Features: DVD, Mono Audio, English, Dubbed & Subtitled
Carol Kane (Annie Hall, Carnal Knowledge, Dog Day Afternoon) stars with Doris Roberts (TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond") in Joan Micklin Silver's touching tale of Gitl (Kane), a young Jewish woman who comes to America in the 1890s, only to discover that her husband, Jake (Steven Keats, from The Executioner's Song and Black Sunday) has given up the ways of the old country, and taken up with a new girlfriend, and a new life. By turns heartbreaking, comic, and sharply observed, this remarkable film won Kane an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1975, and launched director Joan Micklin Silver's career.
"Genuinely moving to all who are swept into its passionate embrace." Rex Reed, Daily News
"An unconditionally happy achievement. The cast of Hester Street...is superlative, and Carol Kane in the starring role is extraordinary." Richard Eder, The New York Times
Editor's Note
The desire to shed or suppress all traces of one's original culture has been a primal experience of nearly all immigrants; Joan Micklin Silver's adaptation of Abraham Cahan's story makes clear that it's a process edged with pathos. Carol Kane stars as Gitl, an Eastern European Jew who arrives with her child on Ellis Island in 1896 to join her husband, Jake (Stephen Keats). She is surprised to discover that Jake has abandoned the mores of his culture by cutting off his beard and earlocks, and he's adopted the mannerisms of his new country, including a new girlfriend (Dorrie Kavanaugh) who runs a dance hall. Gitl, unwilling to part with traditions so easily, creates a rift in the marriage that is difficult to overcome. Kane, who was nominated for an Oscar, and Micklin Silver, in her directorial debut, collaborate to high-caliber effect in this touching, amazingly painstaking evocation of immigrant life on New York's Lower East Side in the 1890s.
Plot Summary
A Jewish immigrant woman from Eastern Europe travels to New York's Lower East Side in 1896 to join her husband, whom she discovers has rapidly assimilated, wanting to desperately shed any trace of the provincial, ethnic, and European. His wife (Carol Kane) must therefore decide whether to sacrifice her traditions or her marriage. HESTER STREET was Joan Micklin Silver's directorial debut, and features a moving, Oscar-nominated portrayal by Kane in this adaptation of a story by author Abraham Cahan.
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