I was introduced to this film by my German language class professor. I was interested in learning German, to become a fluent speaker. Perhaps I should be studying German right now? I have a long way to go before I can speak German well. The film however, was in English so I could understand it very well. I remember seeing ads for it on the Ovation channel. I usually don't gravitate to musicals, but Cabaret is quite the experience or should I say spectacle? It is a visually and aurally stunning film. The music numbers are excellent. This was when Liza Minelli was in her prime. And of course, the story. The story! It is set in a unique time in European history. It is a time of wild experiementation. It is said that Berlin was the leading city in the post- WWI age. More risque than Paris, wetter than London, and wilder than New York, it was a city of excess, born out of defeat but still proud of it's cultural and intellectual life which was second to none. This was a time in German history where Hollywood agents came calling to the likes of Joseph von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich. It was a memorable time, only to become a distant memory, a short time before the war and carnage of WWII
Liza Minelli gives a great performance. I'm usually not into musicals and, over time, Hollywood has become devoid of any musicals, but this one is an exception. The host is unforgettable. He elicits laughs at his outrageous outfits, songs, and dances. Yet, Micheal York is fantastic as well. Playing a tight lipped British graduate student he serves as the link between everyone in the story. The secret Jew angling for a fortune, the wealthy German aristocrat plotting Germany's next course, and of course Liza Minelli, an abandoned daughter of an absentee American father.
The film centers around the tumult in Berlin and Germany; the hyper-inflation, the debauchery and excess of Weimar culture, and, of course, as is referrenced throughout the film, the rise of the Nazis. The film is really well put together. It has several visual montages that say more in pictures than words would do. There are several juxtapositions of Nazi brutality with Cabaret numbers. This builds tension in the film. The more Nazi songs and brutality, the looming end for the permissive atmosphere of the Cabaret is nearer and nearer. Until the only people left in the Cabaret are Nazis.
I can only compare this film to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz. It also deals with the Weimar era. I have watched several episodes, but have yet to finish it. The films are set in the same era and present similar problems, Nazisim, economic difficulties, cultural change. Yet, the films are stylistic much different. Cabaret, of course, is a musical. It has a debauched, comedic tone. Berlin Alexanderplatz is not a musical. It is about one man's struggle to survive in Weimar Germany. Both have Expressionistic influences though. Alexanderplatz is based on an Expressionistic novel, and Cabaret copies several Expressionistic paintings. This is one part of the film I liked most. I have a deep appreciation for Expressionist art.
Cabaret is a funny, raucous musical that is also serious. It's end as we know even before the film begins is bittersweet. The Nazis came to power and Cabaret life was altered into some other form. Perhaps Cabaret is a portrait of Weimar culture. It presents Berlin at, perhaps, it's apogee, never to be the same.
