Cabaret

Plot synopsis:
Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is an American-singer and dancer who lives in Germany in the between-wars period. She dreams of becoming rich and famous, but has a clear drinking problem. She works at the Kit-Kat cabaret, a seedy place with suggestive musical numbers. The Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey), introduces and participates in the risque acts at the cabaret.We see Nazis asking for donations from the club patrons, but the owner throws them out.Sally meets Brian Roberts (Michael York) when he takes a room in a flat she shares with some older people. He is in Berlin to finish his PhD and teach English, but is currently penniless. They become friends, but fairly quickly Sally discovers that Brian has been "unsuccessful" with women, and it is implied that he is gay. The two become friends, with Sally doing much of the talking. She is loud, brash, an alcoholic always bumming cigarettes and dreaming of stardom (though her talent is apparent, she sells herself short and assumes a destructive lifestyle). We learn her father is a diplomat, but he misses a meeting with her, and has apparently been absent (if apologetic, but efficient to the point of counting words on telegrams) for much of her life.Through the other tenant's conversations, street shots, musical numbers and and a few seemingly random scenes or inserts in conversations, the growing influence of racist ideas and Nazism is foreshadowed.Brian is fascinated by Sally (she is edgy and outspoken and almost out of control, while he is composed and rational) and their friendship ends up as a sexual affair. However, Sally doesn't want to fall in love with him because she wants to marry big money. One day, while complaining at the laundrette because of problems with the timing of the cleaning of some garments, she bumps into Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem). He helps Sally by translating the attendant's German into English. Sally flirts with him, and he offers her a ride in his limousine. Sally falls dazzled when she notices the luxurious car. They go out (Brian, invited, refuses) and Max buys Sally perfume, a fur coat and treats her to a life of luxury.Meanwhile, Sally and Brian have been setting up one student of Brian's, a wanna-be gigolo who plans on meeting and wedding an ugly but rich woman, Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper), with a wealthy heiress, Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson). While Fritz was originally after Natalia's money, he finds he has really fallen for her - and she is in love with him. Ironically, it is Sally's bluntly sexual advice (that both seek) that bring them together.Max also buys Brian gifts and finally wins him over--Brian and Sally visit Max at his castle. Max gives them a first-class treatment, and Sally gets completely starry-eyed. However, there, they learn the truth: Max is married, but he and his wife have decided to lead separate lives with many different lovers and sexual adventures on either side, but never breaking up their marriage, as financially that would be an end to their flamboyant living. The three enjoy an evening of decadence.Later, Sally confesses to Brian that she has slept with Max. Brian confesses that he has too.The Nazis are gaining public acceptance and power. Max, Sally and Brian go to a beer garden and a Nazi youth starts singing a "patriotic" song; most of the people join in. On the way home, Brian suggests that the growing Nazi threat may not be contained (by people like Max, even). A Nazi gang beats up the club owner in revenge of their previous treatment. One of the acts in the club is a poignant and ironic "ode" to anti-Jew sentiment.Natalia finds her beloved dog dead on her door-step. Brian encourages Fritz to propose to her, as he knows she really does love him, and Fritz loves her as a person - not just for her fortune. Fritz says that it won't happen, because he's penniless. Because of the increasingly hostile atmosphere, Natalia rejects Fritz when he finally proposes. She tells him that the marriage can't take place because she is Jewish. Fritz confesses to Natalia that he is Jewish as well, and they get married in a traditional ceremony immediately.Max sends a note to Sally and Brian, saying that he has to leave the country on "family business". He includes money for each of them. Soon, she feels gloomy, and tells Brian that she is pregnant, but doesn't know who the father is. It could be Max or Brian's... She considers an abortion, but Brian asks her to marry him. He asks her to have the baby and tries to convince her that they could be happy together in spite of not being millionaires. His demeanor and expression, however, suggests that he is not pleased with this prospect, as Sally says that she'll think about it. It's implied through scenes of their past decadence, that, if she has a baby, she'll give up the only life she knows, nor ever never be able to become a star or marry a rich man.The next thing Brian notices is that Sally hasn't got the fur coat anymore. Brian realizes that she's given it to the doctor as payment for the abortion. Their relationship is over. Returning to his rational self and seeing Sally for who she is, and the rise of Nazism, he decides to return home.Brian and Sally head to the train station so Brian can return to England. Sally stays behind to keep up her performances at the club. She sings her final ode to fatalism and decadence, "Cabaret", and the MC closes the show. The atmosphere is not joyous anymore and Nazis are seen among the patrons in the warped mirror of the sax.

