Cabaret has the distinction of winning the most Academy Awards without winning Best Picture, eight in total. That's impressive, especially given that its main competition was The Godfather. Weimar Germany was never so decadent as doomed as it was in Cabaret, a brilliant musical with standout performances.
In the final years of the Weimar Republic, young Brian Roberts (Michael York) arrives in Berlin to serve as an English teacher to eager Germans. Here, he is soon caught up in the hedonistic demimonde of the Kit Kat Klub, which is watched over by the club's Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey). Brian is introduced to the Kit Kat Klub by his neighbor, American chanteuse Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), who works there. She dreams of being a great and famous film actress. She also dreams of having an affair with Brian, who does not reciprocate her attraction.
Brian soon starts attracting students. Two of them are Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper), a young man with financial troubles, and Natalia Landauer (Maria Berenson), a young woman with no financial troubles. Fritz wants to make her into a mistress but ends up falling in love with the innocent Natalia. There is a problem, however. Natalia is Jewish, Fritz is not, and this is a dangerous time for Jews as Nazism begins taking sway over Germany.
Neither the Master of Ceremonies nor Sally seem to care about the troubles outside the Kit Kat Klub. Sally and Brian do eventually begin an affair, but a new player has entered the field. He is Baron Maximilian (Helmut Griem), who begins squiring the tawdry Sally around town and country, much to Brian's displeasure. Brian is also equally displeased to appalled about Max's dismissiveness of Nazis, whom Max believes can be controlled as used to counter Communism.
Sally and Brian find that they have Max in common. Fritz reveals his true identity to Natalia. Natalia finds the antisemitism growing more dangerous and deadly. Will Brian and Sally ultimately end up together, or will Sally find that life is a Cabaret even when it truly isn't?
The picnic which Sally, Max and Brian go to features a lovely song, Tomorrow Belongs to Me, sung by a young man. Tomorrow Belongs to Me soon makes clear that the clean-cut young man is a member of the Hitler Youth. That alone transforms the scene from a bucolic moment into one of almost terror, the lyrics taking on a sinister meaning. What elevates this moment (the only song not sung at the Kit Kat Klub) is how soon everyone at the picnic except for Max and Brian join in. Sally, asleep in the car, does not notice. This seems fitting for Sally Bowles, who has no interest in the troubles of the world beyond her garishly green fingernails.
The final title musical number is also an example of how what we hear is counter to the reality. Cabaret is an upbeat, joyful number, whose music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb make it sound as such. "What good is sitting all alone in your room? Come here the music play. Life is a cabaret, old chum. Come to the cabaret". Despite the frivolity Cabaret has on the surface, we know that the party is coming to a violent end. Brian has left Berlin, so he will be safe. The fate of everyone else, however, is left to our imagination. It is doubtful that Fritz and Natalia will be allowed to live. The Emcee may survive by becoming a Nazi himself despite being the overlord of this crazed world of debauchery and wild abandon. As for Sally Bowles? Will she end up being one of those "happy corpses" she sings about? Who can say.
Cabaret is filled with some exceptional performances. Liza Minnelli more than emerged from the shadow of her famous parents Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli. She dominated the musical numbers and made them standout moments. There is the brazenness of Mein Herr, where she sings about the end of an affair. There is also the tender and moving Maybe This Time, which I understand like Mein Herr was written by Kander & Ebb for the film. In most musicals, the songs are sung to move the story along by the characters. In Cabaret, all but one are sung on a stage. Even the one song not sung at the club, the previously mentioned Tomorrow Belongs to Me, the performance at the picnic would not be thought of as out of the ordinary. I would argue that contrary to what is argued about the Cabaret songbook, the songs do express the character's emotions. Maybe This Time may be a song performed at the Kit Kat Klub stage. However, it also reflects Sally's growing optimism and feelings of actual love versus her usual love-them-and-leave-them manner. The intercutting between her performance and her encounters with Brian, I think, underscore that connection.
Minnelli certainly excels at these moments, belting the numbers with gusto. It is in the non-singing moments that Minnelli reveals a strong actress. She makes Sally Bowles into a mix of worldliness and naivete, a sophisticated innocent if you like. Near the end of the film, she and Brian argue about Max. Brian has a mix of jealousy and disgust at how Max is misleading and using Sally. At the climax, he angrily yells out, "Screw Maximilian!". She almost nonchalantly says, "I do". Brian then begins chuckling to himself, then looks Sally directly and says, "So do I". The look Minnelli gives Sally is a mix of shock and disappointment, but also of innocence. It is almost as if she cannot understand that such a thing is possible despite Brian having been open about his past experiences. It is a dynamic performance.
Liza Minnelli is matched by Joel Grey as the Master of Ceremonies. Impish, almost demonic, Grey recreated his role from the original Broadway production for the film. He is frightening in his almost malevolent glee at the demented, debauched, decadent world that he oversees. His Emcee is one who as he says in Willkommen, tells the Kit Kat Klub denizens to leave your troubles outside. He makes the Emcee almost inhuman, a strange amoral creature who mocks everything.
What makes Grey more impressive in Cabaret is that he never utters a single word of dialogue in the film. His performance consists entirely of singing and dancing. It is his sinister presence that makes one almost frightened whenever he appears. In his gaudy makeup and at times outlandish costumes, Grey's Master of Ceremonies is sinister, off-putting and off kilter.
Michael York does well as Brian, the man who sees the decadence of Weimar slipping into the authoritarianism of the Third Reich. He may have been part of the former, but he also saw that no one was seeing how the latter was coming.
Bob Fosse blended the various technical elements in Cabaret while getting masterful performances from his cast. One never feels the two-hour runtime. This world is seedy, coming apart, and Cabaret under Fosse's direction brought it all to life in an exceptional manner.
Cabaret is a tragedy. This is a debauched world, filled with too much decadence and self-centeredness to see the danger even after it was too late. It also has excellent performances and a fantastic score. Like Sally Bowles, people will always love a Cabaret.
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