Cabaret Pt 2: 'It makes the world go 'round'
Thursday, August 2, 2018 at 3:00PM 
Occasionally Team Experience will take a classic movie and pass it around for a deep dive. Cabaret is showing onscreen this weekend at The Quad. Don't miss your chance to see it in an actual movie theater if you're in NYC.
In Part One of our tag team look at Cabaret (1972 being our 'year of the month'), Nathaniel investigated the way director/choreographer Bob Fosse introduced the musical's three major players at the cliff end of the Weimar Era in Germany. He also touched on Liza Minnelli's physical expressiveness in creating one of the most memorable protagonists of all time. When we left off, Fritz and Sally had just forced themselves into their friend Brian's English lessons for a Jewish heiress. Here's Dancin' Dan with Part Two of our Cabaret roundelay - Editor
Part 2 by Dancin' Dan
34:45 "Bobby! A Landauer. In my house!" I love the little glimpses we get of the other residents of the boarding house. In the stage show, Fräulein Schneider is much more fleshed out and has some truly lovely moments. I can't say I miss it entirely in this film, but I still love seeing them.
35:00 Meine damen und herren, the most awkward tea party EVER. There are so many great moments in this scene, from Fritz pulling his jacket down to hide his fraying shirtsleeves to Marissa Berenson's accidental double entendres as Natalia ("This was a cold of the bosom, not of the nose." "Ze plegma? Zat comes in der tubes?"), which are even more cringe-worthy since she is so beautiful and nearly regal in her bearing. And the sass she gives Brian when he can't explain the spelling of "phlegm" is delightful!
36:30 Sally is VERY unimpressed with Fritz's overeager laughter at Natalia's jokes...
37:46 In a moment emblematic of the absolutely PERFECT timing going on throughout Cabaret, Sally, after being embarrassed by a piece of cake ending up on her breast, brings up a film she saw on syphillis, which Natalia has heard you can indeed catch "from kissing, most decidedly, and from towels... and from cups," just as Brian hands her a cup of tea.
37:55 "Screwing? Please?" Sally, already in a bad mood and jealous of Natalia's beauty and the attention Fritz is giving her, throws in a bit of vulgar American slang to mess with Miss Landauer. I get the feeling Natalia knows what it means even before she asks.
38:38 No, Miss Landauer will not be having any of your gin, Sally.... not after you bring up how you've spent your aftenoon "bumsen-ing" with some producer to get a part. Brian's delicate British constitution can't handle it. And with that, Natalia Landauer's first English lesson comes to a close.
38:59 This dialogue! "The only thing to do with virgins is to make a ferocious pounce." "I can't imagine anyone pouncing on Natalia!" "That's exactly why it would be so effective, darling!" Natalia is VERY interested in Sally's sexual experience... as is Brian with Fritz's (his plans to be a gigolo are effectively on hold because of his wooing Natalia).
39:46 Eagle-eared listeners will recognize the underscore being played on the piano in this scene is the song "Married" from the stage musical.
40:07 "...the English reader will find this... arousing? Stimulating?" Poor, poor Britishly-repressed Brian isn't sure about that AT ALL.
40:21 Sally calls her freshly-manicured hands "nun's hands", and she's certainly dressed to match!
41:08 Poor Fritz. Goes in for the kiss after dinner with Brian at Natalia's, and somehow gets in over her beloved dog, but Natalia allows only a second then turns right around to head back inside.
"I kiss and, inside me comes the explosion, but her..."
Fritz confides in Brian (who was too discreet to look). Although when Brian suggests he take Sally's advice and pounce, Fritz astutely responds: "You do as Sally says, and you end up, I think, in the prison cell." But then he goes and does it anyway.
43:09 One of Cabaret's eight Oscar wins (still the most for any film that didn't win Best Picture) was for its Cinematography, and Geoffrey Unsworth does a great job of illuminating what the characters are feeling in shots like this one, in which Sally looks just about dead: "Maybe I am just... NOTHING!" she breaks down after she's been stood up by her father (...or, at the very least, SOMEONE - the film plays deliciously coy about just how much Sally is telling the truth about her background).
46:13 Despite their agreement to be friends, Brian and Sally share a romantic kiss while he's trying to comfort her. I know some people who take issue with this, but I don't. Sexuality is fluid, and it makes sense that wild card Sally would be the one to open up the repressed Brian to this kind of pleasure. So he may be a bit bisexual. Or maybe this is just a fluke. Either way, the important thing is that he's growing as a person.
