Cabaret
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Movie Reviews of Cabaret
Movie Review: "Liza Becomes An Icon In This Film"
Summary: 5 Stars
Before the release of "Cabaret", Liza Minnilli was known as a curisoity by the general public: people knew her as Judy Garland's daughter who had an impeccable voice with stage presence, but she wasn't known as her own person-she was attached to the image of a daughter of a showbiz legend. When "Cabaret" came out everything in Liza's life changed: she became her own person, well regarded by film and music critics as a wonderful entertainer who could hold her own on stage and in film. She became the icon she is now known as.
"Cabaret" was based on the original Broadway production of the same name. It's set in 1931 Berlin, where Liza plays Sally Bowles, an entertainer at a bar called the Kit Kat Club. John Kander and Fred Ebb, who would write the score to another amazing Broadway musical, "Chicago", penned all the songs in this picture and would become two of Liza's favorite music writers. "Cabaret" is probably one of the greatest musicals in film history, and it's widely regarded as the movie that brought back the musical to films. The picture won a total of 8 Oscars, including wins for Liza for Best Actress, one for Joel Grey, who won for Best Supporting Actor, and a win for Bob Fosse for Best Director.
This particular DVD is loaded with bonus features including the original theatrical trailer, interviews with the cast, including Miss Minnilli, and extensive production notes.
Liza's career went into overdrive with this film. She made the covers of both "Time" and "Newsweek", and would continue touring and appearing in film and televison projects. Two other amazing works of Liza's are her NBC special called "Liza With A Z", that is available in an exquisite DVD set, and her 1964 British special with her mom called "Judy and Liza-Live at the Palladium".
Movie Review: Perfectly Marvelous
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1966, a new show opened on Broadway that would forever change musicals. Heard that before? Yes, but in this case it was most certainly true. My first experience with Cabaret was with a tape of the motion picture soundtrack. I had never heard of the musical, but just listening made me love it. How couldn't I? I then became extremely fascinated and bought the Broadway recording as well. Both movie and stage version share similiar songs and some key plot moments, but they are very different animals. Sally is British in the stage version. The role was originally meant for Minelli, but Harold Prince thought Sally Bowles really had to be second rate and British, so Sally was played by Jill Haworth and later revived in the mid 90's with Natasha Richardson filling in the "green nails". When Bob Fosse was approached, Liza was also offered the role she was overlooked for a few years before. Kander and Ebb had their muse sing the songs so beautifully that it only makes the movie even more heartbreaking and exhilirating. To think that this brilliant film was made for only 3 million dollars, Brando made that in one movie, later on we would have to suffer through big budget disasters like Moulin Rouge and Annie. What Cabaret had was a well written movie based on the orginal Isherwood stories and a phenomenal cast and brilliant director. I have seen this movie many times and highly recommend it to all. This was perhaps the last of the greatest musicals ever made, for me it is the only one. Winner of 8 Academy awards, including Best Director Bob Fosse, Best Actress Liza Minelli and Best Supporting Actor Joel Grey, you will live in a world of decadence and experience a real tour de force.Movie Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
A great improvement over its stage version. Bob Fosse creates a wonderfully surreal picture of pre-War Berlin. Dropping many of the songs (keeping only the Kit Kat Klub numbers) and dropping some of the more sentimental elements of the stage show in favor of harsher elements from Isherwood's Berlin Stories was a brilliant move. The Kit Kat Klub is one of the greatest environments in movie history. A dank and shabby club inhabitting a once glamorous space, it perfectly symbolizes a rotting Berlin at the dawn of the Nazis. Joel Grey owns the role of the Master of Ceremonies and will never be equalled. The 1998 stage revival veered far off into Rocky Horror territory,it's far too coy and self concious. Fosse, however, stays directly on target with his film. Tomorrow Belongs to Me (performed by a Nazi band and sung by a fresh faced Hitler Youth at an outdoor country-side beer garden on a picture perfect summer day) is one of the most truely frightening movie scenes of all time. Joel Grey's smirk at the end sums it up perfectly. When Liza Minnelli sings the title song at the end, the nightclub changes from its circus like atmosphere and becomes very austere with shafts of red and white spotlights. Its a hint of the chilling final image of the film. By all means see it.
Interestingly, the type of nightclub shown in Cabaret was not generally frequented by locals. Berlin had, at the time, gained a reputation for permissive sex (notorious for homosexuality), drugs, etc. Places like the Kit Kat Klub were very popular with tourists. In The Berlin Stories, Isherwood only mentions such a place in passing when he gives directions to a group of drunken American sailors.
Movie Review: Life In the Cabaret
Summary: 5 Stars
"Cabaret" is one of the best releases of 1972, living up to "The Godfather". It won eight Oscars, including Best Director. Its combination of glitz, glamour, sex, ulginess, and turmoil wonderfully express themselves in the movie. It offers a unique musical taste not often seen. The plot was written wonderfully. They always offer surprise interest scenes when the audience least expects it. The glamour in the Kit Kat Klub switching to the Nazi troop march symbolize such surprise. Such hardtimes are expressed accurately as it happened when Hitler began taking over Germany. Daring sex scenes and sex talk offer further respect to the crew. This places them ahead of their time. Some may say "Cabaret" is also ahead of modern day time. The costume designs were craften beautifully. The drag queens resemble real-life women, a difficult task to master. Every piece of clothing accurately desplicts 1930's german styles, in and out of the cabaret. All the songs were written brilliantly. Liza Minelli deserved her Oscar win for Best Actress for her role as a greedy cabaret performer Sally Bowles. Her singing is unforgettable. Amazingly, she was only 24. Michael York's role as a man who converts to heterosexuality with a relationship with Bowles is also wonderful. He was wrongfully dissed for the Oscar nomination for Best Actor. All other performances are also brilliant, major or minor. "Cabaret" is a great musical for those looking for something unique. It still contains the attraction spark enflamed 31 years ago. This will leave many audiences entertained for many more years.Movie Review: A Perfect Example Of Why We Go To The Movies
Summary: 5 Stars
Christopher Isherwood, the author of THE BERLIN STORIES, where the character Sally Bowles came from in the first place, is quoted in the documentary "Chris and Don" as saying that Liza Minnelli wasn't right for this movie because she was far too good since Sally Bowles was an amateur performer and there was nothing that resembled an amateur about Minnelli's performance. She gives a performance here that is perfect and deserves to be seen again and again. She comes alive in every scene (her mother would have been proud of her) and won an Oscar for best actress along with Joel Grey (Best Supporting Actor) and Bob Fosse for Best Director. If you are counting, there were five more Oscars awarded to this movie on Oscar night as well. The cinematography is by Geoffrey Unsworth; the music by John Kander and Fred Ebb.
Watching this film for the first time since I saw it in 1972, I noticed how much Michael York's character here is similar to the one he played in "Something for Everyone," released a few years before "Cabaret." Hal Prince, who produced this film was the director of that fine movie and Kander is responsible for the soundtrack.
The story of course is all about the "divine decadence," as Sally would say, in Berlin in the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II. When a young blond angelic German lad sings "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" and is joined by a whole host of others as the song swells in volume, we get a chilling preview of what will take place soon in Germany and the rest of Europe.
"Cabaret" is quite simply a perfect movie.