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A young English man named Brian(Michael York, in a character based on Christopher Isherwood's experiences) develops a relationship with a reckless young American girl named Sally(Liza Minnelli at a wonderful performance to the edge of tragedy) in Berlin during the 30s in which Hitler is rising to power and racism, anti-Semitism and determinedly amoral behavior are growing. They're both then seduced by a German rich aristocrat named Max(Helmut Griem). Meanwhile Brian works as English teacher for an elegant young Jewish(Marisa Berenson) and his friend Fritz Wendel(Fritz Wippel), both of whom falling in love. All the roles are linked by the Kit-Kat club where perform Sally and an androgynous master of ceremonies(Joel Grey , he deservedly won Oscar to best support cast).

It's a magnificent musical-drama well set on Germany where are increasing horrors of Nazism taking place on its grim moments. Atmospheric nostalgia piece from the stories of Christopher Isherwood and successfully creating a portrait of a nation falling into moral decay. It's one of the most perfect examples of accurate timing over a sustained period ever put on cinema. This dynamic film packs excellent musical numbers full of aggression, fire and turn out to be unmissable experience. Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey give the acting of their lives. Glamorous and evocative cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth . Based on the John Kander's hit Broadway musical and soundtrack by Ralph Burns full of classic songs. This story was formerly brought to life by Henry Cornelius (1959) with Laurence Harvey(Brian role) and Julie Harris(Sally role) in a good drama no musicalized.

¨Cabaret¨ is an impressive picture splendidly directed by Bob Fosse(1927-1987) and winning three Oscars. Fosse was a director, actor, choreographer and dancer. He choreographed : ¨My sister Eileen, The Pijama game, Damn Yankees¨ and directed another films with awesome musical sequences such as ¨Sweet charity and All that jazz¨.

A film with a single character: The Master of Ceremonies. An ambiguous spell and walls of illusion. Subtle exploration of chimera and fall of an era. A special inebriation and columns of words, songs, dreams, love, lies, freedom and hypocrisy like shield against terrible future. Nothing real, nothing splendid or ugly. Only the believe in miracle and in art to build another tomorrow. Joel Grey- in a magnificent role- is the almighty puppeteer. Master of show, maker of sins, lenient, sarcastic, cruel, brutal, ambiguous, a vulnerable androgynous god, he is the incarnation of Old Greek anenke. So, the film, cobweb of lights, smiles, dances and promises, good intentions and fear, is not pledge for classical "Life is theater play" or "Life is dream" but for the painful "Life is only refined lie". Natalia Landauer and his husband,the charming Sally Bowles,the wistful innocent Brian Roberts, are victims of same illusion who can be skin of reality.

Beautiful film. Gorgeous music. Great acting.

Pre-Nazi Germany is a hotbed of escalating tensions, but decadent nightclub performer Sally Bowles is oblivious to the encroaching horrors. If you know a little about Liza Minnelli and you're curious, "Cabaret" should make you a fan; if you're not interested or just don't like her, "Cabaret" probably isn't the movie for you. Liza is the heart, soul, and centerpiece of the picture; when she's on-screen, everybody else is irrelevant. Movie-fans still discuss whether Liza was actually acting the role of Sally Bowles or just being herself (her Oscar-win still draws debates--Diana Ross in "Lady Sings The Blues" is oft-times described as 'robbed' for the Best Actress statue). Indeed, time has proved that Minnelli had a whole lot in common with Sally, the parallels are even echoed in much of the dialogue, but this part utilizes her entire range (sarcastic sass, vulnerable imp, high-powered musical presence) and she's fabulous. She doesn't do anything small, even her quiet moments are extraordinary. Her final speech to Michael York ("How soon would it be before we started hating each other?") is a knockout, as good as any of her musical numbers, and when he lashes out in anger, she sighs, "If you wanna hit me, why don't'cha just hit me?" She can be fragile and wounded, but it's in her spirit to get right back up and perform. The film is a burlesque nightmare, amazingly directed by Oscar winner Bob Fosse, who also choreographed the musical numbers, and photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth, another Oscar recipient. ***1/2 from ****

A timeless classic! The musical numbers alone are superlative, even the 30-years-younger CHICAGO (2002, 8/10) pales in comparison. My very first Bob Fosse's film, certainly the film gained its classic fame as the biggest winner of the Oscar in 1973, with 8 wins (including BEST DIRECTOR, LEADING ACTRESS and SUPPORTING ACTOR) and nearly usurped the BEST PICTURE trophy from THE GODFATHER (1972, 9/10), if it had been so, it would be inflicted with much notorious backfire in the film history, but the film itself is an unerring gem among the undying musical genre, my first viewing is a thoroughly exultant experience, and cut and dried, it's on my guilty-pleasure list.

It is my first Liza Minnelli's film as well, the cabaret's "international sensation" Sally Bowles, an innocuous vamp, Liza grants her role a disarming vitality and quaintly resembles a bobbed Anne Hathaway doppelgänger, not only radiates her grandeur in rendering her doughty-yet-alluring show tunes (she is born to do it), her portrayal of Sally personal life is equally (if not more) affecting, her doe-eyed naivety and unrestrained zest for life, for love, for fame elevate her character as the master of her own fate, her sacrifice may not gain concurrence from motley views of life, but a full obeisance to her independence and pluck is duly earned.

