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Cabaret (film)
Encyclopedia
Cabaret is a 1972 musical film
directed by Bob Fosse
and starring Liza Minnelli
, Michael York
and Joel Grey
. The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic
in 1931, under the ominous presence of the growing National Socialist Party
.
The film is loosely based on the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret
by Kander and Ebb
, which was adapted from The Berlin Stories
of Christopher Isherwood
and the play I Am a Camera
. Only a few numbers from the stage score were used; Kander and Ebb wrote new ones to replace those that were discarded. In the traditional manner of musical theater, every significant character in the stage version of Cabaret sings to express emotion and advance the plot; but in the film version, the musical numbers are entirely diegetic
, and only two of the film's major characters sing any songs.
(Liza Minnelli
) performs at the Kit Kat Klub. A new arrival in the city, Brian Roberts (Michael York
), moves into Sally's apartment building. A reserved English academic
and writer, Brian gives English lessons to earn a living while completing his German studies. Sally unsuccessfully tries to seduce Brian and suspects he may be gay. Brian tells Sally that on three previous occasions he has tried to have physical relationships with women, all of which have failed. The unlikely pair become friends, and Brian is witness to Sally's anarchic, bohemian life in the last days of the German Weimar Republic
. Later in the film, Sally and Brian become lovers despite their earlier reservations, and Brian and Sally conclude with irony that his previous failures with women were because they were "the wrong three girls."
Sally befriends Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem
), a rich playboy baron who takes her and Brian to his country estate. It becomes ambiguous which of the duo Max is seducing, epitomized by a scene in which the three dance intimately together in a wine-induced reverie. After a sexual experience with Brian, Max loses interest in the two, and departs for Argentina. When Sally triumphantly tells Brian that she slept with Max, Brian begins to laugh and reveals that he slept with Max as well. After the ensuing argument, Brian storms off and picks a fight with a group of Nazis, who beat him senseless. Brian and Sally make up in their rooming house, where Sally reveals that Max left them an envelope of money.
Later on, Sally finds out that she's pregnant and is unsure whether Brian or Max is the father. Brian offers to marry her and take her back to his university life in Cambridge
. After a scene that strongly hints Sally prefers the life of a singer to the life of a mother and housewife, she proceeds with an abortion. When Brian confronts her, she shares her fears and the two reach an understanding. The film ends with Brian departing for England by train, and Sally continuing her life in Berlin, singing "Cabaret" to a highly appreciative audience.
concerns Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper
), a German Jew passing as a Christian. Fritz eventually reveals his true religious background when he falls for Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson
), a wealthy German Jewish heiress. Although they marry, we are left wondering what their fate will be.
The Nazis' violent rise is a powerful, ever-present undercurrent in the film. Though explicit evidence of their actions is only sporadically presented, their progress can be tracked through the characters' changing actions and attitudes. While in the beginning of the film National Socialist members are sometimes harassed and even kicked out of the Kit Kat Klub, a scene midway through the film shows everyday Germans rising in song to rally around National Socialism, and the final shot of the film shows the cabaret's audience is dominated by Nazi party members.
While he does not play a role in the main plot or subplot, the "Master of Ceremonies" (Joel Grey
) serves in the role of storyteller throughout the film, acting as a bit of voyeur in the circus atmosphere. His surface demeanor is one of benevolence and hospitality ("Willkommen"), but when the floor show gets underway, he exposes the audience to the seedy world of the Cabaret. His intermittent songs in the Kit Kat Klub are risque and pointedly mock the Nazis.
