Cabaret

Rating:
Summary: A Visual Feast
Review: Life within the confines of the cabaret is surreal indeed. The eclectic cast of eccentric characters recalls those found in the works of Fellini. It was if Fellini made this film...on acid. The vaudevillians' hair, make-up, and clothes were truly carnival-esque--with heavy doses of glam and punk rock tossed in. I couldn't help but think of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", which would come out a few years later. And that shade of nail polish that Sally Bowles wears would not become hip in the mainstream until 30 years later. The look of the characters in this classic flick is truly inspirational.

Rating:
Summary: Life is indeed a Cabaret!
Review: What could I say about this movie that hasn't already been said? It's the best of its class. It has everything; music, comedy, drama, sex, great characters, politics, terrific moments... I could go on and on. Liza Minnelli is the ultimate diva in this, playing the role of her life. Joel Grey is absolutely perfect as the MC... his role is the hit of the movie -- for me -- despite that his only appearances are on the stage before an audience (I would have liked to have seen more of his character -- in a private setting, to see who he really was)... In any case, the characters are all outrageously divine... even Michael York, who plays a mild-mannered language instructor (Liza's love interest in the movie). Everytime I watch it (and I've watched it dozens of times so far), I walk away from it with the dialogue and music and images running through my head for some time to come. And the music!... If you love the music (as I do), you must buy the album. Get the original soundtrack with Joel and Liza -- not the other versions. It has the complete stage performances, including Joel's unforgettable "Willkommen" number. This is one video that won't gather dust on your shelf. If you watch it once, you'll be hooked... or I should say 'addicted'.

Rating:
Summary: Legendary Liza at her Best............
Review: .......and who was ever better at her Best? I will leave the intellectual and historical review of this film to others. I have read all the reviews, and many capture that era, and this brilliant brittle portrayal of it, more aptly than I ever could. My feelings about the new DVD are strictly personal and involve the STAR.....quite possibly the greatest entertainer of our times.....Liza MINNELLI (all caps because some of you folks really need to learn how to spell her name! She sings 'Liza With a Z' but I think it's that last name she needs to emphasize!) At any rate, it has now become clear that this will be the classic Liza Minnelli performance to become our inheritance, and I have become more grateful for it (and her) with every viewing. Her timing, her delivery, her subtlety, her voice, her LOOK, her drama, her 'Divine Decadence' .... all sheer PERFECTION. 'Maybe This Time' became, perhaps, my all-time favorite Minnelli song, and I cannot imagine anyone (even her mother) handling it any better. I loved the original movie, the VHS, the DVD....and while I will be the first to agree it was a great film, unto itself, can anyone HONESTLY imagine it for one minute without Minnelli? It couldn't have and wouldn't have been the same, nor reached the level that could be called 'masterpiece.' It is truly LIZA'S masterpiece, and while I once chuckled as she sang '....when I go, I wanna go like Elsie!'....I now feel tears in my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Life IS a Cabaret
Review: Bob Fosse's "Cabaret" is simply one of the most brilliant musicals ever conceived. Liza Minnelli plays cabaret singer Sally Bowles, who has escaped to the Berlin of 1931 to lose herself in "divine decadence." Minnelli brings such gorgeous energy and flamboyance to Sally, making her irresistable to watch. Her best music numbers, "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time" bring the house down. Michael York plays Brian, a bisexual who manages to fall in love with Sally. Joel Grey brings his impish but diabolic Emcee to life as he did on Broadway. The songs are all winners and take place inside the Cabaret itself, so the dramatic flow is not disturbed by having characters break out into song. This makes the story seem all the more real and serious. And it is a serious musical, not to be taken lightly. This is the Berlin of 1931, just before the Nazis take over and cause immortal suffering. The glitz and glitter that Sally and Brian purposely lose themselves in begins to fall apart as Nazis begin to bring shadow of the Cabaret lights. Their world soon falls into disillusion, and at the film's climax we see the reflection of Nazis in the audience.

The serious subtext aside, Cabaret is an upbeat film. Sally Bowles and her romance with Brian make up a charming story, with an ending that we know must happen, because nothing in their turbulent world can stay forever. As Sally says in her last song and dance, "life is a cabaret." This is true because everyone must pretend to be happy in the glitter of Berlin, and hide from the darkness that overshadows it.

