Esther Kahn movie storyline. The English-language debut of French director Arnaud Desplechin, ‘Esther Kahn’ charts the ascension of a lower-class Jewish girl from a turn-of-the-century London ghetto to one of the stage’s leading actresses. Esther feels set apart from her large, raucous family, who are all employed in the garment business. Her life is changed when she attends a Yiddish theatre performance, and she is suddenly determined to become an actress.
After joining a small theatre company, she becomes the protégé of Nathan, a stage veteran who instructs her in her chosen craft. Esther gradually works her way up in the ranks – taking a lover, brainy French theatre critic Philippe, along the way – until she is cast in the title role of ‘Hedda Gabler’, which she performs to great acclaim.
Esther Kahn is the first English-language film by the French director Arnaud Desplechin. It premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d’Or, but was not distributed to the United States for two years until it played in New York City in 2002. It stars Summer Phoenix as Esther and Ian Holm as her friend and teacher, Nathan Quellen.
This is a real oddity, and a strange, terrible warning to directors who work outside their native tongue. Award-winning film-maker Arnaud Desplechin (who made the thoroughly intelligent Ma Vie Sexuelle) has directed this adaptation of a short story by the proto-modernist author and critic Arthur Symons.
Summer Phoenix is Esther Kahn, a poor young Jewish girl in late 19th-century London who finds fulfilment – of a sort – as a successful actress, mentored by an older man, Nathan (Ian Holm), but falls into wretchedness. Desplechin has no feel whatsoever for 19th-century English, or for Victorian London, and the whole thing feels as if it has been translated from Martian, with a Martian cast and Martian supporting artists in elaborate disguise.
Phoenix is extraordinarily wooden (plainly left all at sea by the director), which is very unfortunate considering how frequently we are told what a brilliant actress she’s supposed to be. A very long, very unsuccessful two hours and 40 minutes in the cinema.
Esther Kahn (2000)
Directed by: Arnaud Desplechin
Starring: Summer Phoenix, Ian Holm, Fabrice Desplechin, László Szabó, Frances Barber, Akbar Kurtha, Hilary Sesta, Claudia Solti, Berna Raif, Emmanuelle Devos, Paul Regan, Arnold Brown
Screenplay by: Arnaud Desplechin, Emmanuel Bourdieu, Arthur Symons,
Production Design by: Jon Henson
Cinematography by: Eric Gautier
Film Editing by: Hervé de Luze, Martine Giordano
Costume Design by: Nathalie Duerinckx
Set Decoration by: John Bush
Art Direction by: Jason Carlin
Music by: Howard Shore
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: BAC Films (France), Feature Film Company (United Kingdom)
Release Date: May 18, 2000 (Cannes), March 1, 2002 (United States)
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