The rise of the National Socialist movement and their increasing influence on German society is dramatically demonstrated in the beer garden
scene: A boy — only his face seen — sings to the seated guests what first seems an innocent lyrical song about the beauties of nature. This gradually becomes the strident "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" as the camera shifts to show that the boy is wearing a brown Hitler Youth
uniform and lifts his hand in the Nazi salute
. One by one, nearly all guests in the beer garden get up and voluntarily join in the singing and saluting. The oldest gentleman among them, however, obviously feels differently, and does not share the common exaltation, he obviously has grown wise enough not to join the chorus and turns away uneasily. Max and Brian flee the beer garden after the show of grass roots solidarity, realising that the Nazis will be difficult to "control" now. Earlier in the film the NSDAP enjoyed relative favor with the main characters, due to their strong opposition to Communism, which was a natural risk to the trio's increasingly lavish lifestyle.
Although the songs throughout the film allude to and advance the narrative, every song except "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" is executed in the context of a Kit Kat Klub performance.
learned through Harold Prince, director of the original Broadway production, that Cy Feuer
was producing a film adaptation
of Cabaret through ABC Pictures
and Allied Artists. Determined to direct the film, Fosse urged Feuer to hire him. Chief executives Manny Wolf and Marty Baum
preferred a bigger name director such as Joseph Mankiewicz
or Gene Kelly
. Furthermore, Fosse’s many difficulties in directing the highly unsuccessful film adaptation of Sweet Charity
gave Wolf and Baum serious concerns. Feuer appealed to the studio heads, citing Fosse’s talent for staging and shooting musical numbers, adding that if inordinate attention was given to filming the book scenes at the expense of the musical numbers, the whole film could fail. Fosse was ultimately hired.
Over the next months, Fosse met with previously hired writer Jay Presson Allen
to discuss the screenplay. Originally unsatisfied with Allen’s script, he hired Hugh Wheeler
to rewrite and revise Allen’s work. To this day, Wheeler is referred to as merely a "research consultant" while Allen retains screenwriting credit. The final script was based less on Joe Masteroff
’s original book of the stage version and more on The Berlin Stories and I am a Camera.
Fosse and Feuer traveled to Germany, where producers chose to shoot the film, in order to finish assembling the film crew. During this time, Fosse highly recommended Robert Surtees for cinematographer, but Feuer and the top executives saw Surtees’ work on Sweet Charity as one of the film’s many artistic problems. Producers eventually chose British cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth
. Designers Rolf Zehetbauer
, Hans Jürgen Kiebach
and Herbert Strabel
served as production designers. Charlotte Flemming designed costumes. Fosse dancer Kathy Doby and John Sharpe were brought on as Fosse’s dance aides.
as Sally Bowles (a role previously denied her in the stage version) and Joel Grey
(reprising his stage role) long before Fosse was attached to the project. Fosse hired Michael York
as Sally Bowles’ openly bisexual love interest. Several smaller roles, as well as the dancers in the film, were eventually cast in Germany.
in Grünwald
, outside of Munich
. Location shots took place in and around Munich and Berlin as well as the regions of Schleswig-Holstein
and Saxony
. Editing on the film took place in Los Angeles before the eventual theatrical release in February, 1972.
. The character of Cliff Bradshaw was renamed Brian Roberts and made British, though he still remained bisexual. The characters, and plot lines involving, Fritz, Natalia and Max do not exist in the play (although there is a minor character named Max in the stage version, the owner of the Kit Kat Club, who bears no relation to the character in the film). The Broadway version used special settings to separate the fantasy world of the Cabaret from the darker rest of the world.
Fosse cut several of the songs, leaving only those that are sung within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub, and "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" - sung in a beer garden, though in the stage play it is sung first by the cabaret boys and then at a private party. Kander and Ebb wrote several new songs for the movie and removed others; "Don't Tell Mama" was replaced by "Mein Herr," and "The Money Song" (retained in an instrumental version as "Sitting Pretty") was replaced by "Money, Money." Interestingly, "Mein Herr" and "Money, Money," which were composed for the film version, have, due to their popularity, now been added to performances of the stage musical alongside the original numbers. The song "Maybe This Time," which Sally performs at the cabaret, was not written for the film. Kander and Ebb had written it years earlier (for their unproduced musical Golden Gate), thus making it ineligible for an Academy Award nomination. Though "Don't Tell Mama" and "Married" were removed as performed musical numbers, both appeared in the film. The former's bridge section appears as instrumental music played on Sally's gramophone; the latter is initially played on the piano in Fraulein Schneider's parlor and later heard on Sally's gramophone in a German translation ("Heiraten") sung by cabaret singer Greta Keller
.
