X
  • 2002
  • Not Rated
  • Empire Pictures Inc.
  • 2 h 37 m
  • 2002
  • Not Rated
  • Empire Pictures Inc.
  • 2 h 37 m

Summary Set in London at the close of the 19th century, the film tells the story of Esther Kahn (Summer Phoenix), an introverted working class Jewish girl who has trouble fitting in with the rest of her East End family. [Empire Pictures]

Directed By: Arnaud Desplechin

Written By: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Arthur Symons, Arnaud Desplechin

  • 2002
  • Not Rated
  • Empire Pictures Inc.
  • 2 h 37 m
  • 2002
  • Not Rated
  • Empire Pictures Inc.
  • 2 h 37 m

Esther Kahn

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 12 Critic Reviews
46
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Set in London at the close of the 19th century, the film tells the story of Esther Kahn (Summer Phoenix), an introverted working class Jewish girl who has trouble fitting in with the rest of her East End family. [Empire Pictures]

Directed By: Arnaud Desplechin

Written By: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Arthur Symons, Arnaud Desplechin

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 12 Critic Reviews
46
25% Positive
3 Reviews
50% Mixed
6 Reviews
25% Negative
3 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 12 Critic Reviews
46
25% Positive
3 Reviews
50% Mixed
6 Reviews
25% Negative
3 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
90
Summer Phoenix has a screen presence that's simultaneously distancing and transfixing, an inscrutability that makes her seem either mysterious or a complete blank.
By Scott Tobias FULL REVIEW
80
Ranks among the best films ever made about the acting profession.
By Ken Fox FULL REVIEW
60
Brilliantly edited and gorgeously shot, Esther Kahn is a dream to look at and, courtesy of Howard Shore's minor chords and high-strung strings, definitely something to hear.
By Manohla Dargis FULL REVIEW
50
Desplechin wants to film an adventure of the human spirit in the manner of a Hitchcockian drama, but he doesn't have a solid enough grasp of English culture to equal the complexity of his French productions like "The Sentinel" and "The Life of the Dead."
By David Sterritt FULL REVIEW
50
It's a charcoal draft of a movie -- magically allusive on some levels and utterly opaque on others, a strange combination of the overexplicit and the unwritten.
By David Edelstein FULL REVIEW
30
This is a movie about the nature of acting -- or, more specifically, the nature that creates an actress -- centered on what appears to be a spectacularly unconvincing title-role performance.
By J. Hoberman FULL REVIEW
12
How do you inject life into a film whose central character is dull, slow, stupid and grim?If you're Arnaud Desplechin, you don't.
By Megan Lehmann FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Why Not Productions, Les Films Alain Sarde, France 3 Cinéma, France 2 Cinéma, Zephyr Films, Arts Council of England, Canal+, British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), British Screen Productions
Release Date Mar 1, 2002
Duration 2 h 37 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Tagline The stage is her world
Website http://www.bacfilms.com/estherkahn/
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Awards

Cahiers du Cinéma
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Viennale
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Nomination

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