‘Hester Street’ Is A Classic Jewish Immigrant Tale Worth Seeking Out [NYFF Review]
“Hester Street,” Joan Micklin Silver’s classic 1975 feature debut, portrays with momentous poignancy the Jewish immigrant experience in turn-of-the-century New York City: the lure of assimilation and the falling-away of tradition; the awesome, awful promise of becoming American. Newly restored in a 4K version that retains the 35mm original’s Jacob Riis-like black-and-white textures of Lower East Side tenement life, it’s a vision of the city on the brink of modernity, willed into existence at the height of the New Hollywood by a woman unaffiliated with any movement.