Cabaret Reviews

I came across Cabaret the first time at a highly formative time in my life. I was around 11 or 12, and I found it on cable. Clearly, I didn’t understand every single nuance, yet the content spoke to me on a very deep level. As time has gone on, Cabaret has only solidified in my mind as the obvious choice for greatest movie musical ever made.

 

This isn’t your typical musical, as it takes place in a very recognizable real world, with all of the musical numbers mostly kept to the Kit Kat Club, and the various musical numbers providing diegesis commentary. Then there is the ambiguity of the ending, which could almost be read as defiant and hopeful if it weren’t for the pan across the crowd in the finale revealing an audience comprised of Nazi youth.

 

Taking place at the exact time when the Weimar Republic was ending and the Nazis were gaining more power and traction in German society, Cabaret lives up to Sally Bowles’ “divine decadence” philosophy of life. Presenting a society of corrosion and perverted sexuality, with Bob Fosse keeping a cool distance from the proceedings. Other musicals are easier to swallow because they’re warm and inviting, they’re wholesome and filled with emotional uplift, but Cabaret stands in opposition to them.

 

Much like Christopher Isherwood’s impassive, documentary-style writing in The Berlin Stories, Cabaret is made up of acutely realized details and character developments. Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories are filled with memorable characters, and many of them are translated from page-to-screen with great success, but none quite as brilliantly as Sally Bowles.

 

In the novel (and stage show), Sally Bowles is an obviously untalented drug addict, and she’s not quite that here. Part of the change in character comes from Liza Minnelli, a thoroughbred performer with a raft-shaking voice and phenomenal dance talent. This version of Sally is all artifice, a commitment to exuberance, life’s many thrills, and an addiction to nihilistic pleasures of living solely in the moment. She makes “Cabaret” into both a declaration of self, and a defiant anthem of desperation. This Sally is no less self-destructive, but if she could get her act together she could become the top-billed shining star she dreams of. That’s never going to happen, and when the smiling mask cracks, Minnelli reveals the swirling, tortured, ugly emotions forcing Sally into chasing joy at all costs. Hers is one of the best Oscar wins, ever.

 

Sally’s psychic torment in pursuit of merriment is a microcosm of much of the film, with the Kit Kat Club being the diseased soul reflecting back what she’s showing us. Led by Joel Grey’s grinning imp of an emcee, he leads us through not only the cabaret, but through the story, as the film constantly cuts back to the Kit Kat Club and the emcee either performing or introducing a performance. He becomes something of a twisted narrator and guide. He’s also the first major character we meet in the opening number, “Willkommen,” which is something of an omen of things to come.

 

That opening number reflects back on the cosmopolitan nature in its death throes of the era. These numbers don’t necessarily propel the story forward, so much as they act as running commentary stripped from the storytelling. “Mein Herr” is Sally’s first number, and not only does it introduce important aspects of her character, but it hints at the demise of her relationship with Brian (Michael York) one scene after they’ve been introduced to each other. “Two Ladies” makes explicit the ménage a trois between Sally, Brian, and Max (Helmut Griem), and it’s also an absolute laugh riot of lascivious and bawdy humor. And “If You Could See Her” ends with a punchline about a person being Jewish right when the Nazis are appearing more and more often after only having been on the periphery for so much of the film. It also makes the film audience a duplicitous member of the laughing cabaret audience.

 

The one musical number to not take place in the Kit Kat Club, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” is a haunting, waking nightmare. As a blond Nazi youth begins singing, the crowd in the beer garden is met with a tense unease at first, before the crowd gives in and starts singing along. The sequence ends with Brian and Max driving away while the entire beer garden stands in solidarity with the Nazi youth, and it is terrifying. It’s also a perfect symbolic gesture for the rising antisemitism of the era.

 

All of this is so memorable because of Bob Fosse’s expert direction, which is electric in energy and unique in editing choices. Most musicals edit on the beats of the score, or to capture the energy of the dancers. Fosse and David Bretherton’s editing is dynamic and rhythmic, but also completely original. Chicago is obviously indebted to Cabaret’s cross-cutting techniques and surgical removal of the musical numbers, but it can’t compete with the greatness on display here.

 

Cabaret ends just as Nazism is taking its stranglehold on the country, and these sexually amorphous, gender-bending, and deviant characters will either be flushed out of the society or escape of their own volition. Glamorously broken, this is a film that presents a subterranean group in its final cries of despair, masked as they are by subversion of emotional and political truths. It’s at times hard to explain the sheer depth of feeling and artistry so evident when you watch Cabaret, but it’s one of the greatest films we’ve ever produced.

Since I keep hearing good things about 'Cabaret', I wanted to watch it, it wasn't what I was hoping for, it was well acted (Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Berenson) but is still far from being a masterpiece

There is a brilliant ending with lots of Nazis everywhere

To conclude even though 'Cabaret' is far from being a masterpiece, it is still an enjoyable movie and definitely worth it

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of musicals but, still, I try to remain open-minded and, like any other genre, if you watch the very best of them, there is a good chance they will be something you like about them. So, indeed, I thought it was pretty good, even if I wasn't completely blown away. Basically, it was Bob Fosse's 2nd directing effort and it was probably his most successful movie, at least critically. Fosse himself was actually quite a phenomenon. Indeed, he was an actor, a dancer, a choreographer, a musical director, a screenwriter and a film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography and was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of 'Cabaret' (beating Francis Ford Coppola for 'The Godfather' no less). If you ask me Coppola should have won the oscar back then but still the directing was pretty solid. Honestly, I never cared much about Liza Minelli but she was pretty good. Above all, the thing I enjoyed the most was how dark and gloomy the whole thing was. Indeed, most musicals are really joyful which tends to get on my nerves but this one was actually really sad and I really liked this approach. However, I still have a hard time when once a while the actors stopped the flow of the story just to sing or dance along but without this, it wouldn't be a musical but something entirely different. Still, to conclude, it must one of the best musicals I have ever seen and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

The score, the acting (Liza Minnelli's!) and the direction by Bob Fosse...
A winner of 8 - that's right 8 - Academy Awards, it must have done something right!