Michael York, behind his gawky effeminacy, plunges himself into a more contentious venture, Brian Roberts, his character's bookish bi-sexual temperament is a provocative taboo on big screen (like since ever) and the implicit ménage à trois temptation (with Sally and the suave Helmut Griem, whose gentrified debonair is utterly irresistible) has been simmering to the perfect temperature, under-girds a manifestation of initiating a sex-liberation wave (germane to the 70s era while against the Nazi-rising milieu in the film).

There is a subplot dealing with a bromide of a down-and-out German guy's infatuation with a rich but prude Jewish girl, there is an ironic twist near the end, however never quite manages to steal the limelight from Sally and Bri, but Marisa Berenson's placid performance is still worthy of backslapping (the dichotomy of women's images is a trifle stale though).

Joel Grey, as the so called "Master of Ceremonies" and won an Oscar (against three fellows from THE GODFATHER), serves only as the performer in the film, no clear attachment with the plot, his musical set pieces are burlesque, risqué but entertaining to the bone, with a strenuous mimicry of German accent, it is a hard-earned honor, although I don't understand how Al Pacino could lose at any rate.

The film drops its curtain right before the prevalence of Nazi's atrocity, the ending with the vague reflections of Third Reich audience occupying the place has sublimated the materialistic razzle-dazzle onto an eerily ominous scope which the film has no interest to tamper but the audiences will intuit what will happen next. A great windup, neat and potent!

Director Bob Fosse hasn't achieved an immense degree of recognition, but his movies have a distinctive flavour. He seems to have an obsession with the world of music-hall, which is felt in other movies like "Sweet Charity" and "All that Jazz". In his other movies though, musical performances tend to steal the show almost entirely. "Cabaret" is an exception because it has an interesting background and storyline, and the music-hall performances are cleverly used here to illustrate and emphasize the plot. They play about the same role as the Chorus in ancient Greek play.

Of course, the depiction of Cabaret's "Kit Kat Club" deserves attention all by itself. It is not surprising that a cabaret buff such as Bob Fosse took interest in the Weimar Republic period in Germany, when "divine decadence " was the name of the game. Only Bob Fosse could recreate with such consumed application the grotesque sleaze of Berlin's lowlife during the rise of Nazism, a context which served as inspiration for expressionist painters, and for Brecht's "Threepenny Opera". During the credits, check out a woman in the public with short hair and glasses smoking a cigarette (something quite dodgy in 1931!). It is the exact reproduction of a famous painting by Otto Dix.

An outrageously grinning clown (Joel Grey) introduces every cabaret number. The girls appear in all possible contorted postures keeping deadpan faces. The Kit Kat club reminds of a roman arena, where the public is out for anything insane (even women fights in the mud...). To give an idea of what sort of den the club is, Michael York finds himself at one point standing next to a transvestite in a men's urinal...The cabaret performances get all the more provocative as the plot gets tense. The club is an essentially immoral place where anything is for sale, and it adapts shamelessly to the radical political changes coming up.

Liza Minelli's character is totally at home in such surroundings. Her persona is perfectly sketched in her song "Bye Bye Mein Herr". She is the incarnation of the vamp, both heartless and ingenuous, the sort of lethal woman who drives men crazy and then gives them up like toys. Indeed, a very typical stereotype of the interwar period, think of Marlene Dietrich in "the Blue Angel"...Minelli's performance onstage with garter belts and a bowler hat still looks elegantly naughty today.

Though, the real nature of her character is well studied as soon as she gets offstage. While Minelli can't help being extravagant all the time, she turns out to be a fragile woman neglected by her father, and in demand of constant and renewed attention. As predicted in her song, she proves basically unable to engage in any serious relationship, despite her involvement with Michael York ( "And though I used to care, I need the open air, you'd every cause to doubt me Mein Herr").

The script was based a story by British writer Christopher Isherwood, called "A Goodbye to Berlin", based on his own personal memories. He is allegedly the character played by Michael York. A serious upper class young man, he meets Liza Minelli out of blind chance, while looking for an apartment to share. She introduces him to all sorts of people, from riff-raff to aristocracy, including a gigolo, a Jewish heiress, and an ambiguous baron who dismisses them both after having "played" with the two of them.

Michael York's sober performance looks a bit pale as opposed to histrionic Liza Minelli, but of course, that was necessary in order to stress the essential difference between those two strangers. The movie ends as they part on a railway platform, but one can guess their experience together will have changed them both, as as far as he is concerned, was a definite coming of age.

One of the scenes, in the middle of the movie, is quite disturbing. At a countryside inn, a young S.A man sings a song called "Tomorrow belongs to me", which starts out nostalgic but gradually turns into an infectious Nazi march as the whole crowd joins him. This unexpected number seems to have embarrassed many viewers. If Nazism had presented itself as pure evil, would it have met any success? This daring scene makes evident that it was for many Germans of the time the symbol of positive values : beauty, tradition, order, pride, future. If you didn't know how things turned out, would you not have been tempted to sing along this powerful hymn to the fatherland as you watch this? Good question to ask oneself even, or especially, nowadays...