(1972)
5
Rebecca Flint Marx
Less a traditional musical than a drama featuring musical numbers, Cabaret is a beautiful, disturbing evocation of life in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. Using the Kit Kat Club's expertly choreographed routines to reflect the changes in German society, director Bob Fosse effectively shows us a glittering, illusory world, whose insular decadence starkly contrasts with the encroaching horror of reality. Sally Bowles exists at the heart of the turmoil, a conductor for the unrestrained, buoyant energy that both electrifies the club and stands to be threatened by what is going on in the world outside of it. Brash, shamelessly sexual, and bearing a self-assurance of enviable proportions, she is a perfectly flawed heroine, one of the most fully realized women incarnated on the page, stage, and screen. Liza Minnelli portrays her with the energy and blissful abandon that the character requires, turning in one of the best performances of her career. The sight of her performing in the Kit Kat Club, clad in a bowler, boots, and little else and making novel use of a chair, remains one of the screen's most iconic images. The focus on the relationships of the film's main characters, most notably that of Sally and Brian (played with gentle, almost poetic befuddlement by Michael York), perfectly juxtaposes the turbulence of private lives and public events. Sally's promiscuity, Brian's bisexuality, Maximilian's casual use of both characters, and the eventual acceptance of platonic friendship mirror the fortunes of a time and mentality whose mantra of pleasure would soon be forced to give way to one of pain. The best and most terrifying evocation of past debauchery and present "progression" towards a new, fascist ideal, is of course the Emcee. As played by an unforgettable Joel Grey, he occupies an existence somewhere between human and phantom, a cunning apparition who serves as a reminder of carnal delight and ideological oppression. Like the Emcee, Cabaret shows us both delight and oppression, providing a nuanced portrait of an era where the former was rapidly being eclipsed by the latter.
awards for Cabaret on AllMovie
Cabaret (1972)
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
|
Won |
Best Actress
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Adaptation and Original Song Score
|
1972 |
|
Nominated |
Best Adapted Screenplay
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Art Direction
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Cinematography
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Director
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Editing
|
1972 |
|
Nominated |
Best Picture
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Sound
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Supporting Actor
|
1972 |
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
|
Won |
Best Actress
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Art Direction
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Cinematography
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Director
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Picture
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Soundtrack
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Most Promising Newcomer
|
1972 |
Directors Guild of America
|
Nominated |
Best Director
|
1972 |
Hollywood Foreign Press Association
|
Nominated |
Best Director
|
1972 |
|
Nominated |
Best Original Song
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
|
1972 |
|
Nominated |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Picture - Musical or Comedy
|
1972 |
|
Nominated |
Best Screenplay
|
1972 |
|
Nominated |
New Star of the Year - Female
|
1972 |
Library of Congress
|
Won |
U.S. National Film Registry
|
1994 |
National Board of Review
|
Won |
Best Director
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Picture
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Supporting Actor
|
1972 |
|
Won |
Best Supporting Actress
|
1972 |
Venice International Film Festival
|
Presented |
Film Presented
|
1972 |