Several characters were cut from the film (including Herr Schultz, with Fraulein Schneider's part greatly reduced and the whole romantic subplot removed) and several from Isherwood's original stories put back in. The entire score was re-orchestrated, with all the numbers being accompanied by the stage band.
The following songs from the original Broadway production are missing in the film version, but are still available on the Original Broadway Cast album:
The international ancillary distribution rights to the film are owned by ABC (currently part of The Walt Disney Company
), while Warner Bros.
(which inherited the film from Lorimar
, Allied Artists' successor-in-interest) has domestic distribution rights. Today, Warner shares the film's copyright with production partner ABC.
Fremantle Media (owners of UK DVD rights under license from ABC/Disney) originally planned a Blu-ray
release of the film, and several dates in 2008 and 2009 had been put forward, but have now announced they no longer plan to release the film on Blu-ray.
It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, losing both to The Godfather
. Cabaret holds the record for most Academy Awards won by a film which did not win the Best Picture award.
The film also won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Leading Actress as well as the Golden Globe Award
for Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy).
In 1995, Cabaret was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2006, Cabaret ranked #5 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals; the song "Cabaret" was ranked #18 on their 100 Years...100 Songs list in 2004. In 2007, this film ranked #63 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies.
The film currently holds a 97% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes
, with the consensus "Great performances and evocative musical numbers help Cabaret secure its status as a stylish, socially conscious classic."
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
directed by Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
and starring Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
and Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
. The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
in 1931, under the ominous presence of the growing National Socialist Party
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
The film is loosely based on the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret
Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
by Kander and Ebb
Kander and Ebb
Kander and Ebb were a highly successful songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb . Known primarily for their stage musicals, Kander and Ebb also scored several movies including their most famous song, the theme song from Martin Scorsese's New York, New York...
, which was adapted from The Berlin Stories
The Berlin Stories
The Berlin Stories is a book consisting of two short novels by Christopher Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains. It was published in 1945....
of Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
and the play I Am a Camera
I Am a Camera
I Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play inspired by Christopher Isherwood's novel Goodbye to Berlin which is part of The Berlin Stories...
. Only a few numbers from the stage score were used; Kander and Ebb wrote new ones to replace those that were discarded. In the traditional manner of musical theater, every significant character in the stage version of Cabaret sings to express emotion and advance the plot; but in the film version, the musical numbers are entirely diegetic
Diegesis
Diegesis is a style of representation in fiction and is:# the world in which the situations and events narrated occur; and# telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting.In diegesis the narrator tells the story...
, and only two of the film's major characters sing any songs.
Plot
In 1931 Berlin, American singer Sally BowlesSally Bowles
Sally Bowles is a fictional character created by Christopher Isherwood. She originally appeared in Isherwood's 1937 novella Sally Bowles published by Hogarth Press. The story was later republished in the novel Goodbye to Berlin...
(Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
) performs at the Kit Kat Klub. A new arrival in the city, Brian Roberts (Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
), moves into Sally's apartment building. A reserved English academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
and writer, Brian gives English lessons to earn a living while completing his German studies. Sally unsuccessfully tries to seduce Brian and suspects he may be gay. Brian tells Sally that on three previous occasions he has tried to have physical relationships with women, all of which have failed. The unlikely pair become friends, and Brian is witness to Sally's anarchic, bohemian life in the last days of the German Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. Later in the film, Sally and Brian become lovers despite their earlier reservations, and Brian and Sally conclude with irony that his previous failures with women were because they were "the wrong three girls."
