Cabaret - Relive the Kit Kat club in your living room (Cabaret (DVD))

Name: libertybell

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Product:	Cabaret (DVD)
Date:	22/01/01 (2120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Worth it for the nightclub bits. Minelli and Gray are excellent

Disadvantages: Rest of film is dated, not available on R2, few extras on DVD.

Cabaret (the movie) was made in 1972 and won 8 Oscars including those for Best Actress (Liza Minelli), Best Supporting Actor (Joel Gray) and best director (Bob Fosse). I haven't seen the film for a number of years, though I remember it being memorable for the cabaret scenes alone.

I came across the DVD for sale on the ever-popular and excellent www.play247.com web site. The price is £17.99 though it is only available in the Region 1 (North American) format. P&P is free and they tend to get posted to you about 2 days after the date of order.

The film centres on Sally Bowles (played by Liza Minelli) who is a cabaret artiste in early 1930?s Berlin at the time of the rise of the Nazi Party. The story follows her relationship with a British academic played by Michael York who comes to Berlin as an English language teacher. They meet, fall in love and befriend 2 English language pupils as well as a very rich Count who lavishes goods on them and ends up seducing them!

Interjected into the film are the famous Cabaret scenes from the 'Kit Kat' nightclub. The Master of Ceremonies is Joel Gray who played the same role in the Broadway stage play. Covered in white makeup and looking a bit like Max Wall, he and Liza sing through a number of classics including:

* Cabaret
* Money, Money
(..makes the world go round)
* If you could see her
* Maybe this time

The third aspect of the film is the slow rise of Nazism in Berlin and its affect on the people. From being a strange curiosity at the start of the film, the Brown Shirts gain even more power and attack those they disagree with e.g. Communists, Jews etc. The most powerful moment is the Aryan Hitler Youth member singing 'Tomorrow belongs to me' and the large crowd heartily joining in as if it was the national anthem. At the end, he raises his arm into the Nazi salute.

Other than the memorable and powerful Cabaret scenes, the rest
of the film is relatively tame. The effect of the Nazi?s was very understated - perhaps this was the way films were made then. In fact, the non-nightclub bits reminded me of many Emmanuelle films from the period. They just drift along in an understated version. There are few powerful scenes.

Back to the DVD. I've been told by Cath Hayes of Dooyoo not to mention too much about the plot! What do you get for your money? Not a lot really. There is a 1997 documentary 'Cabaret: A legend in the making' where Minelli, York and Grey look back on the film 25 years later. Its interesting stuff - but hardly sets the world on fire. There is also a 1972 documentary made about the film. The film quality of this documentary is dreadful - it was probably made with an 8mm cine camera! Again it fills in some of the gaps. To be fair to the DVD, you have to remember that this film was made before video and DVD existed. They probably didn't keep the outtakes.

If you like the film for the Cabaret song and dance scenes alone, it's worth getting this DVD for your collection.

Summary: