Let me introduce you to 1972, Liza Minnelli's "Cabaret" In this Blog you'll find all the information you need to know about the American movie Cabaret, such as the Technical File, a short Plot, and also a Critical Analysis of the movie, including some extra information about the film.
I hope you enjoy this web site as much as I enjoyed the movie.
History Background:
“Cabaret” is set in Berlin 1931, before World War II when the Nazis took control of Germany. The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) was a period full of uncertainty regarding politics and society; it was the so called “depression.”
The Kit Kat Club was the escape for all these problems, so every show created a sort of illusion that once you came inside, no more problems existed. Every show was preceeded by the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey), who injected the audience with a bit of humour and with the bitterness from outside the club. Catholic wealthy people didn’t care much about what was happening in their country, whereas the jews, no matter they were rich or not, begun to feel threatened by the upcoming Hitler’s nazi reign. Eccentricity was the “ruling party” of those times; there could have been someone dying on the streets, but people were just thinking of parties and luxuries.
Selfishness...heartless people...or maybe the denial of the Great German Depression made them be like that...until the World War began.
Director’s Info:
Name:
Robert Louis Fosse
Date of Birth:
June 23rd, 1927, Chicago, Illinois, US
Date of Death:
September 23rd, 1987, Washington, District of Columbia, US died from a heart attack)
About him:
In Chicago the musicals were arising, as well as Fosse’s famous musical Chicago released around 1970’s, starring Gwen Verdon, his future wife, with whom he had a daughter (followed his father’s steps).
He was a choreographer and a writer, besides being a director. He’s been the only one who has won the three mayor industry prizes the same year (Tony, Emmy and Oscar Award).
Francis Ford Coppola had meant a competition for Fosse’s carreer, both were nominated for 1973 Best Director Oscar, Fosse for Cabaret and Coppola for The Godfather; Fosse won. –then both of them were nominated fo 1974 Best Director Oscar, Fosse for Lenny and Coppola for The Godfather II, Coppola won. Both were nominated for 1979 Best Director Oscar, Fosse for All that Jazz and Coppola for Apocalypse Now, but non of them won the prize.
Filmography:
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, 1953 (actor)
Give a Girl a Break, 1953 (actor)
Kiss Me, Kate, 1953 (actor)
My Sister Eileen, 1955 (actor/choreographer)
The Pijama Game, 1957 (choreographer)
Damn Yankees!, 1958 (dancer/choreographer)
Sweet Charity, 1968 (director/choreographer) Cabaret, 1972 (director/choreographer)
Lenny, 1974 (director)
The Little Prince, 1974 (actor/choreographer)
Thieves, 1977 (actor)
All that Jazz, 1979 (screenwriter/director/choreographer)
Star 80, 1983 (screenwriter/director)
Prizes:
1955: Best Choreographer for The Pijama Game
1656: Best Choreographer for Damn Yankees!
1959: Best Choreographer for Redhead
1963: Best Choreographer for Little Me
1966: Best Choreographer for Sweet Charity
1973: Best Director Oscar for Cabaret, starring Liza Minnelli
1973: Emmy Award for producing, directing and choreographing the Liza with ‘Z’ (1972), starring Liza Minnelli
1973: Tony Award for Best Director Musical for Pippin and Sweet Charity
1976: Tony Nomination for Best Director for Chicago
1979: Palme d’Or for All that Jazz, semi-autobiographical film
2001: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer
Trade Mark:
In most of all of his choreographies you could see him, or his performers, wearing a hat or a pair of gloves, because he started going bald when he was 17 years old, and he wore gloves because he didn’t like his hands
Famous Quotes:
“Live like you'll die tomorrow, work like you don't need the money, and dance like nobody's watching.”
“Don't dance for the audience; dance for yourself.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Fosse#Awards
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002080/bio
Liza Minnelli’s Info:
Name:Liza May MinnelliDate of Birth:
March 12th, 1946, Los Angeles, California, USA
About her:
Daughter of actress Judy Garland (“Dorothy” in The Wizard of Oz) and director Vicente Minnelli (Lester Anthony Minnelli). Raised at the MGM studios making her first appeareance on screen at fourteen months of age in In the Good Old Summertime (1949). Her parents divorced and remarried. When she turned sixteen her career begun, having a part for a play called Best Foot Forward. In 1964 her mother invited her to London for a show at the London Paladium, which was very successful.
When she was nineteen she won a Tony award and was also nominated for an Academy award.
She’s made several music albums; one of them with Frank Sinatra and with Sammy Davis
Liza got married and divorced four times; with Peter Allen in1967, with Jack Haley Jr. in 1974 (got pregnant but suffered a miscarriage when she was five months pregnant), with Mark Gero in 1979 and with David Gest in 2002.
Filmography:
In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
The Long, Long Trailer (1954) (scenes deleted)
Charlie Bubbles (1967)
The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)
Cabaret (1972)
Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
That's Entertainment! (1974) (narrator)
Journey Back to Oz (1974) (voice)
Lucky Lady (1975)
Silent Movie (1976)
A Matter of Time (1976)
New York, New York (1977)
Arthur (1981)
The King of Comedy (1983) (appears in gag cardboard cutout)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
That's Dancing! (1985)
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) (voice)
Rent-A-Cop (1987)
Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988)
Stepping Out (1991)
A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
The OH in Ohio (2006)
Upcoming:
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2008) (documentary)
Katie's Blues (2008)
Prizes:
1927: Tony award
1965: Tony award for musical Flora the Red Menace
1972: Emmy award for the TV special Liza with ‘Z’
1973: Oscar for her performance in Cabaret
1974: Tony award for her concert at NY’s Winter Garden
1978: Tony award for The Act
1985: Golden Globe Award for her performance in Cabaret 1989: Grammy Legend Award
Famous Quotes:
“Thank God for film, it can capture a moment and hold it there forever. If anyone ever asks you, "Who were they?" or "What made them so good?" I think a reel of film answers that question.”