Tags: romantic, depressing, historical, queer

Review:
The musical number "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is so effective an illustration of the appeal this new Nazi hope held for impoverished suffering Germans, and yet we have The Master Of Ceremonies' evil nodding grin to remind us, in retrospect, what it really led to.Just as every musical number (aside from being so beautifully choreographed and presented) reminds us of the desperation in Sally Bowles' life and in most of Germany.
He won an Emmy for directing and choreographing the television special LIZA WITH A Z, he won a Tony for directing the Broadway musical PIPPIN, and blindsided Francis Ford Copolla by winning an Oscar for Best Director for CABARET, the dazzling 1972 film version, which is Fosse's re-thinking of the 1966 Broadway musical.
Liza Minnelli turns in a dazzling Oscar-winning performance as Sally, a gutsy, self-absorbed party girl who shows signs of vulnerability and a desperate need to be loved.
My very first Bob Fosse's film, certainly the film gained its classic fame as the biggest winner of the Oscar in 1973, with 8 wins (including BEST DIRECTOR, LEADING ACTRESS and SUPPORTING ACTOR) and nearly usurped the BEST PICTURE trophy from THE GODFATHER (1972, 9/10), if it had been so, it would be inflicted with much notorious backfire in the film history, but the film itself is an unerring gem among the undying musical genre, my first viewing is a thoroughly exultant experience, and cut and dried, it's on my guilty-pleasure list.
It is my first Liza Minnelli's film as well, the cabaret's "international sensation" Sally Bowles, an innocuous vamp, Liza grants her role a disarming vitality and quaintly resembles a bobbed Anne Hathaway doppelgänger, not only radiates her grandeur in rendering her doughty-yet-alluring show tunes (she is born to do it), her portrayal of Sally personal life is equally (if not more) affecting, her doe-eyed naivety and unrestrained zest for life, for love, for fame elevate her character as the master of her own fate, her sacrifice may not gain concurrence from motley views of life, but a full obeisance to her independence and pluck is duly earned.
Michael York, behind his gawky effeminacy, plunges himself into a more contentious venture, Brian Roberts, his character's bookish bi-sexual temperament is a provocative taboo on big screen (like since ever) and the implicit ménage à trois temptation (with Sally and the suave Helmut Griem, whose gentrified debonair is utterly irresistible) has been simmering to the perfect temperature, under-girds a manifestation of initiating a sex-liberation wave (germane to the 70s era while against the Nazi-rising milieu in the film).
Joel Grey, as the so called "Master of Ceremonies" and won an Oscar (against three fellows from THE GODFATHER), serves only as the performer in the film, no clear attachment with the plot, his musical set pieces are burlesque, risqué but entertaining to the bone, with a strenuous mimicry of German accent, it is a hard-earned honor, although I don't understand how Al Pacino could lose at any rate.
A young English man named Brian(Michael York, in a character based on Christopher Isherwood's experiences) develops a relationship with a reckless young American girl named Sally(Liza Minnelli at a wonderful performance to the edge of tragedy) in Berlin during the 30s in which Hitler is rising to power and racism, anti-Semitism and determinedly amoral behavior are growing.
All the roles are linked by the Kit-Kat club where perform Sally and an androgynous master of ceremonies(Joel Grey , he deservedly won Oscar to best support cast).It's a magnificent musical-drama well set on Germany where are increasing horrors of Nazism taking place on its grim moments.
