“Barbra Against the World: The Making of Yentl (1983)”

When Barbra Streisand finally stepped behind a camera in 1983, the world acted as if she was attempting something outrageous. Direct. Produce. Co-write. Star. Sing. And adapt a beloved Isaac Bashevis Singer story while playing a teenage boy? In period costume? In a musical? In Europe? The opinion pages sharpened their knives before she even yelled “action.”

And yet Yentl remains one of the most fascinating success stories of early-1980s cinema — a movie born entirely from the force of one artist’s will, made in the face of rejection, sexism, and open ridicule, and ultimately rewarded with box-office success, a platinum soundtrack, critical respect, and an Academy Award.

This is the story behind that story.

THE 15-YEAR FIGHT TO MAKE Yentl

Barbra Streisand discovered Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story “Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy” in the 1960s and fell in love instantly. The themes — gender, identity, spiritual longing, the hunger for knowledge — hit her like lightning. She said repeatedly that she’d “never related to a character more.”

Hollywood, however, had other ideas.

For more than a decade, every studio told her no. Not “rewrite it” or “let’s explore it later.” Just no. The reasons ranged from the casually sexist (“Audiences won’t accept you as a boy”) to the financially wary (“Musicals are dead”) to the absurdly petty (“You’re not right for the part — even though you want to direct it”). The idea of a woman directing a major studio picture at all was still treated as an oddity, let alone a woman who was also a superstar singer and actress.

Streisand pitched it, rewrote it, re-approached studios, and never let the project go. But even by the late ’70s — after A Star Is Born became a massive hit — she still couldn’t get anyone to commit.

So she did what self-made legends do.

She made it happen herself.

A PERSONAL FILM MADE ON AN EPIC SCALE

Streisand and producer Jon Peters finally secured financing in the early 1980s by pitching Yentl not as a risky arthouse musical, but as an international prestige production. United Artists agreed — though skeptically.

Barbra assembled a team that would become central to the film’s texture:

• Michel Legrand, crafting a score that floats between Broadway, folk tradition, and cinematic lushness

• Marvin Hamlisch and lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, helping shape the musical language

• Cinematographer David Watkin, who brought painterly light to a worn-down, Old World world

Production shot in Czechoslovakia, where the physical landscape still matched the 19th-century shtetl world of the story. This gave the film a tactile sense of place — mud, wood smoke, lantern glow — that grounded even the most theatrical musical sequences.

The shoot was difficult. Streisand was directing for the first time, acting while also staging musical numbers, dealing with a foreign crew, and constantly fielding gossip-column mockery from back home. Rumors of spiraling costs and diva behavior became tabloid fodder — nearly all exaggerated or fabricated. It was the price of being a woman making a serious movie.

What’s more remarkable: the cast adored her. Mandy Patinkin has spoken often about how prepared she was, how she knew exactly what she wanted from every frame, and how she elevated everyone around her.

Streisand wasn’t just making a passion project.

She was proving she belonged in the director’s chair.

THE RESULT: A FILM WITH SOUL — AND A SOUNDTRACK THAT SOARED

When Yentl premiered in November 1983, critics were stunned. Many expected something gaudy or self-indulgent. Instead, they found a lyrical, elegant film about longing — shot with restraint, built on quiet performance, and guided by one unifying vision.

The music became the emotional heartbeat of the film. “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel” became signature Streisand recordings, helping push the soundtrack into platinum territory. The musical numbers avoided theatrical staging; they were interior monologues — the first film musical to work entirely this way. At the time, that was a radical structural choice.

THE CULTURAL DEBATE: “CAN BARBRA DO THAT?”

Not everything was applause. Isaac Bashevis Singer was famously ambivalent about the adaptation, and critics debated whether Streisand was “too glamorous” or “too old” for the disguised-as-a-boy premise. Film culture in the early ’80s still struggled with women asserting total creative control; every choice she made became a think-piece.

But audiences didn’t care.

A SURPRISE BOX-OFFICE SUCCESS

Despite naysayers, Yentl became a box-office hit, earning more than anyone predicted for a deeply Jewish, philosophically earnest musical romance. It resonated especially strongly with women, queer viewers, and anyone who’d ever pushed against rigid social lines.

Hollywood had claimed there was no audience for a movie like this.

Barbra proved otherwise.

AWARDS: HISTORY MADE

At the 1984 Academy Awards:

• Yentl won Best Original Song Score for Michel Legrand and the Bergmans.

• Streisand made history as the first woman ever to win a Golden Globe for Best Director.

• The film earned multiple Oscar nominations, including art direction and supporting actress (Amy Irving).

The absence of a Best Director Oscar nomination for Streisand became one of the era’s biggest awards controversies — but also a badge of honor. Even without official acknowledgement, everyone knew what she had accomplished.

THE LEGACY OF Yentl

Four decades later, Yentl stands as:

• A landmark of feminist filmmaking

• A breakthrough moment for women directors

• A daringly intimate musical told through interior song

• A deeply personal statement from one of the most powerful artists of the 20th century

Barbra Streisand didn’t just make Yentl. She had to bulldoze an entire industry’s assumptions to do it. And when she finally got the chance, she delivered a film that still feels singular — a work of passion, courage, and stubborn brilliance.

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