Plot Intro
Berlin, the early 1930s (so you know it’s going to get dark at some point). Based on the real experiences of writer Christopher Isherwood, PhD student Brian Roberts (Michael York) arrives to earn a living giving private English tuition. Also living in the guest house is Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), who lives a fun-filled, promiscuous, bohemian lifestyle as a singer and performer in the cabaret Kit Kat Club. Their passionate friendship/romance is complicated by Brian struggling with his sexuality, Sally’s unpredictable nature, and the rise of the Nazis…
Liza! Fosse! Choreography! Yes, it’s that time when we get to one of the more famous films in the Best Actress winner canon. Fresh-faced Liza Minnelli roars onto screen as Sally Bowles, and while she’s young, Minelli already had a Tony Award and an Oscar nomination under her belt here. Having been turned down for the original stage role as Sally (considered too inexperienced, it went to Jill Haworth), this is the Liza show - with a side helping of Joel Grey as the lascivious, eerie Emcee.
I have a particular love of the stage musical of Cabaret, having seen it in 2006 with Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally and Sheila Hancock as Fraulein Schneider and again with Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne in 2021. Both times I went with my mum, who told me all about the history of the play’s setting and discussed lots of details. As she passed away recently, the musical and songs have become even more important to me, as I remember the points we chatted about and the performances we compared.
Where the stage show flies and this film perhaps slightly stumbles, is in the scenes of decadence, freedom and excess. By cutting the musical’s storyline of Frau Schneider and her Jewish greengrocer suiter, the film feels weaker and a bit under-driven at times. Instead there are long (slightly dull) scenes of Sally and Brian (called Cliff in the stage show) chatting about stuff. The film is also unable to show some of the more risque elements of the stage show, hinting rather than showing. It’s a bit like drag shows - drag queens can get away with darker, funnier, grittier things in a club than they can on a TV show. This Cabaret is oddly sanitised, despite its depiction of mud wrestling and Joel Grey camping it up as much as he bodily can.
On a rewatch, where the film lifts for me is in the musical numbers which are terrific, even if Minnelli is far too accomplished to be slumming it in a grubby little cabaret venue, and in the Schindler’s List-esque subtleties - we see Sally and Brian walking around the streets and chatting and in the background over the course of the film, posters on walls go from being a bit graffitied with various slogans, to full on Nazi anthems. We see the slow slide into fascism.
This is not the be all and end all for Cabaret the musical, and while Minnelli is captivating, I do think other actresses have gone on to make the part more compelling. Minnelli simply performs ‘Cabaret’ at the end of the show as an upbeat club number. Since then, actresses have developed it to become a desperate, scrabbling number where we see Sally maybe regretting her choice to stay, and remaining in a land overtaken by Nazism and hatred. We also often now see Sally not being a good singer - which somehow adds to the pathos of the whole thing. How can she actually be successful when she’s not even particularly talented. I’ll never forget Maxwell Martin’s screaming the last few lines into the theatre, or Jessie Buckley’s building to a manic climax. Or just go google Amy Lennox’s performance at the Oliviers for a breathtaking, thought-provoking version. Minnelli’s version next to these just doesn’t stand up any more.
However where Minnelli does still stand out is in her slick, difficult performances elsewhere in the film. I loved her ‘Mein Herr’ (although cutting ‘Don’t Tell Mama’ is just rude) and there’s no doubt she’s an accomplished showbiz performer. For me, this version of the classic musical is just a bit too dated and pulls short of the productions that have come since.
The one song that remains just as powerful on screen as on stage is ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’, where we see the people refusing to stand up and join in becoming outnumbered and threatened.
The whole subplot about the rich duke-friend is just achingly dull. I actually found more of this film duller than I remember.
Mark
6/10
Question: What’s gayer than Liza Minnelli and Michael York in a queer, polyamorous relationship against the backdrop of blonde, leather-clad Nazis? Answer: NOTHING. Being the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, it stands to reason that Liza should enter show business at age 15, win a Tony award at 19, and win the Best Actress Oscar at 27. Her nearly-seven-decade career then consists of larger-than-life musicals, comedy performances, albums, glitter, show business parties, being imitated by drag queens and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS in a time when no one talked about it. I mean, what else was she going to do other than become a queer icon?
