Cabaret was loved by the critics when it was released in 1972. It starred Liza Minnelli as the likable gold digger Sally Bowles and Michael York who was portraying the original author of the stories, Christopher Isherwood.
With a makeup job that makes her looks like one of the droogs from A Clockwork Orange, Cabaret featured the Academy Award winning performance of the very grating Liza.
The movie's other major character, the bi-sexual writer who sleeps with Minnelli is supposed to be the original author Christopher Isherwood. He's in total shame when he reveals his homosexual encounter to Minnelli. Although it was 1972, the idea that his one sexual encounter with another male was the most horrible thing to ever happen to him now seems pretty silly.
The filmmakers were so sure that Isherwood would like their adaptation of his stories and their portrayal of him they screened the film for him. Isherwood's only comment was "I never slept with a woman in my life."
Probably the best parts of the movie are the technical aspects of the film. The director Bob Fosse showed that he was beginning to understand how to put a movie together after the mess he made out of Sweet Charity. Having the legendary cinematographer, Geoffrey Unsworth who had filmed 2001: A Space Odyssey, shooting the film didn't hurt him one bit.
Cabaret is a film that takes the musical format and makes a strong statement on the evils of Nazi Germany 22 years after the end of World War II. Had Fosse lived longer perhaps he could have followed Cabaret with a musical on the evils of slavery, now that would have been a courageous movie.
124 minutes, screenplay by Jay Presson Allen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment