE OF TIDES snub was a genuine surprise, considering her GG/DGA noms and the film landing in seven other categories - plus, there was backlash just the year prior over Penny Marshall falling short for AWAKENINGS.
Great piece! I've only seen The Mirror Has Two Faces from her directorial efforts, but I would've been so interested if she directed Hidden Figures. She said she really wanted to direct it (that part, I'm sure; if she was ever in talks, I don't know).
Don't anybody say "She was too old for Yentl".
Excellent appraisal of her body of work! And, speaking of Polly Platt in passing....I'm loving Karina Longworth's podcast series about her career and legacy.
Maybe a post about Ms. Platt???
Pat Conroy's novel is amazing and twisted and one of my absolute favorites, so I have never forgiven Streisand for directing this glossy, defanged, narcissistic piece of cinematic twaddle. The director's branch got it right; if they wanted to honor a woman, there were more deserving choices: Randa Haines (The Doctor), Nancy Savoca (Dogfight), Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala), Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break), Martha Coolidge (Rambling Rose), Jodie Foster (Little Man Tate), Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush), Eleanor Coppola (Hearts the Darkness), All of these women did more impressive work. Maybe we should reevaluate why we keep considering this as a snub to begin with.
Why was Prince of Tides nominated for anything?
She was too old to play Yentl. The Mirror Has Two Faces I thought was alright. It's not a great film but fun to watch. I admit to not being a fan of Streisand but I think she has the talent to be a great director. I would like to have her direct a film and maybe take on a supporting role in that film.
The biggest problem with The Prince of Tides is Streisand the actress. She received a lot of criticism for portraying the psychiatrist (she is, at times, distracting and pulls you out of the narrative). I bet the directors branch might have been more amenable to her being in the final five if she had stepped aside.
I love Streisand as an actress or a singer much much more than as a director , to be honest I never fond her deserving of a best director nomination but your right many men have been nominated for something far less and if prince of tides was directed by a man he would have been nominated easily!
So happy she had the privilege to present oscar to kathryn bigelow , no one could be a better choice than babs
I don’t get anything Streisand, honestly.
Everything - singing, acting, directing - is horribly overdone. Like fresh vegetables boiled to a mush, everything is one glossy, vaseline-smeared mess.
There are far more accomplished females to pick from than this middle-of-the-road sonic Barbara Cartland.
The Prince of Tides - She should have been nominated for the Razzies
Nederama: I think I'd probably agree. Of those? I'd go with Bigelow.
My likely fields for Picture and Director:
Picture:
T2
Delicatessen
JFK
Point Break
The Silence of the Lambs
Director:
James Cameron, T2
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Delicatessen
Kathryn Bigelow, Point Break
Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
Krzysztof Kieslowki, The Double Life of Veronique
(Note: I get why Singleton DID get a director nomination (Spike hadn't, and they (rightly) needed to give a director nod to a black guy SOON), but Boyz n the Hood is...NOT super well constructed, either as a feat of direction OR writing. It's a roughly 100 minute movie with a 25 minute prologue. In pre-production, I would have looked at that prologue (and, sorry, it IS a prologue, not an act 1) and actually told Singleton "There are three potential GREAT movies here. You're about to be making NONE OF THEM, and only making a GOOD movie. One of them is roughly the same length as what you want to make, but is, EVEN MORE SO, Black Stand By Me. One of them requires us to just beef up the post prologue bits to justify the prologue's, as it stands, frankly, extravagant time frame. That one is PROBABLY 150-160 minutes. The final idea slices down the prologue a bit AND beefs up the future segment a little. Probably the same length, maybe a little longer, but a leaner, more justifiable 10-15 minute prologue instead of a bloated 25 minute prologue."
You had a typo, so I fixed it for you:
The Prince of Tides is a worthless piece of lurid soap opera.
Don't get me started on the ethics of a therapist having sex with a patient who is a relative of another patient who died. The crossing of those boundaries, and Barbra's incessant love of herself, make this movie a giant no.
Prince of TIdes is engaging enough, and NIck Nolte is very very good in it (as is Kate Nelligan, dammit!) but it's so schmaltzy and over the top, particularly in its final third, when the romance begins and smothers everything else. Plus Babs's performance is highly self-conscious. And don't even get me started her character SLEEPING WITH HER CLIENT'S BROTHER (memo: highly unethical in RL). I was fine with the acting nominations but directing? No. It just wasn't good enough, I don't think.
Nick Nolte is truly amazing in this film, and I think the work she does with most of the actors is quite good. The Prince of Tides is peak, early 1990s, academy fare, so in that sense she deserved the nod for creating a crowd-pleasing adult drama with strong performances (even if her own isn't the best). She really is great with other actors.