46:41 And finally, we get the big ballad. "Maybe This Time" was actually written by Kander and Ebb for Kaye Ballard, not for Cabaret. Which unfortunately meant that it wasn't eligible for an Oscar nomination. Oddly, neither of the two original songs in Cabaret, "Mein Herr" and "Money, Money", were nominated for Best Original Song that year, despite being better than all the songs that did get nominated. Do you think the more emotional "Maybe This Time" would have netted the film another nomination and win had it been eligible?
Doesn't my body drive you wild with desire?"
47:22 Why, yes, Michael York. Yes it does. (I think Michael York's performance in this is very underrated.)
48:20 They may be smiling adorably at each other, but the distance between Brian and Sally is already all too apparent. They'll never be fully able to bridge the gap between them, either. And again, kudos to the cinematography in showing us who these characters are: Brian in steady, bright white light and Sally in decidedly murkier colors and textures.
49:52 But of course, as she's pouring her heart out on the Kit Kat Klub stage, the (mostly empty) audience couldn't possibly be any less interested. Except for one man whom Sally pushes off on Kit Kat "Girl" Elke the second Brian comes into the club.
51:50 Natalia has asked Sally to her house for some girl talk. Sally, in the same sequined jacked she was at their first meeting, but without the silly flowered hat (and with shiny green nail polish to match Natalia's green eyes), is happy to oblige, especially since food will be served. Natalia is onto Fritz wanting her for her money, and thinks he is too formal with her... but the other night, he pounced. And sure enough, Sally's advice was right: the fire and passion Fritz displayed eventually (after some resistance) sparked equal fire and passion in Natalia. She can't get Fritz out of her head, and asks Sally, "is this love, or only the infatuation of the body?" Sally doesn't really know from love, though, and asks why that matters as long as it's fun? But when she sees that Natalia is really in pain over it, she can't help but feel for her. "It's enough to drive a girl into a convent. Do they have Jewish nuns?" No, Sally. No, they do not.
56:20 Enter Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem), picking up a piece of Sally's washing as she takes it to the cleaners, and helping her make sure it will be done by Tuesday. So dashing, so suave, so helpful! Wouldn't you say yes to pretty much anything he asked?
57:10 "MONEY" The only thing that Sally can think of when she sees Maximilian's gorgeous car. And also my favorite number in this whole film. The choreography is simpler than usual for Fosse, but look at what Joel Grey and Liza Minelli bring to it! Their chemistry is completely electric, and they share some looks that are downright pornographic in their lust, but it's VERY clear that they're not lusting after each other, but sharing in their mutual lust for that thing that makes the world go 'round. They make every moment count, spreading their incredible combined charisma thick over every beat of the song.
And plus, what a great song. How did this not get a Best Original Song nomination again?!?
1:01:20 "Fascinating" says Maximilian of this whipping scene tableau at the Kit Kat Klub, as he tells Brian and Sally that it is his duty to corrupt them. Brian, completely unable to read the situation, is against this because he thinks Max is just making a move for Sally, and that she'd gladly do anything with him. Oh Brian. You poor, naïve thing!
1:01:52 ICONIC. How does Joel Grey make such a complete character of the M.C. out of nothing?!?
1:02:30 Wouldn't you love to be woken up by a handsome man with champagne? But Brian is not enthused. And he is even less enthused by how friendly Sally and Max become, especially after Max takes Sally shopping. Sally is living the high life and loving every second of it, and her enjoyment is infectious... to everyone but Brian, who refuses Max's gift of a gold cigarette case.
1:05:00 Smash cut from Sally and Max laughing like two little children to this dead body lying in the street. The harsh reality of the rise of the Nazi party. According to Max: "The Nazis are just a gang of stupid hooligans, but they do serve a purpose. Let them get rid of the Communists; later, we'll be able to control them." Nice thought, Max, but...
1:05:30 As Sally, Max, and Brian plan a weekend getaway, Fosse cuts to images of the aftermath of Nazi violence, still but not quite frozen. Just flashes, but enough for us to be reminded of what's going on right under the noses of these three hedonists...