Although Cabaret would end up being her second and last Oscar nomination, there’s no better way to exemplify her unique brand and talent. She is by far the most exuberant, lively, vivacious human being in the whole film and it is a credit to her that she doesn’t descend into over-acting or histrionics. Every movement and line delivery feels spontaneous and I genuinely believed that Sally is an eccentric, happy-go-lucky, but also vulnerable and insecure woman living through an immensely dangerous time.
That said, I agree with Doug that the film can end up dragging and it would be a real slog without Liza. She overshadows everyone except Joel Grey as the Emcee (who also won Best Supporting Actor, deservedly so), and even when she is present there are many scenes outside of the Kit Kat club that feel longer than they are.
I think that director Bob Fosse (one of the biggest and most influential names in the world of musicals, and also won Best Director for this) was aiming to create a stark juxtaposition between the world of the cabaret and the “real” world, shown by his quick, sometimes unexpected cuts and fade outs from one to the other. In the cabaret, life is anarchic, chaotic, unpredictable and fun. In the real world, dialogue is quiet and subdued and there is far more background menace with the subtle increase of Nazi symbols and propaganda in the background. Fosse is very successful in this because it turns the cabaret into an ethereal dream-world that transcends, mocks, softens and hides from the harsh realities of life outside. We never see anyone physically walk from one world to the other- they just appear there. In fact, the Emcee is never seen outside of the cabaret and I had to rack my brains for moments when Sally mentions her job as a cabaret singer whilst outside of the club (she does, but more emphasis is put on her romance with Brian).
Also, unlike the stage musical, all of the songs (except one) take place as cabaret performances that reflect the action, such as 'Money, Money' accentuating the main characters’ concern with their incomes and 'If You Could See Her' illustrating Brian’s struggle to understand his love for Sally. In the stage musical, some songs take place outside the cabaret and these are either cut or transferred into the Kit Kat Club. The only song that takes place outside of the club is the pseudo-Nazi propaganda song 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' (which, interestingly, takes place inside the cabaret during the stage musical). I will delve more into this incredible song during my highlight below but it is pertinent that “the Nazi song” (i.e. the one song that would be socially acceptable to sing and perform outside of the sanctuary of the club) is the one that is sung by members of the public, most notably by children.
All of this creates a film that separates but also celebrates concepts which are coming under fire by alt-right conservatives now- the art of drag, gender fluidity and gay pride. It would be very easy to portray the underworld of the cabaret as dark, sordid, and corrupt (many films like to do this when portraying LGBT nightlife or sex work). But what is striking is that Cabaret portrays the club as a safe space. It’s crazy and somewhat demonic, but queerness, polyamory, sexuality and sex are embraced and celebrated, while the social restrictions of heteronormativity in the real world are depicted on the stage through drag queens with harsh, haphazard, clownish make-up. In the cabaret, anyone can be themselves without fear of harm. In the real world, the Nazis are going after anyone who does not fit their specific Aryan requirements. When Sally ends the tale by singing “Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the cabaret” she is drawing attention to the fact that life is not and cannot be restrained by the social and religious morals of the “real world”, but humans are actually messy, fluid, exploratory and sexualised beings who can manifest these qualities within the cabaret - and so they should.
The song 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' is truly one of the most poignant and haunting songs in musical theatre history. It starts as a melodic, soft song about nature and the sun sung by an innocent, blue-eyed youth. But the camera slowly pans out to reveal the youth’s Hitler Youth uniform, the beat of the song becomes harsher, punchier, and suddenly the lyrics become threats and predictions of taking control of the Fatherland and the whole world. It is a brief and brilliant portrayal of how a country can slip from patriotism to hate-filled nationalism so quickly.
A dog dies in the film. Unforgivable.
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