Amazon.com: 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
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Rating: - 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.
Rating: - 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. ... Read More
Rating: - 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
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
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- Nicely done -- Better than "The Chosen"
- A simple plot, no, but satisfying.