Rating:
Summary: I Miss Bob Fosse's Excellence
Review: I believe Bob Fosse, the director of this film, is the only one involved with it who is dead. It is amazing to me that every film this man made is uniformly excellent. He also directed Broadway shows and was a dancer and choreographer before that, all of which he did with equally flawless flair. Liza Minnelli, Joel Gray, Michael York, Oscar Werner, and the rest of those involved in "Cabaret" hit their finest moment in it, never to do as well again. I don't know if Fosse was the first to do what is so unique about this film. If not, he certainly was one of the first and he did it best. Apparently tired of characters breaking into song at the most inappropriate moments in a film or stage show, he integrated the musical numbers within the whole so that they are performed where one would naturally expect them to be performed. In this case, that is in the Cabaret itself. However, unlike those too stagey earlier musicals from prior decades, he cuts seamlessly from scenes in the film into the musical numbers, linking them thematically as well. There is not a wasted second in the entire film and you can tell the man was a choreographer. He could really keep a film moving, which sadly seems to be an ability in short supply with many present filmmakers. This film is hardly a piece of fluff either. It is set in 1930s Berlin right before Hitler's reign launched what was to be WWII and the Holocaust. All of the elements that made Germany a perfect breeding ground for the horror that followed are set forth beautifully. There is a blur shot of the Cabaret's dissolving into a Nazi-filled audience that Fosse uses in a windup and it is fabulous. We've seen the decadence and bigotry in full flower performed in the Cabaret, which makes them the foreseeable audience of the future.

Rating:
Summary: SEARING
Review: Given the brilliant, brittle stage musical by Kander & Ebb as the basis for this film, who better to direct than the man with his pulse, literally, on decadence, sexuality and self-possession: Bob Fosse? This movie is so seamlessly perfect that it like a model for making movie musicals: the drama is completely, absorbingly intact, with electrifying performances from all involved; the musical numbers both transport you to a place a sheer nirvana in their nervy, showstopping staging, but also paint a picture of an emotional wasteland; of falseness; of lost hope and most of all of desperation. While the current version of this musicalplaying on Broadway generally tends to portray Sally as a two-bit singer, with no real lung power (and this conceit works well), this movie gives us a kooky Sally with real, passionate talent -- she blows you away onstage. This makes her particular lostness even more poignant. The chilling Tomorrow Belongs To Me, sung by the Hitler youth, is expertly woven into the fabric of the movie. A supremely satisfying visual artist, Fosse's slick, razor-sharp moves have never been more specifically utilized to translate a real story: here, the movie itself is choreographed, with a pop, a sizzle, a deadpan showbizziness that is the essence of the musical's irony. Perfection.

Rating:
Summary: Liza , Joel, and Michael, the authentic Cabaret performance
Review: Cabaret is an entirely different musical film from those that appeared earlier in the cinemas before Cabaret's release. Cabaret has a very serious story line that is close to the truth, and the presentation is very stylized somewhat graphical in that the colors are not muted or very sharp but have a more contrasty appearance because of the stage lighting. Not only is the look filled with contrast but the story itself is not just one even plane but plenty of ups and downs that compliments the cabaret itself. In other words it tells of a topsy turvy world on stage and in real life and sometimes mixes both together so we don't know if this is real or not.

Sally Bowles is completely self-centered, full of ambition and like most ambitious people does not care about the feelings of anyone especially her friends, even though they will support her through thick and thin. She has one goal in mind and that is to be a star or number one, very similar to the Chancellor of Germany at that time. There is a parallel philosophy when comparing Sally Bowles and Hitler because both are extremely ambitious and have a one track mind when pursuing their goals. No one stands in their way on the road to success.

Cabaret is in fact two cabarets, one of the physical show and the other is the performance of the people outside, although with the clever editing both are entwined so we are caught off balance when one minute we see a German Jew kicked to death and then suddenly we are watching a seductive dance routine performed at the nightclub.

The whole pretence of the cabaret in the movie is that life goes on or the show goes on as though outside in the Berlin streets everything is quite normal. All the prejudices that was the pattern of Germany in the thirties is shown here either in the show or in real life from the destruction of the Jewish race, communism, homosexuality, "living in sin," abortion, and transvestism, a crazy mixed up world.

