Esther Kahn

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A Jewish girl in 19th-century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.A Jewish girl in 19th-century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.A Jewish girl in 19th-century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination

Photos7

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2000 (#01)

Quotes
Nathan Quellen: Because what has to happen, is that every step you take has to be more unbelievable than the step before. E-Every step has to be - well it has to have an idea behind it, an idea t-that is so complex, it would take, 10 philosophers just to decipher it. Each step has to stretch like a rope - in the audiences mind. Until they can't bare it anymore and they wan to cry out, "Careful Esther you're going to break it".

Alternate versions
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival with a Running Time of 157 minutes (2 hours 37 minutes), which was then cut down by 15 minutes, against director Arnaud Desplechin's wishes, for theatrical release in France and elsewhere. The cut version essentially removes three scenes: a dream sequence of Esther, and two scenes fleshing out the Philippe Haygard character. The full uncut version was released on DVD in France and has screened in a few places such as the Lincoln Center in New York in 2019.

Connections
Referenced in I'm Still Here (2010)

Soundtracks
Suite algérienne
[by] Camille Saint-Saëns
Performed by Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (as The Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra)
Conducted by David Robertson
courtesy of Naïve Auvidis

User reviews13

Review

Featured review

10/10

One of the best films I have ever seen.

A masterpiece.

Thus it is, possibly, not for everyone.

The camera work, acting, directing and everything else is unique, original, superb in every way - and very different from the trash we are sadly used to getting.

Summer Phoenix creates a deep, believable and intriguing Esther Kahn. As everything else in this film, her acting is unique - it is completely her own - neither "British" nor "American" nor anything else I have ever seen. There is something mesmerizing about it.

The lengthy, unbroken, natural shots are wonderful, reminding us that we have become too accustomed to a few restricted ways of shooting and editing.