"Cabaret"
Reviewed by Heather Picker
Directed by Bob Fosse. Written by Jay Presson Allen. Starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, with Joel Grey. 1972, 124 min., Rated PG.
Life is a cabaret, or so the famed song goes. After watching "Cabaret," you'll agree to an extent, but also realize how unsettling the assertion is. Taking place in the early 1930s, Bob Fosse's masterpiece, a portrait of life in decadent Berlin, is both uplifting and grim. Not your typical musical, it is comedic and dramatic, realistic, very tasteful, and ultimately thought provoking.
Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is an entertainer at the Kit Kat Club, a German hot spot where the festivities are hosted by a charming Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey). She is determined to become a movie star, and is willing to bed whoever she has to for the opportunity to take a screen test. Brian Roberts (Michael York) is a mild-mannered young man from England who wants to rent a room at the boarding house Sally resides in. To support himself, he will give English lessons, through which he meets Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper), a nice guy who is down on his luck, and who decides that wooing fellow English student Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson), daughter of a wealthy Jewish businessman will solve his financial woes. Meanwhile, Sally and Brian are becoming friends, and Sally has more than friendship on her mind.
She makes advances towards him, which he gently rebuffs, prompting her to question whether or not he is interested in women. When he responds by saying that his three experiences, each with a different woman, had disastrous results, Sally takes it in stride and says she'll settle for friendship. However, they end up becoming involved. From the beginning of their relationship, it is clear that such a pairing will never work out, as their bond is too pure.
As a catalyst for the eventual demise of her union with Brian, Sally meets Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem), a handsome Baron who spends lavishly on both her and Brian, who is initially resentful. This leads to one of the best scenes of the film, in which the three of them, drunk, arms around one another, move clumsily in a circle formation as music plays and then stops, their heads moving close to one another again and again. While nothing actually happens between the three of them, something does; what will happen is yet another unavoidable event.
Some time afterwards, Brian and Sally argue over a comment she made to the effect of Maximilian perhaps proposing to her during the trip to Africa the three of them are going to take together. Seven words, first two from Brian, two from Sally, and then three from Brian in response, reveal that both of them have been conducting affairs with Maximilian. To complicate matters further, Sally later discovers that she is pregnant. With Max now out of the picture, Brian proposes and Sally accepts. They talk often of how the baby will change their lives, but neither of them truly want the life they speak of, and once Sally reflects on her relationship with Brian, her job at the Club, and her ambitions, she makes a decision that seemed inevitable.
As Sally, a character first introduced in stories, before winding up on stage, and on screen ("I Am a Camera," 1955, played by Julie Harris), Liza Minnelli, in her Oscar winning turn, is simply captivating. She is energetic, charismatic, and a joy to watch. Sally is confident, and Minnelli's confidence as one of the greatest musical entertainers around shines through during her musical numbers. The script, by Jay Presson Allen, is witty and winning. Sally, a self-proclaimed most strange and extraordinary person, delivers lines like "Doesn't my body drive you wild with desire?" And there is no doubt that her personality will leave everyone in her path positively smitten.
York is nicely understated as Brian, and the other supporting performers, Griem, Wepper, and Berenson, are convincing in their roles. But Joel Grey, in an Oscar winning role, reigns as the best of the secondary cast as the sly emcee. Director Bob Fosse masterfully staged the dance and musical numbers, and he won the Academy Award for Best Director, beating out Francis Ford Coppola, who's epic "The Godfather" in turn beat out "Cabaret" as the Best Film of 1972. Nominated for ten Oscars, Fosse's picture won eight.
There is some incredible imagery in "Cabaret," but it isn't all of a visible nature. Many of the songs being belted out at the Kit Kat Club relate to the lives of other characters, something that is often illustrated by cutting from the performance to something that is happening elsewhere at the same time. But the focus never strays from the words in the songs, which is fortunate, and there are times when showing us what is happening isn't necessary, because many of the events in "Cabaret" were scripted by history, and there is a strong sense of the bleak future of Germany and the party lifestyle in general.
Nazism, especially it's rise in popularity, is depicted in what I found to be the most chilling scene in the film, that of a young Nazi singing a prophetic song as most of the crowd around him, including more Nazis, join in. But an elderly man sits there knowingly, and looks disgusted. Brian and Max, who were watching the whole thing, got up and left, though Brian was the only one visibly effected.
"Cabaret" is the type of film that is both hard and easy to describe. It is easy to write of the events and of the movie in general, but it is impossible to fully explain the depth of the characters or performances. It is simply one of the greatest movie musicals ever made, and there is a raw humanity to it that is impossible to ignore. It ends much like it started, and time flies in the two hours in between. While it may sound like the story of a doomed affair, it is more. The power and influence of the Nazi party is growing, and the upheaval to come is weighing heavily on the group of friends at the center of the story. The Kit Kat Club, cabaret, it is all an escape from the dim future of the world and their lives. Is anyone as carefree in "Cabaret" as they seem? No. And that is the point, I believe, of the movie.
© Heather Picker, 1999
E-mail Heather Picker at Ahber16@aol.com
Review courtesy of http://www.thatmoviesite.8m.com
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