Wilkomen! Bienvenue! Welcome! (Cabaret (DVD))

Member Name: ickkate

Product:	Cabaret (DVD)
Date:	11/07/02 (391 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Cabaret my dear!

Disadvantages: A few underdeveloped plot threads.

Wilkomen to the world of Cabaret. A world of divine decadence portrayed with skill; mixing laughter, romance, sexuality, song and a dash of political rumblings - the perfect cocktail that you'll enjoy drinking in all night.

Cabaret was made in 1972, a year when the Godfather could have run away with all of the awards. Instead this film was the only other serious contender in that year's awards ceremonies, picking up eight Oscars and winning many more throughout the year. This film is based on the stage-play of the film of the semi-autobiographical book (getting a bit tenuous now isn't it), 'Farewell Berlin', by Christopher Isherwood. Although, I think director Bob Fosse has created a really enjoyable and well judged film Isherwood thought that this final incarnation was pretty but fake - I think it's a lot more.

The film opens with the compere of the cabaret and film, Joel Grey, welcoming us to the slightly seedy but energetic world of the Kit Kat Club, at the same time as Brian Roberts (Michael York) enters Berlin in 1931. Brian first meets Sally Bowles (Liza Minelli), one of the Kit Kat Club's prime attractions, when he is searching for somewhere to stay. The room available is cramped and certainly not suitable for Brian's English lessons, so Sally suggests using her room when she is out - which is most of the time, (but unfortunately not always). She is desperately trying to get into films, and is not afraid to use her feminine wiles in order to do so. Even though Brian isn't going to be able to help her in that regard, she turns her attentions on him and tries to seduce him. Unfortunately for her, Brian has been unsuccessful with women - but is Sally going to be different? And, what will the introduction of a rich aristocrat Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) do to Sally and Brian's relationship? What will happen to a friend of Sally's and student of Brian's, Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper
) who plays the gigolo, but might just be falling for a Jewish heiress, Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson), at just the wrong time? What will the rise of fascism in Germany do to all of our 'friends'?

The first thing that strikes you about this film is the cabaret, and that's not just because the film opens and ends in the Kit Kat Club. Fosse's direction, choreography and the catchy and energetic songs do make these little interludes compelling to watch, but it is also the function of the cabaret that makes it interesting. Each and every scene in the club adds something to the plot, as Joel Grey plays the role of the grotesque compere commenting on the action. In one particular instance, the cabaret makes suggestions about the sexual shenanigans of certain characters that are later proven to be correct.

Now, any of you with any kind of theatrical knowledge may have picked up on three words in the last sentence - 'interlude', 'commentary' and 'song'. I have one word for you 'Brecht'. For the rest of you, I had better explain. Bertolt Brecht was a theatrical practitioner working in Germany at the time this film was set. (Soon to flee when his communist ideology became more than a little unpopular.) He believed that theatre should teach the masses in a way that would encourage them to participate in the same way as spectators at a boxing match. The main difference between film and theatre is the live actor, in a theatre you would be more likely to be able to do this, but in a cinema it may be enough to hope that you can keep the audience engrossed - and these cabaret scenes certainly do that.

The songs do have quite a lot to do with this. They are infectious and very catchy - just take 'Mein Herr' or 'Money! Money!' for example. Both of which are half said, half sung - wait a minute! That sounds like Brecht again. Brecht often used actors who were untrained, or w
ho certainly couldn't sing particularly well. His songs were often hits too, such as Mack the Knife, written by Kurt Weill. None of these similarities can have been accidental as Bob Fosse was a director who came from a theatrical background, appearing and directing on Broadway.

Not all of the songs have this slightly home-made amateurish feel to them. You would have to have had your head permanently buried in the sand not to know that Minelli was a trained singer, and she provides the rest of the film with some very accomplished renditions of the cabaret's other songs. These tend to be more heartfelt ballads that reflect her emotions, and what is happening to her at the time.