This story was formerly brought to life by Henry Cornelius (1959) with Laurence Harvey(Brian role) and Julie Harris(Sally role) in a good drama no musicalized.¨Cabaret¨ is an impressive picture splendidly directed by Bob Fosse(1927-1987) and winning three Oscars.
Shot entirely on the location in Berlin with the Kit Kat Club cabaret of the title as a real centerpiece of the movie, "Cabaret" is a marvel of directing, editing, color settings, that in combination with brilliantly clever and catchy songs, creates the doomed ambiguous atmosphere of uncertainty, hanging onto the present moment, and not daring to imagine to whom tomorrow belongs and what tomorrow will bring.
Under her rather intimidating makeup - her eyes that took up the good half of her face, the eyelashes so long that they can reach the opposite wall of the room, the impossible garish colors of her eyelids that probably glow in darkness unmistakably announcing her presence and colored in dark green finger nails that can be considered the dangerous weapon, Sally is vulgar but vulnerable, corrupted but lovable, oblivious but lonely, talented but stuck in the cabaret Kit Kat Club where the music never stops and life is always beautiful ...In 1973, Cabaret competed for the Best Picture of the Year award with number one of 250 Best Movies as per IMDb users, Francis Coppola's Godfather.
Not only it was the equal contender, it won 8 of ten Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Director for Bob Fosse, Best Actress for Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey (who was against three heavy weights from Godfather - Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall), and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Cinematography.
Fosse's delegacy lives on...on film, and on stage right now in London, Berlin, and New York where the CABARET revival, did I mention CHICAGO?, and FOSSE, the musical- based on his life- including a piece from the movie of Cabaret continue to dazzle new generations.
Movie-fans still discuss whether Liza was actually acting the role of Sally Bowles or just being herself (her Oscar-win still draws debates--Diana Ross in "Lady Sings The Blues" is oft-times described as 'robbed' for the Best Actress statue).
Meanwhile, revellers come to the Kit Kat Klub, the cabaret where Sally performs, to join the sinister Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey, recreating his Broadway performance) in laughing away the dark cloud of Nazism building on the German horizon.Fosse sharpened his directorial teeth on "Sweet Charity" three years earlier, and while I greatly admire that film, I can admit how uneven it is as a movie.
It's no coincidence that the film's most disturbing moment comes not in the nightmare, feverish world of the cabaret's stage, but rather in the realistically depicted world of a German beer garden, where the angelic voice of a Nazi youth raised in song becomes a rallying cry and call to arms for the German people.
The 1966 hit, a song-filled version of John Van Druten's 1952 play I AM A CAMERA, itself an adaptation of British novelist Christopher Isherwood's BERLIN STORIES, CABARET incorporated both the traditional conventions of the American Musical Theater (boy meets girl , love songs sung by the main protagonists) coupled with the more daring plot device of a ghoulishly painted Master of Ceremonies who comments on the main story's proceedings through song and dance.
British Sally Bowles, the singer in the notorious Kit Kat Club Cabaret, was now an American played by Liza Minnelli.
There were a couple things I did enjoy (one not so minor), but you'll have to read on to discover what they were (I need to create _some_ suspense here).Cabaret is the story of Sally Bowles (Minnelli) and Brian Roberts (York).
The look of the film, especially the cabaret scenes, including the garishly painted faces and bizarre costumes and overall appearance of the performers, is based on the visual art of George Grosz and Otto Dix--even going so far as recreating characters from Dix paintings down to small details.
In 1931, in Berlin, the English professor from Cambridge Brian Roberts (Michael York) comes to the boarding house where the promiscuous American performer and singer of the Cabaret Kit-Kat Club Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) lives.
As relevant now as it was then, carrying a tune and warning of creeping fascism, it's staying power is not only in its message but the bite of the music and two of the most memorable musical performances in film history with Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the "Emcee."University student Brian Roberts ( Michael York) freshly arrived in Berlin (Weimar Germany 1931) to complete his studies makes the acquaintance of Kit Kat Club performer Sally Bowles who shows him the ropes.
