Cabaret

• Title:  Cabaret
• Director:  Bob Fosse
• Date:  1972
• Studio:  Allied Artists (DVD released by Warner Bros.)
• Genre:  Musical, Drama
• Cast:  Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey
• Format:  Technicolor, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"You can't stand Maximilian because he's everything you're not!  He doesn't have to give English lessons for three Marks an hour, he's rich!  And he knows about life, he doesn't read about it in books.  He's suave and he's divinely sexy.  And he really appreciates a woman!" -- Sally
"Oh screw Maximilian!" -- Brian
"I do." -- Sally
"So do I." -- Brian


"It's also an established fact, Herr Ludwig, there's also another well-organised group of  which you're obviously a member; the International Conspiracy of  horses asses!"  -- Brian

Cabaret as a film reminds me of  quote from Bax Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge:  It's the story of a time, it's the story of a place, [and] it's a story of love.  However, the love stories in Cabaret are more complicated and end less happily than the story in Moulin Rouge.  Set in 1931 in Berlin, Cabaret is the story of  the people that meet, come together, and leave at the Kit Kat Klub - a wild cabaret.  The main story is about Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), an American Cabaret singer who wants to be an actress, Brian (Michael York), a British student who comes to Berlin with no money and teaches English to survive, Maximilian, a married, bisexual German Baron looking to fine anyone to fill his bed, Fritz a friend of Brian's who's hiding a few major secrets, and Natalia a rich Jewish woman who falls for Fritz. At the club, the all-knowing EmCee (Grey) rules.

The film draws you in slowly to it's story of  these diverse characters.  Sally, especially, is a fascinating young woman. The daughter of  an ambassador, she claims, she may have grown-up with wealth and privilege, but she  finds herself with a two-room apartment in a boarding house, working all day and singing at the Cabaret all night.  Sally drinks, smokes, and fools around.  In some ways, she's the female counterpart of  Joe Gideon in Fosse's other classic, All That Jazz.  And Sally has no problems letting everyone know just how willing she is to sleep with men to get whatever she can.  Quite by chance, she meets Brian, and the two become friends then lovers.

However, before long the two meet Maximilian.  Sally immediately begins sleeping with him, simply because he showers her with gifts and money.  Brian, who had explained to Sally that he had slept with three women before and all were disasters, and has now fallen for Sally, is also taken under Maximilian's spell, especially when the three of  them spend a "dirty weekend" together at Maximilian's country house.

Brian also meets and befriends Fritz, a shy German, who comes to him to learn English. Fritz falls for Natalia, another of  Brian's students but it's Sally who gives Fritz advice about how to get Natalia interested in him, since she keeps turning him down flat.  Eventually, Natalia calls Sally to her house and confesses she is also in love with Fritz but the relationship is impossible.

Throughout the film, the action is intercut with the entertainment at the Kir Kat Club, all introduced by the mysterious EmCee, including Sally's musical numbers.  The Club will put anything on the stage -- female dancers and singers; female mud wrestlers; a parody of  German folk singers; a duet between the EmCee and a guy in a Gorilla suit dressed as a ballerina.  Nothing is scared and everything goes at the Cabaret.  However, when the film does cut to the Cabaret, often whatever's on stage parallels the dramatic storyline.  This intercutting is Fosse's true genius.

When Sally discovers she's pregnant, she tells Brian, also telling him she will have to sell the fur coat Maximilian gave her to pay for an abortion.  When Brian asks who the father is - Sally insists she doesn't know.  And considering she's been sleeping with Brian, Maximilian, and other men she's picked up at the club, she honestly does not.  Brian proposes, and insists that he doesn't care -- he'll help her raise the baby no matter what.  They can return to Cambridge, and he will get his teaching Fellowship.  At first, Sally agrees.

Meanwhile, Fritz and Natalia's relationship is at an standstill, and Natalia insists it can't continue.  But Fritz admits to Brian that he's secretly Jewish.  When he came to Berlin, on the papers he filed, he had listed his religion as Protestant, but he isn't.  Brian convinces him to tell Natalia.  Fritz does that, and Sally and Brian witness the wedding.