For those of you more familiar with Fosse as a famous choreographer (Chicago is basically made up of many of his routines) you will not be surprised to hear that the dances in the cabaret are also his work. The dances are dynamic pieces of group choreography which are sexually suggestive and visually strong. Although strangely I found a lot of these deliberately sexual movements were devoid of sensuality - but then again the cabaret is not about sensuality, it is about sex. One of the most enduring images of the film is the scene where Liza Minelli sings 'Mein Herr'. Dressed in top hat, waistcoat, suspenders and high heels, she sits, stands and drapes herself over a chair. The other members of the cabaret are positioned all over the stage, lying over chairs with one leg outstretched and one positioned straight upwards, they all kick one leg upwards in time to the music, whilst slapping the floor with their spare hand. To help to keep the energy within this piece the camera looks at the action from different angles, as though from the perspective of lots of different members of the audience. In another scene a spanking dance is cut with Nazis beating up a man outside the club, giving a brutal feel to the world of the cabaret, and beginning to build
a sense of foreboding about the political climate. Before this film, all musicals had shot the action straight on, neglecting that in doing this you loose some of the dynamism that the dances may contain.

Joel Grey really epitomises the feel of the Cabaret, and for this reason he won himself a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this film. His compere figure is one whose sexuality you are unsure about - is gay, is he bisexual, or is he straight? (Who knows, maybe he is 'something for everyone', because there certainly is something for everyone when you look at the girls in the club - or, in at least one case, should I say 'girls'!) All we know is that he is revelling in the sexual liberation of the time, whilst judging just how much to nudge and wink the audience into seeing the world outside as it really is - as our one man chorus.

Grey wasn't the only one to win an Oscar though, as Minnelli won herself one for her depiction of Sally Bowles. I must admit to wondering exactly how much of Sally was actually Liza, as she flounces around the film being brazen and gaudy thinking that she is worldly and sophisticated - all with a little help from some enormous false eyelashes and far too much make up. To give Liza her due though, she does play the more vulnerable and insecure scenes spot on, and even though you would probably want to shoot her if you lived with her, you can understand why someone would go for her. (Strangely all of these naïve and slightly scared scenes normally involve little or no make up, which in my mind, may be betraying Fosse's theatrical background a little too much. On film these things really don't need to be quite that overstated.)

It is slightly odd that only Minnelli and Grey were picked out for Oscars, because frankly York plays Brian spot on as the reserved English man struggling with his sexuality at the same time as being strangely at home with it - the man who is captivated by Sa
lly and embarrassed by her at the same time. Whilst the sub-plot of the gigolo and his heiress is played out beautifully.

Which brings me on to one of the films weaknesses. Occasionally it appears to bring up sub-plots that it just doesn't complete with any kind of finality or satisfaction to the viewer. For a start there is the lack of depth to this interesting story, but there is also the question of Sally's father. She goes to meet him and returns in tears, he is then mentioned in a way that contradicts this. Surely it would be better to leave this section out than to attach such significance to it by having Minnelli in tears? Then there is the slightly surreal section with the young boy bouncing the ball and Grey squeezing Minnelli's breasts? (I think I vaguely got what this was hinting at, but at the same time it was a little bit odd!)

This film is not one from the Julie Andrews fold of musicals, where people run onto the top of a mountain and spontaneously burst into song, the Kit Kat Club is the only place where songs happen. To have followed that prevalent form of musical could only have trivialised the subject matter. Well, I say the only place - that's a lie, one song does go on outside of the club. Baron Maximilian von Heune and Brian are sitting in a beergarden when a young, angelic man with blue eyes and blond hair (if you get my meaning) breaks into 'Tomorrow belongs to me', a folksy patriotic song, which at the same time as being beautiful made me squirm in my seat. From the moment that we see the Nazis beating up that man outside the club, the exact amount of tension is well judged, whether it is reflected through the cabaret or the 'real life' that goes on outside it. You do feel that growing sense of foreboding even when our characters are enjoying romantic liaisons of various kinds.

So, would I recommend you sit in with a cocktail exclaiming that everything is 'deliciously
decadent' and exclaiming 'Darling!' a lot. That would be a definite 'Yes'! Just remember that this musical is gritty and has guts, and that's one thing that Hollywood ain't so good at - so enjoy my friends... enjoy!

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