Cabaret (1972 film)

Cabaret is a 1972 American musical drama film directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey.
Situated in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1931, under the presence of the growing Nazi Party, the film is loosely based on the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret by Kander and Ebb, which was adapted from the novel The Berlin Stories / Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood and the 1951 play I Am a Camera adapted from the same book. Only a few numbers from the stage score were used for the film; Kander and Ebb wrote new ones to replace those that were discarded. In the traditional manner of musical theater, called an "integrated musical", every significant character in the stage version sings to express his or her own emotion and to advance the plot. In the film version, the musical numbers are entirely diegetic, taking place inside the club, with one exception; this was "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", the only song sung neither by Grey's character of the Kit Kat Klub's Master of Ceremonies nor by Minnelli's character of Sally Bowles. In the sexually charged "Two Ladies", about a ménage à trois, the Master of Ceremonies is joined by two of the Kit Kat girls.
After the box-office failure of his film version of Sweet Charity in 1969, Bob Fosse bounced back with Cabaret in 1972, a year that would make him the most honored director in the movie business. And he proved to be far from the only winner in this case, as the film also brought Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, her own first chance to sing on screen, and she also won the Academy Award for Best Actress. With Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Original Song Score and Adaptation, and Best Film Editing, it holds the record for most Oscars earned by a film not honored for Best Picture. It is listed as number 367 on Empire's 500 greatest films of all time.
Cabaret opened to glowing reviews and strong box office, eventually taking in more than $20 million. In addition to its eight Oscars, it won Best Picture citations from the National Board of Review and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and took Best Supporting Actor honors for Grey from the National Board of Review, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the National Society of Film Critics.

Plot

In 1931 Berlin, young American Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) performs at the Kit Kat Klub. A new British arrival in the city, Brian Roberts (Michael York), moves into the boarding house where Sally lives. A reserved academic and writer, Brian gives English lessons to earn a living while completing his doctorate. Sally tries seducing Brian and suspects he may be gay. Brian tells Sally that on three previous occasions he has tried to have physical relationships with women, all of which failed. They become friends, and Brian witnesses Sally's anarchic, bohemian life in the last days of the German Weimar Republic. Sally and Brian become lovers despite their earlier reservations; they conclude that his previous failures with women were because they were "the wrong three girls".
Sally befriends Maximilian von Heune, a rich playboy baron who takes her and Brian to his country estate; it becomes ambiguous which of the duo Max is seducing. After a sexual experience with Brian, Max loses interest in the two and departs for Argentina. During an argument, when Sally tells Brian that she has been having sex with Max, Brian reveals that he has as well. Brian and Sally later reconcile, and Sally reveals that Max left them money and mockingly compares the sum with what a professional prostitute gets.
Sally learns that she is pregnant, but is unsure of the father. Brian offers to marry her and take her back to his university life in Cambridge. At first they celebrate their resolution to start this new life together, but after a picnic between Sally and Brian, in which Brian acts distant and uninterested, Sally starts to doubt continuing with the pregnancy and is disheartened by the vision of herself as a bored faculty wife washing dirty diapers. Ultimately she has an abortion, without informing Brian in advance. When he confronts her, she shares her fears, and the two reach an understanding. Brian departs for England, and Sally continues her life in Berlin, embedding herself in the Kit Kat Club.
A subplot concerns Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper), a German Jew passing as a Christian, who is in love with Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson), a wealthy German Jewish heiress, who holds him in contempt and suspects his motives. The worldly Sally gives advice, which eventually enables Fritz to win her love. However, in order to get her parents' consent for their marriage, Fritz must reveal his true religious and ethnic background – a highly dangerous act, considering what is in store for Jews under the coming Nazi regime. Although the Nazis are not yet in power, some of them kill Natalia's beloved dog one night.
The Nazis's violent rise is a powerful, ever-present undercurrent in the film. Their progress can be tracked through the characters' changing actions and attitudes. While in the beginning of the film National Socialist members are sometimes harassed and even kicked out of the Kit Kat Klub, the final shot of the film shows the cabaret's audience is dominated by uniformed Nazi Party members. The rise of the Nazis is also dramatically demonstrated in the rural beer garden scene. In a sunlit outdoor setting a boy — only his face seen — sings to a relaxed audience of all ages what at first seem mild lyrics ("Tomorrow Belongs To Me") about the beauties of nature and youth. The camera shifts to show that the singer is wearing a brown Hitler Youth uniform. As the gentle a capella ballad gradually transforms into a harsh and militant Nazi anthem, one by one, nearly all the adults and young people watching rise and join in the singing. The song culminates with the singer donning his Hitler Youth cap and lifting his hand in the Nazi salute. Max and Brian return to their car after witnessing this show of growing support for the National Socialist movement, Brian asking Max, "Do you still think you can control them?" Later, Brian's one-man confrontation with a Nazi in the street is a futile gesture, leading to nothing but him being beaten up.
While he does not play a role in the main plot, the “Master of Ceremonies” (Joel Grey) serves in the role of storyteller throughout the film. His surface demeanor is one of benevolence and hospitality ("Willkommen"), but his intermittent songs in the Kit Kat Klub are increasingly risqué and pointedly mock the Nazis initially, while later songs reveal the growing acceptance of anti-semitism.