REVIEW : "Cabaret" (1972) - Movie by Bob Fosse

The most difficult decade in movie history, for me, is the seventies. The amount of crappy movies had risen to another level, while only the absolute greatest directors managed to create something truly spectacular (read Kubrick). There were made tons of movies hailed as great art in that decade that have all but been wiped from history now. Further more, in my opinion, many of those movies that still receive high praise, are of discussable quality, at least in regards to its overall qulities and not particular aspects of it.

One such movie is "Cabaret". It received a total of 8 Oscars in sharp competition with another classic from that period, that I also have a good deal of trouble with, The Godfather, and judging from the categories in which it won, I cannot disagree really. The most important aspect here though is that it did not get the best picture award, which actually went to The Godfather.

Now, I do not put too much credibility on the academy to tell me what is a good movie and how various aspects of them conform to an idea of quality. But in this case it is interesting, as it is not that common that a movie that wipes the floor at the awards, do not get the most important praise, the best picture. But I wholeheartedly agree with the academy in this case, becasuse the story is quite terrible in this one. I know it is an adaptation of a stage play, which is again an adaptation of a book and so on. But it is quite clear to me that the director was not in the business of telling you a good story but rather showing off his ability to choreograph a cinematic version of a cabaret stage, which he does absoloutely brilliantly I may add.

Let us just get it "straight" once and for all. This movie should be seen for the cabaret stage shows, period. The story of the English writer arriving in the depraved, depression ridden, Berlin, falling in love with a promiscuous cabaret girl and an upperclass man, with the rising nazsim threatening in the horizon does not do anything for me at all, because it is so contrived and pretentious. The hints of a bisexual menage a trois, between the three main characters is pathetic even if it may have been bold in 1972.

I also have an ideosyncratic problem with Michael York. I cannot stand his voice. At the same time I cannot stand Minelli´s cutesy, "innocense" either. This is "modern" LGBT evocation , transported to the thirties Germany. I don´t buy this. She is out of place and time in this setting in my opinion and it is supposedly set in opposition to the strict cultural demands of female chastity by the German woman, who at first is rejecting Minelli´s promiscuity, but then opening up and in this way "accepts" the "modern" way of women. No men are demanding any virtue or morality of women, on the contrary.

It is certainly more the rule than the exception that the times in which a historical movie is made, is much more expressed than the times which it is supposed to portray. But in this case it just falls flat on its arse, as there is nothing else in the story than this. It does not go deep into any of the characters real emotional depths, not even Minelli´s, even if it may look that way from the surface. There is nothing there, really !

What you do get though, is superbly choreographed and filmed stage settings and well sung pieces by the toastmaster character and Minelli alike. She did get an oscar for this part and that should be seen as a recognition that she could actually pull off acting while dominating the stage scenes completely. This is a rather rare combination so I guess my recommendations go there, a bit. There is a freshness to the stage scenes and some of them are made with handheld cameras coming up very close or angled steeply from the floor and up, that creates the atmosphere of really being present there as a viewer. This stands in stark contrast to the rest of the scenes in the movie.

Dancing and singing doesn´t do it alone for me. Add to that a very dark, soft and grainy , seventies feel that just adds to the disappointment and confusion about why this movie tends to get the praise it does.

4/10