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Bookmark this pageHester Street (1974)
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Tackling a potentially fascinating and neglected area - Jewish immigrants in end-of-last-century New York - this limits itself to an affectionate and predictable chronicle of the Americanisation of Jake and Gitl. Clarity of emotion at the expense of subtlety, larger than life performances (with the exception of Carol Kane, whose greenhorn wife ends up learning the fastest), confine the film to warmheartedness and gentle, ironic observation at the expense of any real insight. Only towards the end, as the couple split up and remarry, does the film satisfactorily come to terms with a society in a state of flux and its relation to the American Dream: the passing of old customs, self-improvement, ghetto mentality and matriarchy are all touched upon. But an unimaginative camera and misty monochromes do little beyond conveying some self-conscious period recreation.Author: CPe
Cast & crew
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Producer: Raphael D Silver
Cast: Steven Keats, Carol Kane, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris Roberts full cast
Duration: 89 mins
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