Hey, if ER can pun on Potemkin, I can pun on lentil...

Anyway ~

Women I knew at the time Yentl was released said unanimously that Mandy was "gorgeous". And, for a guy, he was (and it's 24 years old). He was also nearly always backlit, so his curls (he still had plenty at the time) haloed the light from behind his head. There was a lot of "soft focus" and other halo-ing going on, too -- like in the dinner scene. We were meant to see him through Yentl's eyes: idealized until the end (when hes also happens to be no longer backlit).

I, of course, had eyes only for Amy Irving. They did a lot of soft focus with her, too.

I haven't read as much I.B. Singer as I probably ought to, given my proclivities -- including "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy". But the message of the story is in the opening scene, with the bookseller.