Hester Street (1975)

Hester Street is a delightfully quaint film about the assimilation of Jewish immigrants in America in the late 1800s. Steven Keats is Jake, a self-made Yankee who has shaved his beard and side curls in favor of an updated look. An émigré from Russia, Jake's been living in New York's Lower East Side for five years, taking up with a new woman and earning enough money to support his dance hall ways. To his dismay, his wife, Gitl (played charmingly by Carol Kane), and son, Yossele, join him from the Old World. Jake is embarrassed by his wife, who retains her religious ways, wearing the wigs and scarves that tradition dictates. In turn, Gitl is distraught over the changes in Jake, who insists on calling their son Joey and trying to modernize them both.

Those used to Kane as a comedian will be surprised at her quiet performance in this simple period piece, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award®. Her story, though, is compelling, and in the end, immensely satisfying. The black and white film is rough around the edges--microphones in shots, occasional poor sound--but Hester Street nonetheless offers an engaging look at another time and a completely different way of life. --Jenny Brown Amazon.com

Nicely done -- Better than "The Chosen"

This film deserves five stars for a few reasons. As long as you take it for what it is -- an engaging story, quite non-Hollywood, made on a small budget -- it provides many pleasant surprises. Two scenes were particularly memorable to me, one involving a marriage proposal and the other a religious divorce ceremony. Each was understated, yet every word and gesture was laden with meaning, in an almost Jane Austen manner.

But what really stood out to me is the way the film defies the usual cliches. This film compares favorably, for example, to The Chosen, which is another film about the interplay of Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. In The Chosen, all the good lines and good decisions in the movie lie on the side of modernity. In Hester Street, tradition and Orthodoxy receive their due, and I would even say the film has a slight tilt in their favor.

The film is excellent for couples. It is also suitable for teens and younger kids, but will not be liked by children who want car chases and similar action. The ending may be a bit too easy and happy for people who equate angst and suffering with "serious" art.
February 3, 2008

Once Upon a Time On Hester Street

Joan Micklin Silver's directorial debut is a lovely, funny, warm, and observant historical drama-comedy about Jewish immigrants who left the little shtetl in Russia in the end of the 19th century for the hopes of better life and success in America. The film tells the story of a young couple, Jake (Steven Keats) and Gitl (Carol Kane). The husband came to Lower East End of Manhattan five years before his family and has gladly accepted American way of life making transition from Yankel to a Yankee, losing his beard and side curls on a way to become a real American and falling in love with Mamie Fine, attractive and independent young woman, an immigrant herself. When his wife Gitl and their son Yossi (Joey) arrive from Russia and join him in the flat at Hester Street, Jake is torn between his desire "to live like educated people in an educated country" and his wife's quiet but firm holding on to the traditions of Old Country. More likely, their marriage was arranged by their families in Russia and they don't have much in common when they meet after having lived separately in two different worlds for five years. The film concentrates on Gitl, quiet, gentle, pious seemingly fragile and naive young woman with huge dark eyes who has to make very serious decisions about her new life and how to make sense of it.

Everything about this small independent movie is fine - its authentic look that was achieved by beautiful B/W cinematography, its soundtrack that uses the music by Herbert L. Clarke, a composer and famous cornet player; the dialogs in two languages, English and Yiddish, full of very unique humor that still shines. There are not villains in the story and no stereotypes. All characters have one thing in common - one day, they took a chance to start over, to leave their past behind, to move to the absolutely new unknown world with the different language, customs, traditions, rhythm of life and to try to survive and succeed and not to lose their unique identity. Comical, moving, warm, lyrical, with the loving attention to the smallest details, with the love and understanding for its characters, "Hester street" is a perfect example of an independent art movie that was made on the shoe string budget, had difficulties to find distributors, but luckily did not get lost, found its way to the viewers, and brought Jewish ethnicity to the screen. One does not have to be an Art movie buff or an immigrant to enjoy "Hester Street". The simple story of a young traditional woman's transformation and coming to terms with her new life can be enjoyed by any viewer regardless their age, gender, or ethnic background.

Carol Cane is fantastic as Gitl and more than deserves her Academy Award nomination for the Best Leading Actress. Doris Roberts (Marie of "Everybody Loves Raymond") is equally good as Gitl's and Jake's neighbor, Mrs. Kavisnky who becomes Gitl's friend and adviser. June 4, 2007

small movie BIG HEART

The story is a familiar one ,a Jewish man escapes from Russia ,moves to America to find the American dream
When he saves enough money he sends for his family.That is exactly What Jake did .lt did not take long for him to embrace the American way of life so when his wife Gitl [Carol kane } and 6 year old son Yossell arrived in New York to be with him they were like strangers to eachother .
As time goes by Gitl refuses to give up her traditional lifestyle even when she knows that her marraige is breaking up .
Gitl must find a way to fight for the American dream without giving up her principles .This is a heartbreaking performance by award winning actress Carol Kane ,and an excellant re-creation of New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century December 11, 2006

A simple plot, no, but satisfying.

It's pretty tough to build a realistic set of the Lower East Side, New York City, 1896. The Godfather films did the best they could. When directors shoot the distant past of our great grandfathers, they usually shoot in tempera hue antiquing the scenes, so we feel we are looking through a time machine. In the case of Joan Micklin Silver's, Hester Street, she shoots with black and white stock. All I'm saying, audiences won't believe it is the past without a newsreel or spooky tempera projection.

The documentary feel to Hester Street, the authentic clothing and dialect, the old Russian to English dialect fills the viewer, especially Jewish filmgoers with a weird sense of nostalgia since no one today, in 2006 is alive to tell the immigrant story. The poverty, crowded conditions, popular prejudices, and alienation were a fact of life. It is amusing that these immigrants assimilated, learning English, building jobs, and business within two generations; all hardship forgotten consciously, but I would assert, not unconsciously.

Carol Kane, Gitl, is a wonderful young country wife flabbergasted by the modern, secular ways of America. Her husband, actor, Steven Keats has left the greenhorn, religious Jew nonsense behind as he takes on a new girlfriend, a hottie for her day. His wife arrives with child unexpectedly thwarting his plans. Keats rejects her old world ways. Waiting in the wings is a boarder, a religious man that admires Gitl. A simple plot, no, but satisfying.
May 11, 2006

A Tree Grows on the Lower East Side

A Tree Grown in Brooklyn is one of my favorite books from my girlhood but the movie adaptation was such a disapointment. Hester Street more than compensates for that by transporting the viewer into a genuine immigrant experience on the teaming Lower East Side. The story is low key but very sly, along the lines of an Eastern European fable. Carol Kane is just amazing as an Orthodox old country wife with a young child finally brought to America by her philandering Americanized husband. She doesn't speak the language, she wears an ugly wig, she is a stranger in a strange land whose husband no longer desires her. Yet her religous convictions, her determination, her virtue and her desire for a better life for her son all serve her well in the end. It is a reassuring experience to watch this charming and amusing movie, with a great plot twist, that confirms sometimes the good guys do win. July 16, 2005

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