Sally befriends Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem
Helmut Griem
Helmut Griem was a German actor.Griem was primarily a German-speaking stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Staatliches Schauspielbühnen in Berlin, in the Munich Kammerspiele, and finally in the...
), a rich playboy baron who takes her and Brian to his country estate. It becomes ambiguous which of the duo Max is seducing, epitomized by a scene in which the three dance intimately together in a wine-induced reverie. After a sexual experience with Brian, Max loses interest in the two, and departs for Argentina. When Sally triumphantly tells Brian that she slept with Max, Brian begins to laugh and reveals that he slept with Max as well. After the ensuing argument, Brian storms off and picks a fight with a group of Nazis, who beat him senseless. Brian and Sally make up in their rooming house, where Sally reveals that Max left them an envelope of money.
Later on, Sally finds out that she's pregnant and is unsure whether Brian or Max is the father. Brian offers to marry her and take her back to his university life in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. After a scene that strongly hints Sally prefers the life of a singer to the life of a mother and housewife, she proceeds with an abortion. When Brian confronts her, she shares her fears and the two reach an understanding. The film ends with Brian departing for England by train, and Sally continuing her life in Berlin, singing "Cabaret" to a highly appreciative audience.
Subplot
A subplotSubplot
A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
concerns Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper
Fritz Wepper
Fritz Wepper is a German television actor.- Life and work :He has been married to Angela Prinzessin von Hohenzollern since 1979, and they have one daughter, Sophie...
), a German Jew passing as a Christian. Fritz eventually reveals his true religious background when he falls for Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson
Marisa Berenson
Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson is an American actress and model.-Early life:She is the elder daughter of Robert L. Berenson, an American diplomat turned shipping executive, who was of Lithuanian Jewish descent; his family's original surname was Valvrojenski...
), a wealthy German Jewish heiress. Although they marry, we are left wondering what their fate will be.
The Nazis' violent rise is a powerful, ever-present undercurrent in the film. Though explicit evidence of their actions is only sporadically presented, their progress can be tracked through the characters' changing actions and attitudes. While in the beginning of the film National Socialist members are sometimes harassed and even kicked out of the Kit Kat Klub, a scene midway through the film shows everyday Germans rising in song to rally around National Socialism, and the final shot of the film shows the cabaret's audience is dominated by Nazi party members.
While he does not play a role in the main plot or subplot, the "Master of Ceremonies" (Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
) serves in the role of storyteller throughout the film, acting as a bit of voyeur in the circus atmosphere. His surface demeanor is one of benevolence and hospitality ("Willkommen"), but when the floor show gets underway, he exposes the audience to the seedy world of the Cabaret. His intermittent songs in the Kit Kat Klub are risque and pointedly mock the Nazis.
The rise of the National Socialist movement and their increasing influence on German society is dramatically demonstrated in the beer garden
Beer garden
Beer garden is an open-air area where beer, other drinks and local food are served. The concept originates from and is most common in Southern Germany...
scene: A boy — only his face seen — sings to the seated guests what first seems an innocent lyrical song about the beauties of nature. This gradually becomes the strident "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" as the camera shifts to show that the boy is wearing a brown Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
uniform and lifts his hand in the Nazi salute
Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, or Hitler salute , was a gesture of greeting in Nazi Germany usually accompanied by saying, Heil Hitler! ["Hail Hitler!"], Heil, mein Führer ["Hail, my leader!"], or Sieg Heil! ["Hail victory!"]...
. One by one, nearly all guests in the beer garden get up and voluntarily join in the singing and saluting. The oldest gentleman among them, however, obviously feels differently, and does not share the common exaltation, he obviously has grown wise enough not to join the chorus and turns away uneasily. Max and Brian flee the beer garden after the show of grass roots solidarity, realising that the Nazis will be difficult to "control" now. Earlier in the film the NSDAP enjoyed relative favor with the main characters, due to their strong opposition to Communism, which was a natural risk to the trio's increasingly lavish lifestyle.