I would like to see her in the director's chair again in something she isn't staring in.
... I really never want to rewatch this movie ever again ... it honestly didn't age well - the only good thing in it is Nolte - and even he seems to struggle at times.... But I do remember the painful uproar back in 91 (incl. from myself) so well. Thanks for this Claudio, I do agree
The prince of tides is her best movie as director (but very far from a masterpiece), Nick Nolte is really great in, he deserved to win the Oscar (I consider Anthony Hopkins a supporting player in Silence of the lambs).
Big disagreement here. The Prince of Tides is caca -- hysterical soap opera with at least one fully loathsome scene (Stradivarius over the balcony). The absurdity was its being nominated for best picture and screenplay, not Streisand being justifiably omitted by the directors. (There were at least 3 or 4 other directors who deserved nomination that year, but Streisand got all the media moaning.) I'm not fond of the Nolte performance, either (oh so defensive and oh so obviously hiding that guilty secret), though I do think Nelligan is good (better in Frankie and Johnny, however).
Lest I come off as pure Barbra-hater, let me say I thought much of Yentl seemed as well-made as it could have been -- it wasn't top-five in a year as solid as 1983, but it was quite an admirable piece of work
Oof. This film ain’t it y’all
First time i've heard criticsim of Nolte.
Thank you for this piece. Truly a salve in these trying times. Please rapidly release three more or so. An all Cláudio front page will help us tackle the trauma from the dark day yesterday.
I actually love The Prince of Tides. I thought Nick Nolte and Kate Nelligan were great. Now shoot me.
Thank you all for the comments and the feedback.
For the record, while I wouldn't nominate Babs for any of her directorial efforts, I'd rank her above some of the actual nominees. In 1983, I think she's more deserving than Beresford and maybe even Yates. As for the 1991 scenario, while I admire the lineup a great deal, I wouldn't mind seeing Streisand take Levinson's spot.
She was snubbed for Yentl. She deserved best director recognition for Yentl.
The Prince of Tides evokes in me a yearning for the vibrant ‘50s melodramas of Douglas Sirk. The lush score, the improbable romance, the deeply felt longing, the ache of an unhappy woman discovering joy, the beautiful outdoor shots, and all the pretty people in the finely tailored clothes. I enjoy a Sirk movie late at night in a sleeping house. I can easily do the same with this Streisand flick.
Her performance in The Prince of Tides is absolutely terrible. You don’t see the character, you only see the ‘star’. It doesn’t work for this type of movie and it’s terribly distracting. Cher is a megastar but she is able to disappear into her roles seamlessly. Same with her performance in The Mirror has Two Faces. I question her choices then in terms of direction.
That being said, if they can nominate Eastwood, Ron Howard, and Mel Gibson for their crap films then why not Streisand?? Sexism - plain and simple.
Owen: If we're STRICTLY talking about crap films nominated for Best Director, I'll give you at least one nomination of Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge) and Howard (A Beautiful Mind) absolutely being guilty of that, but I can't really give you Eastwood. EVERY Eastwood nomination for Director is for a film that's at least GOOD.
An absolute NO for either director or actress nomination. Her performance was nothing but self-conscious and her direction was soap-opera-over-the-top. She should be thankful she got a Best Picture nom when I can think of 10-15 movies that should have been nominated in the same category that year!
I love her singing and I think she's one of the finest vocalists around and her work as an actress was superb in What's Up Doc, Way We Were and Funny Girl but sadly starting fromr A Star is Born, her vanity got in the way in each and every performance.
If you were to pop into the Streisand fan forum, you would have realised how delusional some of her fans can be saying she's a far more superior actress to the likes of Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep (the latter is often the punching bag in that forum).
I approach this from the perspective of recently re-watching all the works of Nora Ephron. Blank Check Podcast (friends of TFE) are covering her films. The discussions have been interesting and have served to remind me that Nora Ephron (at her best) was a very capable director. In addition to being a great writer.
I like Streisand as an actress, I'm glad she got chances to direct, but her films are a mixed lot. Not the best but a worthy try. (not as strong as Ephron's work in my opinion).
Very few women have had a chance to direct so II don't mind that Streisand had her shot. But I think it's fair to acknowledge that other female directors have done better work.
As for her vanity, there are certain vanity shots in her films. But Robert Redford always makes sure that he looks good in films he has directed. Ditto Warren Beatty.
..Million Dollar Baby is good?