However, despite Brian's wishes, Sally is full of doubt.  She spends a night at the Cabaret, having an unheard conversation with the EmCee.  When she returns to Brian that night, she's without her fur coat.  Brian badgers her until she admits she did have the abortion.  Brian is livid - and decides to leave her.  Before long, he's returning to Cambridge.  Sally goes back to the Cabaret, and that night belts out a triumphant version of the film's title tune, "Cabaret".  We finally see just how much Sally loves the stage, as she comes to life on stage, more glowingly alive than at any part previously in the film -- and this for an independently spirited woman who is the exact opposite of a shrinking violet.  However, Sally's pure happiness on the stage will be short-lived, the film ends with reflections seen through the glass side divider of  the Cabaret stage of  the Nazis in the audience.  Soon the lives of  everyone in the film will be in danger; and most of  them, even Sally will probably  be dead.  It's a haunting ending.

There is also a chilling scene earlier in the picture, on the way back from their dirty weekend, Maximilian, Brian, and Sally are at some sort of outdoor German festival.  There, a Hitler youth stands and sings "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", a patriotic German song.  At first alone, soon others stand and join in.  By the end of  the song, nearly all the young people in the audience are standing and singing.  Most of  the older people remain sitting, however.  It's a frightening visual and auditory illustration of  exactly what is happening in Germany.  Brian, seeing the display, gathers Sally and Maximilian and leaves.

In another scene, Brian gets in an argument with his German co-boarders at Sally's boarding house.  He goes out in the street and a Nazi party member tries to foist a Nazi paper on him.  Brian refuses it, yells at the Nazi, then knocks over the flag.  He's beaten senseless for his trouble.

The owner of  the Kit Kat Club had also kicked some Nazis out of  the club -- he's also beaten senseless for his actions.

But the brilliance of  Cabaret is in it's use of  intercutting -- the songs that Sally or the EmCee or both sing at the club are often intercut with and reflect the dramatic plot; but they don't illustrate the plot.  This isn't a musical where plot points are sung - it's almost as if the music of  the club is the background to the storyline.  And the club is a wild place, a place of  the underworld, but a place of ships passing in the night.  Also, throughout all the club numbers and performances - the audience sees figures walking between the camera and the Cabaret stage, almost as if  we are in a club and people are moving around.  There is also the sound of  talking, clinking glasses, clapping, laughing, etc.  The people moving between the camera and the stage also provides a wipe point for editing.

List of  Musical Numbers

• Mien Herr - Liza Minnelli
• Everybody Loves a Winner - Liza Minnelli
• The Money Song (Money Makes the World Go 'round) - Minnelli and Grey
• Two Ladies - Grey
• Tomorrow Belongs to Me - Hitler Youth (and it's terrifying)
• Cabaret - Liza Minnelli

Recommendation:  See it!

Rating:  4 Stars

Next Film:  Royal Wedding

All That Jazz

• Title:  All That Jazz
• Director:  Bob Fosse
• Date:  1979
• Studio:  20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures
• Genre:  Musical
• Cast:  Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, Erzebet Foldt, John Lithgow, Ben Vereen
• Format:  Technicolor, Anamorphic Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

 It's Showtime!  -- Joe Gideon

My second favorite musical (my favorite being Moulin Rouge (2001) but it will be a few months before I get to that one).  All That Jazz is truly one of those movies that gets better every time you see it, and as Roger Ebert once said -- I can't imagine never being able to see this film again.  It's good -- and you notice more each time you see it.  Or, at least I noticed more this time, and I've seen it half a dozen times.
All That Jazz is a fictional biopic about a choreographer who is falling apart from his excessive lifestyle -- too much smoking, too much drinking, too much fooling around with women, and a life of nothing but work are wearing him down to a point of exhaustion.  While preparing his new Broadway show, and cutting a film of  his own called "The Stand-Up", Joe Gideon's life spirals out of control.  He has an angina attack - and then things get really interesting, before the choreographer choreographs his own death.

