Product Description
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Barbra Streisand plays Fanny Brice, a role that earned
her the 1968 O for Best Actress
DVD Special Features:
Funny Girl
Barbra in Movie Land Featurette
This is Streisand Featurette
Song Highlights (Jump to a Scene)
Filmographies
Languagesin Dolby Digital 5.0: English, French
Languages in Mono: German, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish,
Swedish, Turkish
2.35:1, Enhanced for 16:9 widescreen TVS
Funny Lady
Song Highlights
Filmographies
Languages in Dolby Digital LCR: English
Languages in Mono: French, German, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles:Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish,
Swedish, Turkish
2.35:1, Enhanced for 16:9 widescreen TVS
.co.uk Review
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Like giant monuments to good old-fashioned star quality,
Funny Girl (1968) and Funny Lady (1975) hark back to the golden
days of American vaudeville, while essentially celebrating one of
the great, egotistical show-business talents of all time. Viewed
end to end, these two films, which tell the story of Ziegfeld
comedienne Fanny Brice, run for almost five hours. That's a lot
of biopic. But with the greatest of respect to Brice, undoubtedly
a formidable star of her time, the talent really in the spotlight
here belongs to Barbra Streisand. Streisand created the role of
Fanny Brice in the 1964 Broadway stage musical and her
performance for the big screen is a tour de force, fully
deserving the Best Actress O which she received.
As a biopic, Funny Girl is superior fare, full of sumptuous
production numbers. Brice's glory days are explored against the
background of her turbulent private life with her flawed playboy
husband Nicky Arnstein (a sympathetic performance from Omar
Sharif) with considerable attention to the details of her inner
turmoil. More rambling and less cohesive, Funny Lady finds Fanny
divorced but still in love with Arnstein (Sharif also revisiting
his role), drifting into marriage number two with uncouth
songwriter and impresario Billy Rose (the excellent James Caan),
her successful career again juxtaposed with a less than happy
personal life.
Combined, both films measure Streisand's rise to greatness. In
Funny Girl, the bravura of the performance as a whole s
occasional gaucheness, while if Funny Lady is the less impressive
picture overall, it still marks how far she has developed as a
screen actress. The rough edges are gone, replaced by a
sophisticated poise and the sense of a talent that has come to
terms with itself. And of course throughout she is superb in the
musical numbers, which include her theme song "People" and the
classic belter "Don't Rain on my Parade", as well as Brice's
classic torch song, "My Man".
On the DVD: this package of tremendous, old-fashioned
entertainment takes the viewer back to pre-multiplex days when
going to the cinema was an event you might dress up for. Funny
Lady's soundtrack includes a pre-picture "Overture" to give you
time to unwrap the chocolates. You really need some plush velvet
curtains to swing back across the television screen. Then,
guaranteeing a twinge of nostalgia, there's an intermission
break. Both films are presented in their original widescreen
2.35:1 aspect ratio. Dolby Digital 5.0 (Funny Girl) and LCR
(Funny Lady) soundtracks do justice to Streisand's lung power.
The first disc offers the most interesting extras, including a
couple of featurettes about Streisand. Both discs provide
standard filmographies and song highlights so Streisand addicts
can skip between numbers to their hearts' content.--Piers Ford