I once spent a week with a family friend in the London suburb of Cheltenham, England. “I call the place ‘Evergreen,’” the lady of the house proudly told me. And she wasn’t referring to the tree, but the Barbara Streisand song from the 1976 version of A Star is Born — a memorable moment from a forgettable movie.
Such is the gravitational pull of Streisand, a megawatt star of the 1960s and ’70s who has dimmed slightly in recent years but never diminished. A shame. But thanks to her 2023 autobiography, My Name is Barbara, and the newly restored and released Funny Girl on 4K UHD from The Criterion Collection, that ought to change. Some people just belong in the spotlight.
Streisand plays turn-of-the-century comedian and singer Fanny Brice, a real-life Ziegfield Folly, and Omar Sharif plays her husband and gambler, Nick Arenson. And Sharif’s dashing good looks don’t go unnoticed. When Brice first meets him, she practically melts. When she sings of their marriage, she delivers the following lyrics with a comical level of resignation: “To tell the truth, it hurt my pride / The groom was prettier than the bride.”
Funny Girl is loaded with such quips, and they come with such force that the movie’s 155-minute runtime breezes by. It also helps that Streisand landed William Wyler as director. The old Hollywood warhorse had done it all: comedy, drama, romance, Westerns, war pictures, you name it.
At the age of 66, Funny Girl was Wyler’s first musical, but that didn’t slow him down. The movie would go on to become the top-grossing film of 1968 and garner eight Academy Award nominations, including one for Streisand, which she won. That made her the 14th actor Wyler directed to an Academy Award-winning performance. Not a bad track record.
And not a bad debut for Streisand. From her opening line (“Hello, gorgeous”) to her bring-the-house down finale, “My Man” — with “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “People” thrown in the middle — Funny Girl captures the allure of one of the 20th century’s brightest talents. Some stars shine. This one sparkles.
ON SCREEN: Funny Girl is available Nov. 19 on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
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