But more than that is the way the film uses everything -- music, dance, songs, little bits of  Joe's life, and interspersed throughout it all some very strange scenes with Jessica Lange as the Angel of  Death -- to tell it's story, make it a visual masterpiece.  I cannot imagine this film in any other format - book, magazine spread, TV series - only the film format works, which is a high compliment to a film and a reason I highly, highly recommend it.

The film also references many other musical films - visually.  And not in a "cutsy" way, but if you know the reference it adds to what's being told and if you don't - it doesn't distract from it.  For example, the first fifteen minutes or so are A Chorus Line as Gideon chooses the cast for his new production from an open call (or "cattle call" as they are sometimes known).  Then, as Gideon starts to prepare his show - it briefly brings to mind such "show within a show" films as 42nd Street or The Bandwagon.  However, where those films are solely about getting a Broadway production made -- and the successful show is the end of the film, in All That Jazz, once Gideon develops an artistically pleasing but very adult production number -- the film turns more to his complicated life and quickly to his complicated death.  Then, while Gideon's in hospital, a group of producers are sitting around discussing the life insurance policy on Gideon.  Their cold, hard discussion determines that if  Joe dies, the insurance pays off, and the show will make a profit -- without opening.  Remember The Producers?  That's the original one by Mel Brooks starring Wilder and Mostel.  And in the handful of quick numbers at the end as Gideon's hallucinating in the hospital - includes a dance that's a dead-ringer for a Busby Berkeley musical, including white feathers.

But, the film is NOT a parody of musicals -- not by a long shot.  It's about Gideon, a choreographer, and his life, which is spiraling out of control.  And despite the way he abuses himself with too much booze, smoking, fooling around, and driving himself at work, Gideon, as a protagonist is a fascinating man.  Because we, the audience, don't hate him.  His behavior may at times be despicable - but we don't hate him.  Bit by bit Scheider's portrayal of Gideon wins the audience over and we come to care about him.  Gideon has a pre-teen daughter whom he loves very much.  In fact, in my opinion, some of  the best scenes in the film are between the two, especially when they are dancing together (he's helping her with ballet and jazz dancing).  His ex-wife, despite having left him because of  his numerous affairs - still loves him.  And his long-time girl-friend also loves him, and gets along fine with his ex-wife and daughter.  (Told you his life was complicated).

While working on his new production, Gideon has an angina attack.  After the initial scare the doctors keep him in the hospital to try to get him to relax and calm down -- Gideon, however, fools around, smokes, drinks, throws parties, and has his surgeons convinced he doesn't care if  he lives or dies.  Gradually, through his hallucinations - he comes to realize he wants to live - for his daughter.

However, that isn't to be and in a final, triumphant number  we see the choreography of  his death in a duet between Scheider and Ben Vereen -- which becomes a major production number.  The first time I saw the film I was confused by the chorus girls in the white stocking outfits with the red and blue lines -- the next time I saw it, I realized those were meant to suggest blood vessels.

This time around, I kinda' wondered if  either the suits on the Broadway production, or a conniving fellow director/choreographer (played to the chilling teeth by John Lithgow) actually arranged Gideon's hospital "accident" that leads to his death ultimately.

Either way -- the final production number is outstanding!  And the mini-numbers leading up to it, with each of the important people in Gideon's life trying to convince him to live are also outstanding.  Bob Fosse's direction throughout the film is brilliant, as is his choreography.  And yes -- the film is said to be a fictionalized version of Fosse's life.  It's still brilliant.

Roy Scheider is also brilliant in this film - and actually looks his best in the production number at the end, when he's performing his duet with Vereen.  (Yes, he sings, and fairly well.  Not sure if it was dubbed - it doesn't sound like it, Scheider's New Jersey accent is still there.)  And the dancing in that number is brilliant!
 
OK - and standard 1970s disclaimer here:  All That Jazz is an adult film with adult concepts, however that means it's a film adults can enjoy without feeling it's an insult to their intelligence.  There is a lot of sex, smoking, drinking, swearing, drug use, and bare breasts -- deal with it.  For a film this brilliant, I'm not sweating it.

Recommendation:  I highly, highly, highly recommend this film.  If you've never seen it - rent it, give it a try, maybe even watch it a couple of times - I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Rating:  5 of 5 Stars
Next Film:  The Apartment