Sydney Pollack’s flawless romantic drama starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford.
Passionate and uncompromising political activist Katie Morosky is a working-class girl. Hubbell Gardiner is from a wealthy family—a carefree sportsman, always in a loud group of friends. They belong to different worlds, yet the two are irresistibly attracted to each other—first in college, where Katie fights against the Franco regime and Hubbell discovers his writing talent, and later when chance brings them together again after the Second World War. With Barbra Streisand’s star role that brought her an Oscar nomination and Robert Redford confirming his status as a sex symbol, the American Film Institute ranked The Way We Were number six on its list of the greatest love stories in American cinema.
A classical story about the attraction of opposites, The Way We Were was the third collaboration between Sydney Pollack (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, 1969) and Robert Redford (All the President's Men, 1976). Later, they made four more films together, including Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Out of Africa (1985).
An actress of unrestrained emotion and who has redefined our idea of beauty, after her role of Katie Morosky, Barbra Streisand became an idol for millions. Today, the character of an idealist Jew with portraits of Lenin and Stalin might seem camp, but in the 1970s, the sincerity with which the film captured America’s anti-communist and anti-Semitic attitudes of the mid-twentieth century was remarkable.
In her later career, Streisand, not unlike her character, continued to pave the way for women’s and Jewish stories in film with her directorial debut Yentl (1983). Robert Redford became one of the founders of Sundance—the key festival for American independent film. The relationship between Katie and Hubbell has become a source of endless quotes, including in Gilmore Girls and Sex in the City.
The film will be screened in English with Russian subtitles.
The Way We Were
Director: Sydney Pollack
USA, 1973. 118 min. 12+