Still this was the last fling at playing before the jackboot took over, and Liza Minelli, Michael York and Joel Grey played their parts perfectly and I cannot think of anyone else who could have portrayed these characters better. Michael York with his quiet boyish naive appearance compliments Liza Minelli's extrovert character and although we wish for a happy ending it never happens, a reflection of the immediate future that lay ahead for Berlin. Joel Gray is Cabaret, because whenever Cabaret crops up he is the main person I always think of. As a master of ceremonies, a singer, a dancer or a comedian, with that makeup and tight body dressed in top hat and tails, he is pure dynamite and in this case who else could play this part? Just the word willkommen conjures up Joel Gray's made up face and show girls dressed in Nazi uniforms on the Kit Kat stage.

But despite the visual impact of Cabaret, and the undertones of Naziism, the music makes the film and each tune is a winner. The song Cabaret was always a show stopper whenever Liza Minelli appeared on stage, and of course Maybe This Time brought a lasting ovation from her fans. Money, Money is also a Cabaret number that I recognize immediately whenever I hear it. These three tunes always bring to my mind that they are purely Cabaret, unlike Somewhere or Tonight from West Side Story that are love songs and can be used in other situations.

I saw Cabaret as a stage play three years before the film was released and I must admit it was tough sitting through what was a very dry performance. The film in my case, was much easier to digest and at least with the top stars playing the leading roles and the music performed professionally, this is the way to go for me when seeing a famous musical.

Rating:
Summary: A Message from Mr. Movie Buff
Review: Cabaret is if not THE best musical, but certainly one of the best musicals ever made. The story takes place during World War II in Nazi Germany. Liza Minelli plays Sally Bowles, an American who performs at a local Kit Kat Klub, and who has an English professor staying with her who is a bisexual. The movie mostly focuses on their relationship and Sally's life outside and inside the club. Cabaret was an excellent musical and not just because of the music in it, but because of the story and of the history it takes place during. It does have some excellent musical numbers in it, including The Money Song, and the title song. A must watch for everyone!

Rating:
Summary: "What good is sitting alone in your room?"
Review: Well, if you HAVE to 'sit alone in your room', why not watch 'Cabaret'? I saw this movie again for the first time in many years, and I was bowled over by Bowles! Although the 'Sally Bowles' of 'Cabaret' has little in common with the very English character of Christopher Isherwood's original books, Liza Minnelli nevertheless delivers the finest performance of her career as the 'divinely decadent' cabaret singer, caught up in a Berlin at the VERY worst time. For viewers who don't enjoy musicals because of the implausible 'bursting into song', 'Cabaret' confines all its musical numbers to the stage of 'The Kit-Kat Club', so 'Cabaret' works absolutely as a 'straight' narrative, too. Much more than a tale of a kooky girl and her gay best friend, 'Cabaret' has a very dark, very chilling subtext, and the final shot of a swastika on the arm of an anonymous patron of 'The Kit-Kat Club' sends a shiver down the spine as we realise the horrific consequences awaiting - not only the characters in 'Cabaret' - but the rest of the world.

Rating:
Summary: Life is a cabaret, old chum! Come to the cabaret!
Review: "Life is a cabaret, old chum! Come to the CA-BA-RET!" crows Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) in the brightly lit Kit Kat Club. Cabaret. The word calls out, "Celebration!". And this film is just that: a celebration of a devinely decadent era. In 1931 Berlin, a larger-than-life singer whose motto "Life is a cabaret, ol' chum!" carries her through the darkly decadent days of pre-Nazism. Meeting a young bisexual English writer, she encounters many adventures with him along for a wild ride. Although they are worlds apart, the two begin a passionate love affair... while the Nazis begin their rampage on Germany. Many musical sequences in the picture, taking place at the tawdry Kit Kat Club, provide some of the greatest songs and savory entertainment ever put on the screen. Liza Minnelli, in a much deserved Oscar-winning role, is thrilling in all of her solo numbers: in "Mein Herr", she dances with a vivacious electricity, singing lustily, "And though I used to care/ I need the open air/ You're better off without me, Mein Herr!". In "Maybe This Time", she passionately sings about the love that will come to her... maybe this time. And in the picture's title tune, "Cabaret", Liza belts out the best song of a fabulous score: "What good is sitting alone in your room?/ Come hear the music play/ Life is a cabaret, old chum!/ Come to the cabaret!". Michael York does just fine as her writer friend, and Joel Grey won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a rather unsettling "Master of Ceremonies": "Wilkommen, bienvenu, velcome! In cabaret, undt, cabaret, undt, CABARET!" The marvelous, Oscar-winning cinematography, sound and direction by Bob Fosse create a highly stylized musical drama that you won't want to miss. Come to the "Cabaret", old chum!