1:05:40 ...and all the others like them. When I choreographed a production of Cabaret, "Two Ladies" was the number I was most afraid of. I didn't know what to do that could possibly be any different, or more effective, than Fosse's choreography for this (and I was also unsure of what eactly I could get away with in Fairfield County, CT, but that's a whole other story). I'm referring of course, to the absolutely brilliant bit with the giant sheet and the strobe light. One of the things I love so much about Cabaret is how much it is willing to assault and implicate the audience in the goings-on of 1930s Germany and the Kit Kat Klub. Nearly every shot of the Kit Kat Klub audience is ever-so-slightly grotesque in some way, and scenes like this are full-on sensory overload. It's a shock, even though it's just too tame to be fully shocking, and only a genius like Fosse could pull it off with such aplomb that the audience ends up loving the film.
And here is also my chance to say that Joel Grey's Oscar win remains to this day my absolute favorite in the Supporting Actor category. The M.C has no character arc, or really any character at all on the page. But Grey sure as hell gives him one in this fiercely committed performance. He's lusty and sleazy, but he's also charismatic and fun. He's an enigma, and yet Grey has him perfectly pegged. It's a wonderfully weird, bravura performance that is completely unlike anything else in cinema before or since, and so far from anything that usually wins Oscars, which makes me treasure it all the more.
1:09:33 Sally hasn't truly known what "divine decadence" is until this moment, being waited on hand and foot at Max's palatial estate.
1:10:45 Meanwhile, Max confides in Brian that he and his wife have "quite a special understanding" between them, and gives Brian an old sweater of his to wear. And Brian finally starts to get it.
1:11:06 Max holding court, the embodiment of the German aristocratic class.
-Clara Bow!
-That's no Clara Bow!
1:12:03 I've tried but can't find any evidence to support Sally's claim. Can you?
1:14:30 Just when Brian is feeling completely left out of Sally and Max's impromptu dance party, Max brings him in for a threesome. But when the record stops, Brian's down for the count, which leaves Sally to decide whether to follow Max to his room or not. This shot is one of the most erotic in all cinema - how the faces fade in and out, how everyone almost kisses but doesn't, how unspoken desires become manifest... and with poor, naïve Brian at the center of it all, aroused, confused, frustrated, and drunk in equal measure.
1:16:32 Nothing to see here, just two blonde-haired German children playing with fake guns in a field while Max prattles on about how beautiful the animals in Africa are.
1:17:55 Nothing to see here, just one man lighting another man's cigarette at a perfectly innocent outdoor Biergarten (Brian finally took Max's gold cigarette case --atta boy, Brian!). Brian and Max toast to a trip to Africa as a beautiful boy's voice begins to sing a beautiful song in the background.
What could possibly go wrong?
Reader Comments (7)
I know it's an unpopular opinion and it's a a classic and all, but I couldn't have detested this film more. I can't even put my finger on it - I just find it all so obnoxious.
Hated It!
Another fantastic piece... I will have to rewatch Cabaret and reread these.
That "Maybe This Time" scene is one of my favorite musical scenes in all of cinema, up there with "The Man That Got Away" from A Star Is Born. I think I rewound the tape about 5-6 times to lap it up the first time I watched Cabaret. Liza sells it so much, and it's heartbreaking to see the near-empty club with the passive expressions on the few audience members.
Tomorrow belongs to Chris.
Great write-up. Agree about Joel Grey - the character is such an enigma, but he makes him real. A technically perfect performance that is also great fun. I find it hard to take my eyes off him when he's on screen. During 'Money Money', I don't know where to look - he and Liza are so terrific together.
Mark: You can't leave us with "Hated It!" Say why!
I definitely think "Maybe This Time" would have been nominated and won, if eligible. The going-in favorite that night for best song was "Ben", but it turned out such a weak front-runner that the utterly bland "The Morning After" upset it. A powerful ballad like "Maybe This Time", attached to an eight-awards juggernaut, would have been an obvious choice.
Something in the "Money, Money" number that underlines the money/sex connection: the only times you hear the CLINK sound during the number are when either Minnelli or Grey shake or bump their erogenous zones (breasts for Minnelli, crotch for both). And of course the entire section that follows, dealing with Max, is about bargaining sex for money.
I agree fully about Grey: both that he's great, and how amazing it is how great he is given the limitations under which he's working (i.e., the role is almost entirely lived on-stage).
I've never understood people who don't find this movie extraordinary. I saw it during its original theatrical run, and was completely blown away. It's not just I thought it was exceptional; it was exceptional in a way I couldn't have even conceived prior to seeing it. It's as fully innovative as any film I've ever seen.
Love this movie and love reading these posts.