Barbra Streisand, the legendary singer, Oscar-winning star, and director, argued that sexism cost her Oscar nominations for Yentl and The Prince of Tides in a public interview at the Tribeca Film Fest.
It wasn’t just men who balked at the idea of a woman calling the shots on motion picture. “There were a lot of older people, they don’t want to see a woman director.”
“I don’t know how many women wanted to see a woman director,” she added.
Streisand said that jealousy and competitiveness are partly to blame for women turning on one of their own gender. She claimed that female critics were harsher than their male counterparts to Yentl.
Three decades after the drama’s release, a review by former NY Times critic Janet Maslin still seemed to rankle the filmmaker. Maslin referred to Streisand’s use of a “pillbox-contoured designer yarmulke” in the film.
Streisand said the yarmulke was authentic to the film’s early 20th century Polish setting.
The story of a woman who dresses like a man so she can study Talmudic Law, Yentl, in 1983, was nominated for five Oscars, missing out on a Best Picture nod.
The Prince of Tides, a 1991 drama about an emotionally damaged man who falls for his psychiatrist, got seven nominations, included film of the year.
In both cases, Streisand’s name was left off the director’s short list.
Streisand said she was pleased that being overlooked focused attention on discrimination towards women, but she said the experience of being snubbed for “Yentl” led to her long hiatus.
“I must have been more hurt than I thought, because I didn’t want to direct for years,” she said.
Courage to Break into Movies
Rodriguez, a Texas born director best known for violent action films as “El Mariachi,” moderate a panel with Streisand. The Hispanic director said he was a massive fan of Streisand’s work, claiming that she gave him courage to break into movies. “You inspired me to go into an industry where I felt I didn’t have voice,” he said.
Rodriguez argued that Streisand had shattered a glass ceiling for other female filmmakers such as Kathryn Bigelow.
“Not enough women are directing now,” said Streisand. “I love when I see a woman’s name on the film, and then I want to see it be good.”
Streisand originally wanted to just focus on acting and recording, but disagreements with Sydney Pollack on 1973’s “The Way We Were” pushed her in a different direction. She’d been horrified when scenes that she felt illustrated why her on-screen relationship with Robert Redford’s character ultimately disintegrated were left on the cutting room floor.
“I directed because I couldn’t be heard,” said Streisand.