Bob Fosse's most accomplished film is one of the most accomplished films ever made, period.
Fosse understood that the days of the old-fashioned Hollywood musical were over, at least as of 1972, so he gave audiences a musical that doesn't feel like a musical. Based on Christopher Isherwood's fine collection of novellas, "Goodbye Berlin," and the subsequent stage musical based on them, "Cabaret" takes elements of both sources to create something completely unique. It tells the story of Brian Roberts (Michael York), a British professor who travels to 1931 Berlin to give English lessons to a wealthy heiress of a German Jewish family. He meets the irrepressible Sally Bowles (Liza Minelli, in a dynamite performance), an American and fellow lodger in his boarding house, and the two begin a madcap friendship and sort-of romance, eventually falling in with a wealthy German baron until they all fall out with one another. 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. "Cabaret" proves Fosse to be a master behind the camera, with a directorial style as unique and instantly recognizable as his choreography. The Kit Kat Klub and its devilish M.C. provide stylized commentary on the world rotting away outside the cabaret's decadent interior; the musical numbers don't advance the plot as much as comment on it. Fosse's way of filming musical numbers is fascinating, using quick edits to capture movement from multiple angles almost simultaneously. But what gives "Cabaret" its shattering power is the way it depicts the Nazi movement's insidious rise to power even as people were dismissing it as a joke. For all of the film's stylized panache, it provides one of the most realistic documents I've ever seen of just how the Nazis positioned themselves to dominate Germany. 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 acting is phenomenal. Liza Minelli gives easily the best performance of her career and one of the best performances in the history of cinema. Joel Grey creates a character who manages to be no one and everyone at the same time. One can't imagine this vampirish imp of a man existing outside of the dark, lurid walls of the cabaret. And Michael York does terrific work as well, even if his role isn't as showy.
I think "Cabaret" has been underrated because people have labeled it as a musical, and musicals never get taken as seriously as other genres. But I would caution anyone against dismissing this film on those grounds. Yes, there is music in it, but what "Cabaret" is more than anything else is a haunting warning about the dangers in any time and place of ignoring the unpleasantness of the present and near future for the hedonistic pleasures of the moment.
Grade: A+
Fosse understood that the days of the old-fashioned Hollywood musical were over, at least as of 1972, so he gave audiences a musical that doesn't feel like a musical. Based on Christopher Isherwood's fine collection of novellas, "Goodbye Berlin," and the subsequent stage musical based on them, "Cabaret" takes elements of both sources to create something completely unique. It tells the story of Brian Roberts (Michael York), a British professor who travels to 1931 Berlin to give English lessons to a wealthy heiress of a German Jewish family. He meets the irrepressible Sally Bowles (Liza Minelli, in a dynamite performance), an American and fellow lodger in his boarding house, and the two begin a madcap friendship and sort-of romance, eventually falling in with a wealthy German baron until they all fall out with one another. 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. "Cabaret" proves Fosse to be a master behind the camera, with a directorial style as unique and instantly recognizable as his choreography. The Kit Kat Klub and its devilish M.C. provide stylized commentary on the world rotting away outside the cabaret's decadent interior; the musical numbers don't advance the plot as much as comment on it. Fosse's way of filming musical numbers is fascinating, using quick edits to capture movement from multiple angles almost simultaneously. But what gives "Cabaret" its shattering power is the way it depicts the Nazi movement's insidious rise to power even as people were dismissing it as a joke. For all of the film's stylized panache, it provides one of the most realistic documents I've ever seen of just how the Nazis positioned themselves to dominate Germany. 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 acting is phenomenal. Liza Minelli gives easily the best performance of her career and one of the best performances in the history of cinema. Joel Grey creates a character who manages to be no one and everyone at the same time. One can't imagine this vampirish imp of a man existing outside of the dark, lurid walls of the cabaret. And Michael York does terrific work as well, even if his role isn't as showy.
I think "Cabaret" has been underrated because people have labeled it as a musical, and musicals never get taken as seriously as other genres. But I would caution anyone against dismissing this film on those grounds. Yes, there is music in it, but what "Cabaret" is more than anything else is a haunting warning about the dangers in any time and place of ignoring the unpleasantness of the present and near future for the hedonistic pleasures of the moment.
Grade: A+