Funny Girl (1968): A Star So Big the World Had to Sit Up and Take Notice

The Criterion Collection know what they’re doing releasing Funny Girl to Blu-ray in December. As the chill winds buffet outside and the rain lashes against the window, what better time is there to snuggle up with a film so warming and lengthy that it has an intermission? Better still, it’s a musical. Musicals are made for the approaching festive season. They’re like a big luxurious selection box to devour, with each tune a treat as rich as chocolate. On wintry days like this, watching the kind of film in which you can fully immerse yourself in and forget about the realities of the world outside is the only way to go.

The late ’60s was arguably not the finest hour for musicals, however. Finian’s Rainbow bombed and even Camelot was considered an acquired taste at a time when cinema was fast approaching the golden dawn of the 1970s, a period in which fresh new talent created stories full of realism and integrity that was to be subsequently worshipped as ‘New Hollywood’ (ironically, the director of the Fred Astaire flop Finian’s Rainbow was Francis Ford Coppola, who went on to find his metier as the New Hollywood wunderkind responsible for The Godfather, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now). But, as the ’60s come to a close, were the days of musicals really, truly over? What the genre clearly needed to avert such a demise was a star so big as to ensure the world had to sit up and take notice of her. If realism and integrity were the king, then the unmistakable new talent of Barbara Streisand ensured, in her own inimitable way, that she was queen.

Funny Girl remains therefore the exception that proves the rule. Here is a late ’60s musical that wasn’t a flop, a musical that is an anachronistic as its own setting, a musical to conjure up the look and feel of Vincent Minnelli, directed by a 65 year old (and partially deaf) William Wyler – his one and only foray into the genre. The film tells the story of the real-life famed 1930s ugly duckling burlesque comedienne and singer Fanny Brice (Streisand), depicting her inauspicious start in the bustling Jewish slums of 1900s New York, to her breakout success as part of the legendary impresario Florenz Ziegfield’s Follies, and bright lights and stardom afforded her at the apex of her career. But behind the fame and adulation lay the heartbreak and drama of her personal life in the shape of her unwavering devotion to her deeply unreliable husband, Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif) a professional gambler. Adapted from a hit Broadway show, Funny Girl boasts memorable songs such as the wistful “People” and the barnstorming “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, and gave Streisand a well deserved Best Actress Oscar and a seat at the top table in Hollywood for decades to come.

This being a musical biopic, Funny Girl builds on the mythos of the success and character of its subject matter, as well as blurring the lines between Brice and Streisand herself, drawing knowing parallels with this unconventional beauty singing sensation’s own rise to fame. It does this by way of several tropes that are standard to this specific ‘backstage’ genre, as previously witnessed in both versions of A Star Is Born, a film which Streisand would indeed herself go on to remake almost a decade later. Streisand is perfect for the role and, indeed, the film, heralding into the traditional, tired genre her new kind of mega-watt star quality. It’s a performance of such tremendous vitality, playing to the many strengths of this jolie laide leading lady; her skilled physical comedy, scattergun comic delivery and, of course, that amazing voice. It’s stylized yes, in keeping with the genre, but it nonetheless has an authenticity that means the drama of the film, specifically the stormy relationship Fanny has with her urbane bad boy husband Nick Arnstein really works.

And how good is the partnership between Sharif and Streisand? The decision to cast an Arab man and a Jewish woman as lovers sparked controversy upon the release, as the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt raged during production and Egypt allegedly threatening to revoke Sharif’s citizenship. Ever one with a ready quip, Streisand batted the furore relating aside with; “You think the Egyptians are angry? You should see the letter I got from my Aunt Rose!”. It’s an on-screen relationship that sadly still feels like a progressive move today – espeicially in relation to the ongoing events in Gaza – rather than something that would, and indeed should, pass without comment.

Funny Girl is an opulent, splashily colourful delight, both beautiful to behold in terms of sound (Jule Styne and Bob Merrill’s song book offer a showcase of unforgettable numbers) and vision as, with her Cleopatra eye-make up and beautifully ’60s coiffured hair, Streisand is at her most photogenic and modish. Who cares if it’s supposed to be the 1900s – if you can’t suspend disbelief for a musical, then what can you do it for?

Criterion’s release comprises of two discs, one in 4K UHD with Dolby Vision HDR, and the other a Blu-ray. The film’s print has undergone a 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and English subtitles are included. Extras include a new audio interview with Barbra Streisand, and a new conversation with William Wyler’s son David and Alicia Malone, author and host of TCM. There’s also a 1986 documentary on Wyler’s life and career, Directed by William Wyler, and an archive interview with Omar Sharif. Rounding out the release are a deleted scene from the movie with Streisand and Sharif, and featurettes from the original theatrical release, and an essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky.

Mark’s Archive – Funny Girl (1968)