X
- 1972
- PG
- Allied Artists Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
- 1972
- PG
- Allied Artists Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
Summary Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles (Minnelli) and an impish emcee (Grey) sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force. (Warner Bros.)
Directed By: Bob Fosse
- 1972
- PG
- Allied Artists Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
- 1972
- PG
- Allied Artists Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
Cabaret
80
8.0
Where to Watch
Summary Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles (Minnelli) and an impish emcee (Grey) sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force. (Warner Bros.)
Directed By: Bob Fosse
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
80
88% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
80
88% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Chilling Fosse vision of Weimar Berlin, stylishly directed and choreographed, featuring a show-stopping musical performance by Minnelli, Grey's unforgettable emcee and thoughtful acting from Michael York.
Minnelli and Grey sparkle, and the Fosse flash is everywhere in evidence.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 80 User Ratings
8.0
79% Positive
63 Ratings
63 Ratings
18% Mixed
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
4% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 80 User Ratings
8.0
79% Positive
63 Ratings
63 Ratings
18% Mixed
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
4% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
It is literate, bawdy, sophisticated, sensual, cynical, heart-warming, and disturbingly thought-provoking.
Cabaret is one of those immensely gratifying imperfect works in which from beginning to end you can literally feel a movie coming to life.
It's entertaining and stylish, though maybe not quite as serious as it wants to be.
By the time Scenarist Allen and Director Fosse have wrung them out, what's left - with one exception - is mostly slack and sour.
Amazing musical numbers, superb acting, beautiful cinematography and masterful direction & editing. Every single aspect in "Cabaret" is worth a praise. The film is just filled with such great and powerful emotion that it is hard to be NOT moved by it when it is over.
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My favourite movie of all time!
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Outstanding. No one can sing like Liza. Mein Heir is belted out and is my favorite song. Very funny, off color, sad and thought provoking knowing what is to come to unique everyday people in their unique everyday lives.
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After not liking All That Jazz, my expectations for Cabaret were realistic. I knew that it was possible Bob Fosse's directing style was simply not something I was programmed to enjoy. The end result is a film that seems inconclusive. Definitely more up my alley than All That Jazz, Cabaret is still not a film I would quite say I liked. More-or-less, it is an above average musical (in my books) that has some positives and some drawbacks that leave it being a pretty muddled and mixed bag at the end of the day.
First, the negatives. Though La La Land has come under fire for its weak or bad singing from Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, it is abundantly clear to myself that both Stone and Gosling turn in better singing performances than Liza Minnelli and especially Joel Grey in Cabaret. Neither impress, instead turning in bland performances of bland songs such as "Money, Money" or "Two Ladies" (for Grey). Yes, both are legends - especially Minnelli - but neither really struck me as being worthy of the praise they receive for this film on the singing side of things. Minnelli is largely ineffectual and lacks the punch needed for these musical numbers, instead just feeling quite robotic and missing the gravitas necessary to pull of the songs. Fortunately for her, this is not all her fault as some of the song performed in the cabaret are just very bad. Some have great lyrics and melodies, other are just overtly risque for no other value. The former are exclusively songs with Minnelli. The latter are reserved for Grey who is just flat-out grating to watch. He is too exuberant and boisterous. His singing is comically bad throughout and seems to be played out for laughs with his weird lip movements than for any actual singing ability. If people say Gosling is bad in La La Land, then Grey needs his due for being a bad singer in Cabaret. By the end of the film, however, my favorite song was the one not including either of them and given that they were the stars and the main attractions on the musical side, this seems quite alarming.
Second, the editing is quite bad. Just as in All That Jazz, Fosse goes cut happy at points. Jumping rapidly from one image to the next, the film just turns into a blur at parts. While it is supposed to represent the speed at which everything is occurring, it unfortunately has the side effect of rendering those moments entirely unwatchable and distracting. All That Jazz had the same issue with these rapid cuts that distract more than they enhance. It is clearly a style employed by Fosse that simply does not work in my view. While not too plentiful, the moments are bad enough and occur often enough to be worth mentioning. Other than these, the editing is fine. Nothing great and nothing awful. It cuts when it should and is quite cohesive as a final product, but those few moments unfortunately leave a lot to be desired.
In the mixed, not a pro and not a con, section we have the film's sexuality. Openly confronting society's reservations about open sexuality, LGBT persons, and various other sexual taboos, Cabaret is a crucially important film. It shows that those who cross dress, are trans, are ****, are bi, or are lesbians, are just people too. They want to have fun, they cry, they want to love, and they want to laugh all the same. Cabaret, for this, is boundary ****. It is impressively open about these topics to the point that it may be too much. Mind you, I am not saying it is too risque or that I am a prude. Rather, it feels as though the film tries too hard to push these boundaries. It includes so many topics and, by the end, it feels like the film is just sitting there and judging the audience for not accepting like one of those SNL sketches about high school theatre with the film screaming out, "This is normal and your world view is small." While I agree with its message of acceptance against its backdrop of the rise in ****, it feels like it pours it on a bit thick.
On the positive side of things, some songs really stand out. Though I criticized Minnelli and Grey before, allow me to walk some of those comments back in praising some of their songs. For Grey, "If You Could See Her" is beautifully sung, catchy, and incredibly entertaining. It is also thematically relevant with a great take on accepting a person for who they are and not just judging a book by its cover. For Minnelli, "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time" are real standouts. The former features solid singing, but tremendous choreography by Fosse. The latter is gorgeously written with a great mournful and longing delivery by Minnelli on the vocal side of things. Yet, bar none, the highlight of the film is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me". Absolutely chilling to watch be sung by a boy in a **** uniform and joined in by similar white people, the sequence is brilliantly put together by Fosse and haunting. The singing and lyrics are terrific, but the moment it signifies is the real highlight and shows the perfect blend of music
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 8 Wins & 10 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 3 Wins & 9 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 7 Wins & 11 Nominations