Although the songs throughout the film allude to and advance the narrative, every song except "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" is executed in the context of a Kit Kat Klub performance.
Cast
- Liza MinnelliLiza MinnelliLiza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
as Sally Bowles - Michael YorkMichael York (actor)Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
as Brian Roberts - Joel GreyJoel GreyJoel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
as Master of Ceremonies - Helmut GriemHelmut GriemHelmut Griem was a German actor.Griem was primarily a German-speaking stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Staatliches Schauspielbühnen in Berlin, in the Munich Kammerspiele, and finally in the...
as Maximilian von Heune - Fritz WepperFritz WepperFritz Wepper is a German television actor.- Life and work :He has been married to Angela Prinzessin von Hohenzollern since 1979, and they have one daughter, Sophie...
as Fritz Wendel - Marisa BerensonMarisa BerensonVittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson is an American actress and model.-Early life:She is the elder daughter of Robert L. Berenson, an American diplomat turned shipping executive, who was of Lithuanian Jewish descent; his family's original surname was Valvrojenski...
as Natalia Landauer - Helen Vita as Frost
- Oliver Collignon (Mark LambertMark Lambert (actor)Mark Lambert is an American film, television and theatre actor; he is also a singer.-Early life:He was born Mark Luebke and grew up in San Jose, California, where he graduated from Oak Grove High School in 1970.-Career:...
, singing) as Nazi youthHitler YouthThe Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
Pre-production
In 1971, Bob FosseBob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
learned through Harold Prince, director of the original Broadway production, that Cy Feuer
Cy Feuer
Cy Feuer was an American theatre producer, director, composer, and musician.Born Seymour Arnold Feuerman in Brooklyn, New York,he studied trumpet privately with Max Schlossberg, he became a professional trumpeter at the age of fifteen, working at clubs on weekends to help support his family while...
was producing a film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Cabaret through ABC Pictures
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and Allied Artists. Determined to direct the film, Fosse urged Feuer to hire him. Chief executives Manny Wolf and Marty Baum
Martin Baum (agent)
Martin "Marty" Baum was an American talent agent known for his work at the Creative Artists Agency , including the first head of the agency's motion picture department...
preferred a bigger name director such as Joseph Mankiewicz
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
or Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
. Furthermore, Fosse’s many difficulties in directing the highly unsuccessful film adaptation of Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity (film)
Sweet Charity, full title of which is Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved, is a 1969 American musical film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, written by Neil Simon, and with music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields...
gave Wolf and Baum serious concerns. Feuer appealed to the studio heads, citing Fosse’s talent for staging and shooting musical numbers, adding that if inordinate attention was given to filming the book scenes at the expense of the musical numbers, the whole film could fail. Fosse was ultimately hired.
Over the next months, Fosse met with previously hired writer Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen was an American screenwriter, playwright, stage director, television producer and novelist. Known for her withering wit and sometimes-off-color wisecracks, she was one of the few women making a living as a screenwriter at a time when women were a rarity in the profession...
to discuss the screenplay. Originally unsatisfied with Allen’s script, he hired Hugh Wheeler
Hugh Wheeler
Hugh Callingham Wheeler was an English-born playwright, screenwriter, librettist, poet, and translator. He resided in the United States from 1934 until his death and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He had attended London University.Under the noms de plume Patrick Quentin, Q...
to rewrite and revise Allen’s work. To this day, Wheeler is referred to as merely a "research consultant" while Allen retains screenwriting credit. The final script was based less on Joe Masteroff
Joe Masteroff
-Career:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Masteroff graduated from Temple University and served with the United States Air Force during World War II...
’s original book of the stage version and more on The Berlin Stories and I am a Camera.
Fosse and Feuer traveled to Germany, where producers chose to shoot the film, in order to finish assembling the film crew. During this time, Fosse highly recommended Robert Surtees for cinematographer, but Feuer and the top executives saw Surtees’ work on Sweet Charity as one of the film’s many artistic problems. Producers eventually chose British cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth
Geoffrey Unsworth
Geoffrey Unsworth OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer who worked on nearly 90 feature films spanning over more than 40 years....
