Cláudio's Best Shot Pick: Yentl (1983)

The next episode of our series, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' arrives Thursday night. This week's film is Barbra Streisand's directorial debut, Yentl. In 1983, she was infamously snubbed for a Best Director Oscar nomination after winning the Golden Globe. You still have time to participate! Here's Cláudio's entry:

This isn't the first or second time I've explored the wonderful world of Yentl on The Film Experience. First, when writing about two instances when the same performance got nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie, I defended Amy Irving's work, concluding she deserved the former rather than the latter. Then, when revisiting all of Babs' work as a director, Yentl emerged as her most passionate project as well as the best showcase for the star's behind-the-camera talents. Check out those other articles if you're interested.

My positive feelings about Yentl haven't changed with this Hit Me With Your Best Shot-prompted revisit. In other words, I'm still a fan…

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Babs as director

by Cláudio Alves

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...

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When Oscar met Razzie

by Cláudio Alves

Founded by Mo Murphy and John J. B. Wilson, the Golden Raspberry Awards, more commonly known as Razzies, are the evil twin to the Academy Awards. Instead of celebrating the best achievements in world cinema, they award the worst, ridiculing them in the process and daring anyone to go accept their gold sprayed statuette in good humor. They've been handed out since 1981 when Xanadu and Can't Stop the Music battled out for the title of Worst Picture. Since then, the Razzies have made many controversial choices, showing an especially troubling fondness for lampooning female-centric stories or examples of campy entertainment.

Today we'll be talking about two instances when the Oscars and the Razzies tastes diverged so much they ended up nominating the same performances…

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Almost There: Madeline Kahn in "What's Up, Doc?"

by Cláudio Alves

There's a generalized belief that the Oscars are allergic to comedy. While that's not completely accurate, there's a kernel of truth in the statement. The Academy tends to prefer weighty dramas that signal their importance instead of light comedy. Considering the inherent subjectivity of humor and the way people tend to rile against any comedic Oscar champion (Birdman, The Artist, Shakespeare in Love, etc.), it's easy to understand why so few funny pictures get the most desired golden statuettes in Hollywood. Even this very series has been guilty of overlooking great comedic performances and focusing mostly on heavyweight drama, preferring tears to guffaws.

Well, it's time to change that and there's no better way to do it than by examining the hilarity of one of cinema's funniest women in one of New Hollywood's greatest farces. We're talking about the inimitable Madeline Kahn in What's Up, Doc?…

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Soundtracking: Yentl

by Chris Feil

Some might reduce it to simple star vehicle, but Yentl does something quite uncommon within the musical genre: through song, it places us in the mind and isolation of exclusively one character. All of the songs belong to Barbra Streisand’s protagonist Yentl, locked in the chamber of her mind, until it triumphantly breaks out in her reality. It might seem criminal to have the likes of her costar Mandy Patinkin going songless despite being at his Evita and Sunday in the Park with George-era peak, and maybe more condescending viewers would chalk this up to ego on the part of Streisand. But the effect gives us something that quietly defies musical convention, turning song into metaphor and providing richer payoff to the character arc. It’s only a musical inside the head of our heroine, a way of reflecting the strictures that limit her voice.

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