Year: 1972
Director: Bob Fosse
Country: US
Language: English
Winning the Oscar, Tony and Emmy in the same year (1973) for direction- a feat never done before or since- Bob Fosse changed film and stage forever with his innovative choreography. He would give his musical sequences subtext; there would always be an internal and external reason for why the musical number was to happen. Jazz dance and movement served as the foundation for his work, and he used it to create Fosse-dance, which was highly stylized, featuring muscle isolation, sexuality, contempt, and cynicism.
In Cabaret, a female night club entertainer (Liza Minnelli) in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
With the enormous financial and critical success of Fosse's Cabaret, Hollywood would no longer be making happy-go-lucky musicals like Sound of Music and Bye Bye Birdie. The musical would transform into the gritty and perverse, oozing with sexuality and freedom. Key players would no longer burst into random song, but rather methodically plan it out. For instance the motivation for Minnelli to sing is the night club. The Kit Kat Klub, a grimy basement joint decorated mainly with tin foil and naked bulbs and lorded over by an impish androgyne (Joel Grey). The club's atmosphere is beautifully broken; a dazzling display of madness and eccentricity.
Cabaret is an affront to the standard movie-musical trope, and all the better for it. Fosse's intention is to simultaneously root the production numbers in realism while also not being entirely stuck in a particular mess of historical accuracy. He employs Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, to act as Louise Brooks' esque seductress, and churns out one of the greatest film performances of all time. Liza demonstrates a remarkable acting ability; even if you are as mesmerized by the actress as I am, she can still make you despise the character she's playing.
Going head to head with The Godfather is not an easy task, and although it didn't win "Best Picture", Cabaret won in more categories (including "Best Actress" and "Best Director") We can see an immediate impact on the film industry as gritty 70's musicals like Rocky Horror Picture Show and Phantom of the Paradise wouldn't be made without Fosse's influence. Unfortunately Hollywood has lost its focus on the musical (the last to win "Best Picture" was the Fosse inspired Chicago) but I don't think the genre is down for the count just yet. Praise it! 5/5
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