Cabaret

"Cabaret" (1972)

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CABARET

Reviewed by Heather Picker

Directed by Bob Fosse. Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen. Starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, with Joel Grey. 1972, 124 minutes, Rated PG.

Please note: This review sucks. I wrote it in high school and plan to revise it in time for the site re-launch in 2007.

Life is a cabaret, or so the song goes. You'll agree in a disturbing, "Oh no, life sucks and we're all gonna die" kind of way after watching Cabaret. Set in the early 1930s, Bob Fosse's portrait of decadent life in a decidedly decadent Berlin is both uplifting and grim. Not a typical movie musical it is comedic, dramatic, realistic, tasteful (when it counts) and ultimately thought provoking. (And there's no Esther Williams!)

Liza Minnelli stars as Sally Bowles, an entertainer at the Kit Kat Klub, a German hot spot where the festivities are overseen by a charming Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey). She is determined to become a movie star and willing to bed whomever she must in pursuit of screen tests. Brian Roberts (Basil Exposition, er, Michael York) is a mild-mannered lad from England who arrives and rents a room at her boarding house. He gives English lessons to support himself and they become friends, though Sally's brazenness is in sharp contrast to Brian's introverted manner. She makes sexual advances that he gently rebuffs; she takes the rejection in stride after questioning his sexuality, and says that she'll settle for friendship.

But Sally isn't the settling type, and they begin a relationship as the Nazis rise to power. Romantic complications are provided by the handsome Baron Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem), who spends lavishly on both members of the doomed couple while the extent of his relationship with Brian is left temporarily ambiguous. The uneasy involvement of the trio provides the film's best scene, in which they all get drunk and a little touchy-feely. Nothing happens but something does -- Brian and Sally have crossed whatever line stood between them and the unavoidable, dramatic things in their future.

As Sally, a character first introduced in Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories before winding up on stage and screen (in 1955's I Am a Camera she is played by Julie Harris, who had won a Tony playing the role three years earlier), an Oscar-winning Minnelli is simply captivating; she's even charismatic when she blinks. The script, by Jay Presson Allen, is witty and winning, if overlong, and York is nicely understated as Brian. Griem, Wepper, and Berenson provide good support in smaller roles, but the only one who comes close to stealing Minnelli's thunder is Grey in his Oscar-winning role as the sly emcee. The musical numbers were masterfully staged by director Bob Fosse, who beat out Francis Ford Coppola as the year's Best Director. Nominated for ten Oscars, Cabaret won a stunning eight, though Coppola's The Godfather went home with the Best Picture statuette.

DVD Details: A Special Edition from Warner Brothers presented in it's original theatrical aspect ratio (1.85:1). It isn't anamorphically enhanced and the picture quality is disappointing, complete with grain and artifacting. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is of acceptable quality. While neither music nor dialogue will knock your socks off it is all clear.

Features include cast and crew biographies and filmographies, background information on the story, text on location shooting (Fosse shot in Germany to give the film an authentic look and feel) and the musical contributions of John Kander and Fred Ebb, the famous composing and lyrics duo. The many awards Cabaret received are also listed, the original theatrical trailer is included, and there are two documentaries, both short. "The Recreation of an Era" was made in '72, and gives a behind the scenes look at filming. Fosse appears briefly, for those interested. "Cabaret: A Legend in the Making" is a seventeen minute short that was filmed to commemorate the films 25th anniversary. It features interviews with the producer, stars, and screenwriter. Clips from the same interviews used in that documentary can be seen by accessing The Kit Kat Klub Memory Gallery, which consists of 1-2 minutes of Minnelli, Grey, York, Martin Baum, Cy Feuer, Emanuel L. Wolf, John Kander, Jay Presson Allen, and Fred Ebb discussing various aspects of production.

Availability: Cabaret is available on DVD.

Related reading and listening: There are several books collecting the songs from Cabaret (the film version and stage versions) and Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories is available in paperback, as well as I Am a Camera. You can listen to the film's score on CD.

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