Sandalwood and Streisand

It’s seems impossible that it’s been twenty-five years since “Yentl”…and “The Big Chill” and “The Right Stuff” and “The Year of Living Dangerously.” But it has. I was twenty when these movies came out, and I thought I was grown-up. Streisand was someone I grew up hearing. My parents had her early albums (I used to own the vinyl but lost them in the divorce from my former life) and my brother and I used to run around the house like maniacs to her version of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bag Wolf?” Say what you will about her, if you heard her over the course of her long career as I did you were likely to hear something wonderful at some point. And if you bought or received “The Broadway Album” you actually heard “Something Wonderful” from “The King and I.”

I came across “Yentl” halfway through its broadcast this evening and was a little surprised to find it. The DVD has not been released, as far as I know. Again, however you might feel about Streisand and her ego, despite her flaws and the major ones in the movie (the last scene), despite its easily-parodied aspects, as its best it’s an achingly-beautiful piece of work. Mandy Patinkin had not reached the mainstream and was a LONG way from Criminal Minds and pharmaceutical commercials. To most people Amy Irving was still Sue Snell from Brian DePalma’s Carrie. Streisand brought out the physicality and sexuality of both actors, and intelligently underplayed her own. Streisand succeeds best in drama when she can tap into her own insecurities—Funny Girl works because Fanny is convinced she’s funny and talented but not beautiful; Yentl succeeds because Streisand is trying to convince the audience of her character’s desire for intelligence while the evidence saturates every frame. The need and ego and insecurity behind this is part of what puts people off about Streisand, but these paradoxes also give her best work its power and strength. There are glimpses of this in “The Way We Were” but when it’s obvious, when it’s all you see, as with “The Mirror Has Two Faces” or “The Prince of Tides,” it’s so nakedly egotistical and needy that’s its embarrassing. You want to turn against it. I came to think that it was both sad and strange that Streisand would inevitably record a duet with the Newest Big Thing: Donna Summer, Barry Gibb, Celine Dion. I imagine it’s also hard to find material as a singer, actress, director.

Well, that was the season of “Yentl” and sandalwood soap. I’d received a gift set of sandalwood-scented Crabtree and Evelyn products that Christmas, and would take baths while my housemate played the soundtrack in the living room and my other housemate sang along. The smell of Hawaii in the tub, those Alan and Marilyn Bergman songs on the stereo…gay, much?

I’ve been neglecting this blog because I’ve been so f-in’ busy, but I’m planning to get back on track…fingers crossed.