Together they encounter and share new friends but Brian comes to the realization that Sally is not about to give up a life of "divine decadence." Meanwhile in the streets, the parks, the clubs the Nazi Party and its brand of thuggery is becoming more prevalent.Outside of a pace slowing subplot regarding two older students Robert is tutoring Cabaret is flawless film making in nearly every area with Minelli excelling in three (acting, singing, dancing) requirements and Grey's mischievously haunting master of ceremonies delivering a character for the ages.
All of the songs comment on the social situation in Germany at the time and because they are all performed in the cabaret they can be explained in a real context, cleverly allowing those who do not even like musicals to enjoy them as they do not break the illusion of reality.
Hosted by the enigmatic, almost supernatural, Master of Ceremonies, it's a decadent place that exists apart from the realities of Hitlerism, a place that we all know must be ultimately doomed when the Nazis fully rise to power.Performances are universally great with Michael York and Liza Minnelli both putting in very fine work.
Liza Minelli plays a singer working at a cabaret club, and the music is set within this context, with her performances juxtaposed against and enhancing plot developments.
As the Nazi movement was gaining power, Berlin residents like Sally Bowles played by the one and only Liza Minnelli had relationships with men and lived on her singing at nightclubs until she meets Michael York (When will he be knighted?) anyway he plays the writer.
Of course, the fact that Bob Fosse directed this gem and changed the musical films forever from light and happy to dark and sad like in Cabaret.
Liza Minelli and Michael York are perfect for their roles, and this is a rare musical where the characters and story comes first.
But, as a musical, this movie appealed to me since the musical numbers are integrated into the fabric of the movie by being part of the cabaret where the main female character, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) performs.
A love story set in a Berlin night-club during the rise of Nazism.Musicals, more than any other form of film, are the most dangerous to make: It only takes one or two bad songs, an ill-chosen star or an ill-judged theme for the whole affair to collapse, not just in to failure, but in to an object of  public ridicule.
Think about the film version of A Chorus Line for a minute.However when they fire on all cylinders - as it does here - you have something that will live and play forever.Director Bob Fosse's name will, indeed, live forever with Cabaret which not only works as a great musical, it also operates  as a fairly good love story and imparts (without too much depth) a sense of time and place drama.
For these combined reasons I think it is the best musical ever made.Liza Minnelli was born to play Sally Bowles the brash and breezy night-club performer.
Joel Grey was good (and deserved his Oscar) as the spooky compare, but having said that plenty of actors could have played the role just as well.The best thing about this movie is that really does look like a Berlin night-club.
Roberts takes adjoining lodgings in an inexpensive apartment with Bowles and meets a variety of friends like Maximilian Von Heune (Helmut Griem) At her place of employment, the Kit-Kat club, Sally joins the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey, superior performance) on the small stage.
The film is rich with dancing routines and wonderful Musical numbers, like 'Money' 'Two For One' and 'If you could see her through my eyes.' The happiness of the movie is punctuated with background scenes of the growing and menacing brutality of the Nazis.
(Joel Grey) lords over a mishmash of performers, one of whom is Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), singer/dancer and actress wannabe.But like vultures, uniformed Nazis hover in the plot's background, an ominous harbinger of encroaching evil.
Cabaret is a brilliant film with kudos to all involved especially Director Bob Fosse and star Liza Minnelli who hit a grand slam home run and won the Oscar in the role of Sally.
As well as Minnelli, the musical and showy strength of the film comes from Joel Grey, transported from the stage version in his bizarre make-up to continue as reflector and commentator on troubled times.
Liza Minnelli is Sally Bowles, a dancer/singer at the Kit Kat Club who has dreams of becoming a famous actress; and Michael York is Brian Jordan, an English philosophy student who is in Germany for cultural enrichment and to make some money.
A female girlie club entertainer (Liza Minnelli) in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.Michael York has such a distinct look, it is both mesmerizing and frightening.