Oof, this movie is a dog just like Barbra. It’s so creepy that she plays a sexy therapist. Her delusions know no boundaries! And I am not surprised her fans hate Meryl, since Streep has been a huge star including musicals while Barbra has sat out on the bench.
Claudio, I love your writing and this piece certainly doesn't change that
But no.
Just no.
Everything about this film (and Yentl, for that matter) is the opposite of good direction.
I like Streisand fine in general but she's a joke as director - so baldly narcissistic I get panic attacks of embarrassment on her behalf when I watch her work.
She wasn't even one of the top 10 female directors of 1991, much less top 5 all up.
Not that the Oscars are ever about objectively rewarding merit, but still - this is just the wrong premise for arguing that female filmmakers have been under-rewarded (and in the year of John Singleton!!? Though I grant that you acknowledge that).
Prince of Tides is Razzie territory. It's "Pay It Forward/Life of David Gale/Collateral Beauty/Book of Henry" - only a decade before the world started to realise turgid self-consciously Worthy pretention is not in itself some sort of honourable goal.
Oh and that Golden Globe Streisand won? In 1983? for Yentl?
It was because the Hollywood Foreign Press judged her direction *better than Ingmar Bergman's in Fanny and Alexander*.
If there's a planet where that attitude is somehow justifiable, I do not want to live in it.
Owen: Yes. Good. Not GREAT, but good.
Yeesh @ the PRINCE OF TIDES hate. :/
I LOVED The Prince of Tides when I saw it the first time in early 90s. I was only a teenager and I felt really emotional about the movie. It was one of my favorites then. I rewatch the movie last night and OH MY GOD, the movie didn't aged well at all and I was embarrassed. It's not terrible, but it's all over the place, a completely mess and way too melodramatic, not in a good way. I didn't even like the acting, specially Nick Nolte screams.
The Prince of Tides is a one and done sort of watch for me. The problem is really that the Directors branch did the right thing by not nominating her as director, but the Academy at large did the wrong thing by over-rewarding the movie with nominations, so it looks like a personal snub of Barbra. And if it was, I'd contend it's really probably more for her personally than for the fact that she is a woman.
But in any case, I think it helps Barbra tremendously to be thought of as a famous "snubbed director." I think she likes the vanity and control of being thought of as a director, and at least these "snubs" keep her in the conversation as a director.
For me personally, I wish she'd sing in Las Vegas for a week and use the profits to fund a 4 million dollar indie filmed in her mansion and grounds. Why not? She can even star in it and put her family in it. If she really has the goods as a filmmaker, those limitations should spark her creativity.
@Owen "..Million Dollar Baby is good?"
You're a man after my own heart. Will never understand all the accolades & awards for that overtly manipulative piece of nonsense. And I totally agree w/ your original point that Gibson and Howard and Eastwood got/get far more attention than the quality of their films would suggest (I don't like Eastwood or his movies but will concede to Volvagia that his body of work as a director deserves more credit than that of the other two).
You say anything against Tender Mercies, and you'll have a lot of people to answer to. (Well, me anyway.)
The key distinction is that snubees like Barbra (and,Denzel and Ben Affleck, to name a couple of others) had previously won Oscars, so there wasn't as much urgency to reward their directorial efforts. Costner/Gibson/Howard/Eastwood/Redford had not. I don't think sexism had as much to do with it as people think.
Guestguestguest: I don't exactly disagree. Howard was probably the least justifiable, not just because he's not really a great director, period (he has his moments, and Frost/Nixon wasn't a STUPID nomination), but because he wasn't even a super good actor when he WAS an actor. I don't "dislike" him in The Shootist (absolutely his best film performance and probably the best performance in his career, period, for, oh, 27 years, and, yes, I AM referring to what you think I am), but his scene partners were John Wayne, at a late career peak, Lauren Bacall and James Stewart. It shows his weaknesses, pretty clearly. And, like ALL actors who go into direction, I have to imagine he was the type who watched his own movies.
The weakest of the three movies is "The Mirror Has To Faces'
I love all of the films Streisand's has directed.
They are all beautiful aesthetically and
very emotional and intelligent
as is her singing and acting. Each one has variation
reflects the material. It should be noted
that she had no intention
of acting or singing in Yentl.
She had so much trouble getting
a studio to back it because it
Was "too Jewish". The studio that finally
backed it insisted she act and sing
in Yentl and give up final cut
which by the way accepted as is
because she did a great job.
The reason she was the only singer
was she and her songwriters
thought it would most effective
if the singing expressed her
own personal thoughts and feelings
At least we got the great moment of Billy Crystal singing “hey, did the movie direct itself?” to thunderous applause at the ceremony that year.