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

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

Do you ever wish you could reverse time and do something differently?

Esther Kahn made me regret every second that I spent watching it and I wished I could have reversed my trip to the video store. I'm surprised I even made it through this seemingly bad trip to purgatory. How do films like this ever get the money to have one minute of it made? And how do actresses like Summer Phoenix get work?

The characters were so boring and lifeless that I'm surprised the director stayed awake making it. I never felt any empathy or compassion towards Esther in her so-called plight towards trying to become an accomplished actress. Maybe Summer Phoenix should re-think her choice of being an actress as she was horrible. Also, listening to her Oliver Twist meets valley girl English accent was a joke.

If this is what films are coming to, I'd rather spend my time doing laundry...at least it's more dynamic and exciting than Esther Kahn.