. Designers Rolf Zehetbauer
Rolf Zehetbauer
Rolf Zehetbauer is a German production designer, art director and set decorator. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Cabaret.-Notes:...
, Hans Jürgen Kiebach
Hans Jürgen Kiebach
Hans Jürgen Kiebach is a German production designer, art director and set decorator. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Cabaret.-External links:...
and Herbert Strabel
Herbert Strabel
Herbert Strabel is a German production designer, art director and set decorator. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Cabaret.-External links:...
served as production designers. Charlotte Flemming designed costumes. Fosse dancer Kathy Doby and John Sharpe were brought on as Fosse’s dance aides.
Casting
Feuer had cast Liza MinnelliLiza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
as Sally Bowles (a role previously denied her in the stage version) and Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
(reprising his stage role) long before Fosse was attached to the project. Fosse hired Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
as Sally Bowles’ openly bisexual love interest. Several smaller roles, as well as the dancers in the film, were eventually cast in Germany.
Filming
Rehearsals and filming took place entirely in Germany. For reasons of economy, indoor scenes were shot at Bavaria Film StudiosBavaria Film Studios
The Bavaria Film in Geiselgasteig, a district of Munich's suburb Grünwald, Bavaria belongs to one of Europe's biggest and most famous film production companies.- History :...
in Grünwald
Grünwald, Bavaria
Grünwald is a municipality in the district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Isar, 12 km southwest of Munich...
, outside of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. Location shots took place in and around Munich and Berlin as well as the regions of Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
and Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
. Editing on the film took place in Los Angeles before the eventual theatrical release in February, 1972.
Differences between film and stage version
The film is significantly different from the Broadway musical. To accommodate Minnelli, Sally Bowles is AmericanizedUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The character of Cliff Bradshaw was renamed Brian Roberts and made British, though he still remained bisexual. The characters, and plot lines involving, Fritz, Natalia and Max do not exist in the play (although there is a minor character named Max in the stage version, the owner of the Kit Kat Club, who bears no relation to the character in the film). The Broadway version used special settings to separate the fantasy world of the Cabaret from the darker rest of the world.
Fosse cut several of the songs, leaving only those that are sung within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub, and "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" - sung in a beer garden, though in the stage play it is sung first by the cabaret boys and then at a private party. Kander and Ebb wrote several new songs for the movie and removed others; "Don't Tell Mama" was replaced by "Mein Herr," and "The Money Song" (retained in an instrumental version as "Sitting Pretty") was replaced by "Money, Money." Interestingly, "Mein Herr" and "Money, Money," which were composed for the film version, have, due to their popularity, now been added to performances of the stage musical alongside the original numbers. The song "Maybe This Time," which Sally performs at the cabaret, was not written for the film. Kander and Ebb had written it years earlier (for their unproduced musical Golden Gate), thus making it ineligible for an Academy Award nomination. Though "Don't Tell Mama" and "Married" were removed as performed musical numbers, both appeared in the film. The former's bridge section appears as instrumental music played on Sally's gramophone; the latter is initially played on the piano in Fraulein Schneider's parlor and later heard on Sally's gramophone in a German translation ("Heiraten") sung by cabaret singer Greta Keller
Greta Keller
Greta Keller-Bacon was a cabaret singer and Hollywood actress.-Biography:Born Margaretha Keller in Vienna, Austria, she studied dance from the age of eight, followed by acting. Her début was in Pavillon, in Vienna. She also appeared on stage with Marlene Dietrich in Broadway, in which she sang and...
.
Several characters were cut from the film (including Herr Schultz, with Fraulein Schneider's part greatly reduced and the whole romantic subplot removed) and several from Isherwood's original stories put back in. The entire score was re-orchestrated, with all the numbers being accompanied by the stage band.
