The Death of the Musical
When one thinks of the film musical, one naturally thinks of Singin' in The Rain, My Fair Lady, happy people singing happy tunes in fake studio-bound exteriors, stories of love and other silly things, and, when the movie is over, and if it was any good, the viewer will come out remembering some nice ditties, and that would be that. In short, the musical was Hollywood's Golden Age's version of the feel-good movie. Cabaret is also a musical of sorts, and it also includes a number of memorable songs, sung by Liza Minelli. But Cabaret is in no way, shape or form, a "feel-good" movie. Cabaret, the film, was made in 1972, when musicals itself had pretty much bitten the dust. None of the new Hollywood filmmakers were interested in making the types of grand, extravagant, and often-cheesy visions that comprised most musicals (the last musical to win best picture at the Oscars was Oliver! in 1968). Yet it took someone who was well-versed in stage musicals, Bob Fosse, to put this already successful Broadway production on the big screen and to totally deviate the effect of musicals forever. Fosse didn't go the route of a George Cukor or a Stanley Donen or a Gene Kelly and try to make something joyous out of this material; Fosse single-handedly created the most depressing musical known to man!
The story is set in 1930's Germany, before Hitler's rise to power. It is evident that events are happening which will culminate to a horrific result, but everyone seems to be too busy having fun, as evident with the goings-on at the Kit-Kat Club, where Sally Bowles (played by Minelli) sings both ribald and romantic songs, mostly while dressed in a fairly kinky little black number.
As the movie begins, a British man, Brian, finds himself at Sally`s apartment, needing a place to stay and to make some cash by giving English lessons to Germans. Brian is played by Michael York, and is a polar opposite of the more raunchy and emotional Sally, and yet these two have a very colorful and volatile relationship. Right away, the sexuality of these two people are brought to the forefront; Sally tries to seduce him, but it doesn`t work. He says that his relationships with girls haven`t worked out, and Sally says that "Perhaps you just don`t sleep with girls!", and we all know what she`s getting at there. Eventually, the two do actually start a relationship, but still managed to succumb to all sorts of temptation that will inevitably doom the relationship. The largest temptation enters in the form of Max, a rich German who sets afire Sally`s dreams of fame and fortune, and apparently also brings out Brian`s latent bisexuality, but we`ll just leave it at that.
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