Barbra Streisand is a legend who can do it all. She sings. She acts. She influences pop culture. But people do not tend to think of her as a director. How erroneous! She is a director and a producer who is responsible for a couple of films that are worth talking about. Let's talk about a unique female filmmaker today: Barbra Streisand.
Babs was born in Brooklyn where she was raised in a middle class family with a Jewish education and yearned to become an actress someday. She did some cabaret singing off-Broadway where people started to rave about her voice. She gained a small fanbase which got the attention of the industry at large. In 1962, she was cast in the Broadway musical "I Can Get It For You" Wholesale where she was nominated for a Tony.
That opportunity lead to recording albums, more musicals, and films. She was cast as the Fanny Brice in the movie musical Funny Girl in 1964 which was a smashing success. Barbra had made it on stage! She even won a Grammy for one of her albums. Now it was time for her to take on the film industry.
In 1970, she actually went nude. In a little-known movie The Owl and the Pussycat, this cute kitten slips off her clothes and manages to briefly bare her boobs. This is a great shot of her breasts here:
Barbra dipped her toes into having more control over her films when she co-produced A Star is Born in 1976. Yes, Barbra starred in and executive produced A Star is Born. Allegedly, Barbra is a bit of a control freak when it comes to making movies and she started exerting that control right away with A Star is Born. It is only natural then that years later she finally decided to stop being a backseat driver and start taking the wheel!
In 1983, she made her directorial debut by directing Yentl. Yentl was a fantastic directorial debut for her because she also starred in it. Yentl was a woman who disguised herself as a man. There was no nudity, but we could see her nipples through the cloth that she used to wrap around her breasts to bind them down. She is wonderful in Yentl. Honestly? This movie proved to me that Barbra really is an undeniable force onscreen. Say what you want about her, but you cannot deny that she is talented.
She followed that up with 1991's The Prince of Tides which had no nudity in it. That being said, that film is considered to be her finest as is her performance in it. In 1996 she directed The Mirror Has Two Faces, but neither of those faces went nude. Darn. She did not direct for a while after that, but she allegedly does have a new movie in production that she is slated to direct. It is a historical romance about a love affair between Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell. A love affair? Does that mean nudity? We can only hope!
Nothing else is known of that movie, but I sincerely hope that Barbra is using the opportunity to direct a stellar romantic film. I'd love to see Babs' take on a sex scene! Papa (Babs is Papa), can you hear me? I want nudity!