Aside from the rather annoying "Money Makes the World Go Around" and "Cabaret", most people would have a hard time remembering the songs that play such a prominent role in the film.Also, while I do agree that Minelli deserved the Oscar for her demanding performance, I was very surprised to see Joel Grey get one as well.
Overall Cabaret works for those expecting the pleasures of a movie musical and film buffs looking for something more: turbulent love and relationships done to some imaginative direction that keeps things surprisingly grounded in reality.
Certainly legendary choreographer Bob Fosse was the ideal choice to stage the dance scenes in this jazzy 1972 feature film version of "Cabaret", based on the same-titled 1966 Broadway musical smash, based on the John Van Druten novel, "I Am a Camera" (also filmed in 1955), based on a single chapter of Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" memoirs.
John Kander and Fred Ebb tailored new songs ("Maybe This Time", "Mein Herr", "The Money Song") especially for the talents of Minnelli and Grey, both Oscar winners here, and its to the credit of both writers and performers that these new songs have been incorporated into stage revivals ever since.While Bob Fosse's film direction of "Sweet Charity" left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth, his Oscar-winning work in "Cabaret" left me hungry for more.
"Life is a cabaret, old chum" shouts Liza Minelli at the end, Indeed, all the previous acts showed a parallel between the story and the songs, whether they're about love, money, marriage, sexual plurality  the trademark will be used by Bob Fosse in his next successful film "Lenny", when Lenny's sketches are illustrated by his own experiences.
Most unusual for the time, director/choreographer Bob Fosse made the ingenious decision to isolate the songs from the dramatic scenes, and keep all of the musical numbers on the stage where they belong.
British man Brian Roberts (Michael York) comes to Berlin to teach English in the 1930's, at the time the Nazi party is rising.There he meets an interesting singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli).The bi-sexual teacher becomes very fond of her.In between there's the handsome and rich Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem).In Berlin he also meets people as Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper) and (Natalia Landauer).They're both Jewish and attracted to each other.Joel Grey is the eccentric Master of Ceremonies.The cast is absolutely fantastic in this Bob Fosse's musical drama.I read about two years ago Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, which this movie is based on.This week I saw the movie and they're both great.In the movie you can hear the songs being sang and they're all marvelous.I truly recommend this movie to a whole bunch of people..
They gave the top Oscars that year to a violent grandiose gangster thriller and the first X Rated musical.Cabaret adapts the stories of Christopher Isherwood with a heavy dose of the late 1960s counterculturalism and Bob Fosse's unique dancing choreography.It is set in a Hedonistic part of Germany of the 1930s.
The film deals with antisemitism and the vicious thugs who beat up those who stand in their way.Micheal York plays Brian the young English middle class man who has come to Berlin to teach and meets the decadent Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), a decadent, free spirited American would be actress whose father is a diplomat.
She is somewhat needy for attention, especially if the men are wealthy.She befriends who we discover is gay and later both have an affair with a wealthy German Baron.There is also another side plot of one of Brian's student, a gigolo falling for a rich heiress who is Jewish.The central plank of the film is the cabaret numbers at the Kit Kat Club itself introduced by the Emcee (Joel Grey) who also performs the gaudy, bawdy numbers and sketches including women wrestling in mud.
Liza Minnelli shines as Sally Bowles in the Cabaret musical film adaptation.
Widled considered one of the greatest films ever made, it follows the young, wild and sensitive American Sally Bowles, who lives in Berlin and work in cabaret "Kit Kat Club".
Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is a flamboyant bohemian American singer performing at the Kit Kat Klub with MC (Joel Grey).
Michael York took the role of the rather naive young man who while renting a room, falls in with Liza Minnelli and her hedonistic lifestyle.Repeating his role as the Cabaret emcee is Joel Grey who was the Best Supporting Actor for 1972.
Life is very much so a Cabaret for Liza Minnelli in this musical.She gives the performance of her life as Sally Bowles.Her mother,the great Judy Garland would be proud of her.