“My mother gave me my drive but my father gave me my dreams.”
“It's a waste of time to think about what I should have done and what I didn't. I really believe in that. That's how I react to the if-onlys of life. To moan and groan about something I shouldn't have done, could have done, might have done . . . who knows? It is what it is. You got what you got. I live my life one day at a time.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liza_Minnelli#Awards_and_other_recognitionshttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591485/
Film Terminology:
Mise – en – Scene:
1.- Setting, set and props:
- At the Boarding house (where Sally and Brian lived): old furniture and other people living there.
- At the Kit Kat Club: On stage: orchestra and few other things needed for each performance. At the Club: audience and tables as in a restaurant.
- Berlin streets: Nazis all aorund, a dead man lying on the street surrounded by Nazis; certainly a different reality as seen at the Club, so there’s a huge contrast between life on the streets and life inside the Kit Kat Club.
- At Maximilian’s Mansion out of town: a huge house full of luxuries, a lot of champagne and wealth.
2.- Acting:
Every actor fits the role as if they were themselves; no overacting.
- Liza fits perfectly on Sally’s character because she has this charming look and excentric appeareance, as well as her behaviour.
- Regarding Brian, there’s an obvious difference between an American and a British, the American is more of an extrovertive person, whereas the British is more introverted and calmend person; and Brian fits the description.
- The way Joel Grey portrayed the MC (the Host) of the Kit Kat Club was very good, overacted because it was meant to be like theat, to exagerate facial expressions and body language made him a great performer.
3.- Costumes:
Very representative of each character’s social status and job.
- Sally needed to catch her audience’s attention, as well as ours (as viewers), by wearing flashy outfits as well as the MC.
- Brian’s clothing were plain, not classy, but formal because of his job.
4.- Make Up:
- Sally’s make up was very strong and exagerated; a lot of eye-shadow, eye-liner, fake eyelashes, strong red lipstick, hairstyle and nail colour, in order to enhance her Cabaret appeareance, as well as the other dancer’s make up and the MC’s (eventhough it was a man, he also wore make up)
5.- Lighting:
Most of the settings were not too bright, it seemed as if the movie was shot during sunsets or dawns. This lighting technique is also used to create a certain mood, and in this case it was a dramatic/mysterious mood.
6.- Print:
- Diegetic: at the trainstation, when Brian’s arriving in Berlin he’s looking at a sign indicating where he was; so, he saw the sign as well as we did.
- Non-Diegetic: at the begining of the movie, the very first thing we can see are, of course the credits, but after them it says: ”Berlin 1931”, which we can only see it and not the characters.
Sound:
1.- Music:
At Sally’s bedroom and at Maximilian’s mansion there’s background music, the same that’s played at the Club, and of course at the Club where the music is played live.
2.- Dialogue:
There’s dialogue between the characters.
3.-Noise:
There’s also use of noise when the characters are not talking.
4.- Use of silence:
There’s use of silence, complete silence when Sally and Brian kissed for the first time, and when Sally, Brian and Maximilian are dancing at the mansion and suddenly there's no music, no dialog, and they stare at eachother as if they know what they want...
5.- Narrator:
There’s no narrator in this story.
Editing:
1.- Cut:
In Cabaret the only types of cuts used were continuity cuts and match cuts to joing the scenes.
2.- Time:
-Raccord: shots are well done because have continuity.
-Rewind: there’s one scene where we can appreciate a falshback; when Sally knows she’s pregnant and starts to remember how was her life without a baby.
- Virtual: fast camera: at the Club, when the MC is singing about being with two women at the same time.
Cinematography:
1.- Camera angle: Straight
Like at a theatre musical, the actors perform in front of the audience, and in this case it is in front of the camera, so we, the viewers, could feel as if we were at the theatre.
2.- Camera distance: Medium shots, Close up’s
In order to enhance the actor’s facial expressions, these two techniques are really suitable and achieved their purpose.
3.- Camera Movement: Panning
In order to make this movie most likely a theatre performance, panning is the best option by shooting from a short distance, as if the actor was on the stage of a theatre.
4. – Framing: In/Out
Some characters were talking but sometimes seen and not seen on the screen.
Film Appreciation:
Cultural Objective: Entretainment
Entretains the viewer by providing an interesting story, with costumes, great performances and of course with music.
Cultural Objective: Ideological Tool
- Portrays pre 2nd World War times in Berlin in a way it doesn't look too harsh to the audience, eventhough it shows the great contrast between Berlin's streets and inside the Kit Kat Club.
- There's also the fact that Jews and Christians were not meant to be together, however, here we can see a love story between a poor Christian an a rich Jew.
- Themes like infidelity and abortion were not a big deal. Couples cheating on eachother's face, abortion meaning just a matter of having the money and get the procidure done.
-Eccentricity and unawereness of the reality the characters were living was something pretty shoking. A man lying dead on the street didn't stop Sally to ask for a drink, nor gettin new fancy clothes and partying...
Audience: Academy
I consider myself in the "academy section" because we're still learning about Film as a subject. We still have a long way to become critics, but we are certainly not analyzing movies like a film goer would do...
Let me introduce you to 1972, Liza Minnelli's "Cabaret" 