The following songs from the original Broadway production are missing in the film version, but are still available on the Original Broadway Cast album:
- So What?
- Don't Tell Mama
- Telephone Song
- Perfectly Marvelous
- Why Should I Wake Up?
- Meeskite
- What Would You Do?
Musical numbers
- All songs written by John Kander and Fred EbbKander and EbbKander and Ebb were a highly successful songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb . Known primarily for their stage musicals, Kander and Ebb also scored several movies including their most famous song, the theme song from Martin Scorsese's New York, New York...
- "Willkommen" (Welcome) - Master of Ceremonies, the CabaretCabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
Girls - "Mein Herr" - Sally
- "Maybe This Time" - Sally
- "The Money Song" - Master of Ceremonies, Sally
- "Two Ladies" - Master of Ceremonies, two of the CabaretCabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
Girls - "Sitting Pretty" - Instrumental
- "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" - Nazi youth
- "Tiller Girls" - Master of Ceremonies, the CabaretCabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
Girls - "Heiraten (Married)" - Greta KellerGreta KellerGreta Keller-Bacon was a cabaret singer and Hollywood actress.-Biography:Born Margaretha Keller in Vienna, Austria, she studied dance from the age of eight, followed by acting. Her début was in Pavillon, in Vienna. She also appeared on stage with Marlene Dietrich in Broadway, in which she sang and...
- "If You Could See Her (The Gorilla Song)" - Master of Ceremonies, (unknown) in a gorilla suit
- "Cabaret" - Sally
- "Finale" - Master of Ceremonies
- "Willkommen" (Welcome) - Master of Ceremonies, the Cabaret
Home releases
The film was first released to DVD in 1998. There have been two subsequent releases in 2003 and 2008.The international ancillary distribution rights to the film are owned by ABC (currently part of The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
), while Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
(which inherited the film from Lorimar
Lorimar Productions
Lorimar, later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American television production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993...
, Allied Artists' successor-in-interest) has domestic distribution rights. Today, Warner shares the film's copyright with production partner ABC.
Fremantle Media (owners of UK DVD rights under license from ABC/Disney) originally planned a Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
release of the film, and several dates in 2008 and 2009 had been put forward, but have now announced they no longer plan to release the film on Blu-ray.
Critical response
The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1973, winning a total of eight:- Best Director (Bob FosseBob FosseRobert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
) - Best Actress in a Leading RoleAcademy Award for Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Liza MinnelliLiza MinnelliLiza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
) - Best Actor in a Supporting RoleAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Joel GreyJoel GreyJoel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
) - Best CinematographyAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
(Geoffrey UnsworthGeoffrey UnsworthGeoffrey Unsworth OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer who worked on nearly 90 feature films spanning over more than 40 years....
) - Best Film Editing (David BrethertonDavid BrethertonDavid Bretherton was an American film editor with more than 40 credits for films released from 1954 to 1996....
) - Best Original Song Score and AdaptationAcademy Award for Best Original ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
- Best Art DirectionAcademy Award for Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(Rolf Zehetbauer, Hans Jürgen Kiebach, Herbert Strabel) - Best Sound (Robert KnudsonRobert KnudsonRobert Knudson was an American sound engineer. He won three Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for seven more in the same category...
, David HildyardDavid HildyardDavid Hildyard was a British sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Fiddler on the Roof * Cabaret -External links:...
)
It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, losing both to The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
. Cabaret holds the record for most Academy Awards won by a film which did not win the Best Picture award.
The film also won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Leading Actress as well as the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy).
In 1995, Cabaret was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2006, Cabaret ranked #5 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals; the song "Cabaret" was ranked #18 on their 100 Years...100 Songs list in 2004. In 2007, this film ranked #63 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies.
The film currently holds a 97% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with the consensus "Great performances and evocative musical numbers help Cabaret secure its status as a stylish, socially conscious classic."