Movie #: 156 Title: Cabaret 1972

Rating: 8.40

Director (last): Fosse (first): Bob

Writer (last): ISHERWOOD (first): CHRISTOPHER

Musical based on the Isherwood period pieces about decadent Berlin in the 1930's. Peter York plays the alter ego, struggling with his ambiguous sexuality (which is not ambiguous in "I Am a Camera" or "Sally Bowles", the source material) while dealing with a number of eccentric and ambivalent social climbers. Wonderful atmospherics and occasionally illuminating. I like Fosse and I like his direction, and this film does a better job than most of explaining the attraction of Nazism to a demoralized German population. York is weak, and Minnelli's performances are right out of Las Vegas, but the rest of the cast--especially Joel Grey-- is sparkling, and the music is kept in context: as performances in the Kit-Kat club, or a beer garden. Note: in 2021-08-04, I watched the movie "The Damned", ("La caduta degli dei"). It was immediately obvious where Bob Fosse had lifted many elements from, particularly the eccentric link of archaic eroticism (the black lingerie), rigid German homeo-eroticism, and Nazi culture. You can't miss it. In addition, one of the actors, Helmut Griem, is in both movies, playing a similar character.

Is this movie a "gem"? No

Evil Twin: The Reader

Good Twin: The Damned (La caduta degli dei)

 

Added: 1979-01-01 [yyyy-mm-dd]