Wait. I guess that's why I'm writing.
On to another from the list of AFI Top 100 (10th Anniversary Edition). I'm going to say it right now. If the Cubs progress in the playoffs, this list has absolutely NO chance of being done in a calendar year. I'm devoting my off time to that, and watching films will have to wait.
This is a musical, I guess. I also haven't seen it (as a film) before in its entirety...until now.
Film 43
43. "Cabaret" (AFI Rank #63)
My favorite film is "The Godfather." I had always assumed that it had swept the Academy Awards for 1972. What I found out fairly recently was that Francis Ford Coppola didn't win Best Director that year, and that "Cabaret" was the big winner at the Oscars, garnering 8 trophies, but not Best Picture. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm not saying that "Cabaret" didn't deserve them, as much as I'm wondering why "The Godfather" would be given short shrift in any way. Bah.
Above I wrote that "this is a musical, I guess." At only one point do I believe that the show actually has classic musical style, with the haunting "Tomorrow Belongs To Me." The rest of the film is a dramatic story, punctuated with musical numbers that either presage what we are about to see, or fill in the details happening around the story. Truly, most of the numbers in the movie could play over a montage, and we'd feel no differently watching them. That the "score" of the film is being sung for us by the actors on the screen is the only thing that makes this classified as a "musical." The musical numbers almost all take place in the Kit Kat Klub, the bawdy cabaret, where we get to see the incredibly talented Joel Grey take us into the seedy side of German entertainment prior to the takeover of the Nazis.
This is all wonderful exposition. What did I think? The story of "Cabaret" is compelling stuff. Varying widely from the Broadway version of the same material, the principal source of personal conflict in the film is a love triangle with Brian (Michael York), Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), and Max (Helmut Griem). Brian is a bisexual, as is Max, and Sally is sleeping with both of them, unaware of their interest in each other. Sally, a barely talented American is convinced that she's going to be a major star some day. She, of course, is completely deluded, and is spending her nights performing in the Kit Kat Klub. Brian is a modestly talented English professor who has come to Germany to tutor people in English as he earns his doctorate. Max is a man of no talents, except the gift of family money, who is capable of manipulating all around him, and spends his life (we presume, based on what we've seen) buying, then discarding, his friends. As we watch this story, we get the oppressive, sometimes graphic, most times implied, rise of the Nazis as they begin to take over all of Germany.
Bob Fosse directed the film, and like his other work with Kander & Ebb, the stage revival of "Chicago," we see a movie that is really two themes running parallel with each other. The Kit Kat Klub scenes are like the intercalary chapters of "The Grapes of Wrath." They explain what is happening, but they don't exist in the main "story." It's not quite the same, but the basic idea is there. Fosse paints some terrific pictures, the Klub scenes are tremendous, and I can even tolerate Michael York, an actor who is fingernails on a chalkboard to me. One scene especially sticks out in my head...and it occurs when Max, Sally, and Brian are riding in a car past the scene of some Nazi violence, resulting in the death of someone. The scene stays frozen, as those in the car keep animated, even as they drive by. It's an effective, eerie scene, and I was very impressed by it. In fact, unlike "The Sound of Music," the Nazis in this film are terrifying, not in a direct way, as we never deal with any of them actually SPEAKING, but we are always keenly aware of what they are accomplishing, and how they do that. That we see the aftermath of Brian crossing them, and not the violence itself, is genius. Fosse really, really nails this film. Not bad for a guy who is really famous for a particular branch of stylized dance, and not as much as a filmmaker.
Acting. Minnelli and Grey both won Oscars, and rightly so. Grey is a magnet whenever he appears in the film, immediately drawing our attention, and we love watching him. That he expresses so much while being so outrageous is the kind of acting that most can't accomplish. Grey, of course, was far superior to the challenge. Grey's character is the "Master of Cermonies." Yup. That's what he does. Minnelli is terrific as Sally Bowles. Alternatively in charge, yet little child, Sally is a dynamo. Watching Minnelli's face as she explains the disappointment of not meeting with her father, it is a character rich in depth, if a little too polished in her singing moments. Sally was never supposed to be talented. Not overtly, anyway, and Minnelli sings the hell out of her songs. Michael York is passable, but his talking into his own mouth wears on me, as I feel I'm constantly straining to hear him speak.
I did mention one "musical" number. "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" is a brutally shocking number, especially the way it is treated in this film. We see the insipid nature of the Nazis, and how they just don't relent, just stand there, so sure of themselves, until those that originally opposed them stand and sing with them. It's a stirring number, and if I only watched that segment, I'd say that the film did the play proud. It is fun that they aren't the same, by a long shot.
So, this film won a bunch of awards that "The Godfather" probably should have won. Again, that doesn't change this film's greatness, but it does speak to how great "The Godfather" is. At least to me.
Some other fun things. In watching this film, I was reminded, of course, of "Chicago." Ten Musicals have won Best Picture. They are: "The Broadway Melody," "The Great Ziegfeld," "Going My Way," "An American in Paris," "Gigi," "West Side Story," "My Fair Lady," "The Sound of Music," "Oliver!," and "Chicago." Lerner & Lowe wrote 2 of those (Lerner was involved in 3). The rest are "solo" efforts. Kander & Ebb wrote this one and "Chicago." This one won Best Director, while losing Best Picture, "Chicago" won Best Picture, while losing Best Director. That doesn't really mean anything, but as those awards are usually paired...well...it's a little funny.
This is a fine, fine film. I wouldn't call it a "musical," but I don't know what else to call it. Know what? I'll call it a fine, fine film. The film begins and ends with a blurred, distorted view of the Kit Kat Klub, shot into the backdrop of its stage. Watch it again, and see how it changes. It's terrific filmmaking.
Ebert's original review is here. He touches on something towards the end that I need to comment on, I think. Perhaps, the decadence and moral ambiguity that this film comments on is precisely why the Nazis rose to power...perhaps...when people get scared, tyranny is a fine solution to that...
Bah. Watch this film.
EDIT: I've just read some information about the song "If You Could See Her." Apparently, people were offended by the comparison of a Jew to a gorilla. JESUS CHRIST. That, my pretties, is precisely why that line is in there, you ninnies. It's satire. God, I love being part of and performing/directing to the 1%. The 99% that don't get shit really bother the crap out of me. I'm going to choose, as a director, to continue to direct to the 1%. And when the 1% gets it, I'll feel satisfied. I'm sure Mr. Kander & Mr. Ebb felt similarly.
No comments:
Post a Comment