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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Emmanuel Bourdieu (writer)
Arnaud Desplechin (writer)
more
Release Date:
4 October 2000 (France) more
Plot:
A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress. | add synopsis
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
A Christmas Tale
(From The AV Club. 13 November 2008, 1:04 PM, PST)
User Comments:
exhausting yet unconvincing portrait of the artist as young woman more (15 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Summer Phoenix | ... | Esther Kahn |
 | Ian Holm | ... | Nathan Quellen |
 | Fabrice Desplechin | ... | Philippe Haygard |
 | Akbar Kurtha | ... | Samuel Kahn |
| Frances Barber | ... | Rivka Kahn |
| László Szabó | ... | Ytzhok Kahn |
| Hilary Sesta | ... | Buba |
| Claudia Solti | ... | Mina Kahn |
| Berna Raif | ... | Becky Kahn |
| Paul Regan | ... | Joel |
| Arnold Brown | ... | Rabbi |
| Leon Lissek | ... | Theatre manager |
| Ian Bartholomew | ... | Norton |
| Samantha Lavelle | ... | Christel |
| Paul Ritter | ... | Alman, the photographer |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
eSTheR KaHN (France) (poster title)
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Parents Guide:
Runtime:
USA:142 min
Language:
Color:
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Australia:M | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2000 (#01) more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (15 total)
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The point of the vastly extended preparatory phase of this Star is Born story seems to be to make ultimate success all the more sublime. Summer Phoenix is very effective as an inarticulate young woman imprisoned within herself but never convincing as the stage actress of growing fame who both overcomes and profits from this detachment. Even in the lengthy scenes of Esther's acting lessons, we never see her carry out the teacher's instructions. After suffering through Esther's (largely self-inflicted) pain in excruciating detail, we are given no persuasive sense of her triumph.
The obsessive presence of the heroine's pain seems to be meant as a guarantee of aesthetic transcendence. Yet the causes of this pain (poverty, quasi-autism, Judaism, sexual betrayal) never come together in a coherent whole. A 163-minute film with a simple plot should be able to knit up its loose ends. Esther Kahn is still not ready to go before an audience.