Cabaret

Director: Bob Fosse (USA). Year of Release: 1972

How to go forward with this review? I’ve seen Cabaret many times before, have written one fairly detailed review. I’d also like to write something in even more detail if I can find an interested journal. So there’s no need to just say what happened. I’m going to concentrate here on some of the things which occurred to me on this showing, even though I’m more familiar with Cabaret than pretty much any other film.

Sexual Politics

Of course tonight’s showing was an acknowledgement of the film’s 50^th anniversary, but it was also part of a regular programme of LGBT films. As I argued in the article linked above, Cabaret is strongly influenced by, and an advocate of, the sexual revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This does not mean that all of its characters are equally liberated.

We’ll start with the film’s lead Brian Roberts, who is the closest stand in for the audience. Although Brian is liberated, and the one character in the film who is explicitly against the Nazis, his sexual politics are not always exemplary. Cabaret is celebrated as being one of the first ever films to have a trans character. But when Brian double-takes at this character pissing next to him in the toilets, his view of disgust is taken more from sexist sitcoms and picture postcards than from solidarity.

Add to this something which needs plot spoilers, but this article is going to be full of plot spoilers. Towards the end of the film, Sally announces that she is pregnant, but doesn’t know if the father is Brian or the louche aristocrat Max. Even later, Sally says that she’s had an abortion. Brian’s reaction is not one which will help a vulnerable woman who’s just had a dangerous (and then illegal) medical operation. He punches the pillow near to Sally’s head and makes it all about him.

Most strange is the film’s treatment of LGBT rights. The film is based on a play in which the Brian character is explicitly gay. The play is based on novels written by the most definitely gay Christopher Isherwood. And yet in the film Brian just has to look at Sally and he’s falling in love and into bed with her. It is not that gay men never sleep with women. But this does reinforce a trope that gay men aren’t really gay, they just haven’t met the right woman yet.

How promiscuous is Sally?

I’m not sure how important this point is, but when I was researching my article on the film, I read a number of reports which categorically asserted that Sally has slept with lots of men. On the one hand, this is not important as a moral issue – if Sally has slept around, it doesn’t make her a worse person. On the other hand, I think such analysis misses the nature of Sally.

It becomes clear early on that Sally is a liar, someone who bigs herself up to enhance her own status. She is always on the verge of being a great film star although she works in a seedy nightclub (the film continually has the problem of explaining how a third-rate nightclub can hold onto an artist like Liza Minelli). This means that there is clearly a great difference between what Sally has done and what she says she’s done.

A number of characters in the film (I counted 3) talk about Sally’s promiscuity. One is Sally herself, generally in her self-enabling schtick. She wants to put forward an image of herself as being liberal and breaking boundaries. The other 2 people who believe that Sally has slept around are Fritz and Natalia. Yet their impression of Sally comes entirely from what Sally has told them.

I have this theory (which can’t be proved because – remember it – this is fiction) that Sally hadn’t slept with anyone before she met Brian. Or that she had, but only with the rich pervs who sleep with her after making promises to advance her film career. Whatever, it is clear that she is a deeply troubled woman who has been told that sleeping around can somehow enhance her social status, but whatever experiences she has had have been much less happy than she is letting on.

When do Brian and Max sleep with each other?

This is probably going into deep “this really doesn’t matter” territory, but has just occurred to me. Excuses if it was perfectly clear to everyone else. At some point in the film, Brian says “screw Maximilian”, Sally responds “I do”, and Brian says “So do I”. I’ve always presumed that Brian was referring to the scene in Max’s villa where the 3 embraced, but Brian passed out almost immediately afterwards.

It’s now obvious that Brian started a relationship with Max after they returned from Berlin after the ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’ park scene – in other words he is at least as much of a dick to Sally as Sally is to him. As said, this doesn’t mean too much in the great sphere of things, but it is another contribution against the idea of Brian as reliable (and trustworthy) narrator.

Is any of this important?

Probably not, and I would refer you to my original review which I think captures more of the essence of the film. The comments here are minor quibbles which may slightly miss the most important fact that Cabaret is one of the greatest films ever made, and displays superb politics, music and artistic expertise. But even the best films have slight flaws, which pedants like me need to mention from time to time.

Another Viewing – February 2024

Seen Cabaret again for the xth time – this time at a free midnight showing. Here’s some more talking points:

How good a performer is Sally?

In the original thoughts I asked how a third-rate cabaret club could hold onto an artist like Liza Minelli. Apparently Christopher Isherwood was critical of Minelli’s appearance in the film of his book, because she was just too talented to play a would-be actor who was already washed-up when she was still a teenager.

It’s a contradiction that the film just has to live with. It wouldn’t have the same power without the extraordinary songs and Minelli’s equally extraordinary delivery. But if you think too much, this makes Sally too contradictory a character. In the film, she’s self-delusional about her acting talent and the chance of being found by a Hollywood agent. And yet it took an Oscar-winning performance to show this. My advice is not to think too much.

Is Brian bi?

This is not the same question as “Did Brian sleep with Sally?” Seeing as she thinks he might be the father of her baby, you can only assume that you did. But apparently even Christopher Isherwood considered sleeping with a woman, and he was hardly bisexual. The story goes that they were bored and thought it might pass the time.

In the original review, I said: “Brian just has to look at Sally and he’s falling in love and into bed with her.” Watching again, that’s not exactly what happen. The first time that Brian and Sally sleep together, she is very unsure of herself, and it could be that, from Brian’s point of view, this is just a sympathy fuck. Having seen how Brian reacts to Sally’s abortion, we’ve already seen that Brian is often more concerned with himself than with her feelings.

While it does appear that Brian and Sally sleep with each other again, there’s a case to be made that this is because of his English public school desire to go along with something rather than experiencing embarrassment. Either way, Isherwood was apparently very annoyed that the film contains an ambiguity that suggests that Brian might not be wholly gay.

When do Max and Brian sleep together? (revisited)

Again, something which was covered in the original review, albeit without quite getting it right. I referred to: “the scene in Max’s villa where the 3 embraced, but Brian passed out almost immediately afterwards.” What I missed (or forgot) was the look on Max’s face before Brian passes house. He stares amorously at both .Sally and Brian. His eyes linger longer on Brian. When Brian gets the worse for wear for drink, Max goes to bed. Sally follows shortly afterwards.

Again there is a good case to be made that given a choice, Max would have picked Brian over Sally (and that Brian would have made a similar choice). Possibly, but less likely, Max even went to bed alone that night. Whatever happened, it is entirely plausible that following this meeting, Max spent more time in a relationship with Brian than the more needy Sally.

What is a German doing in Africa anyway?

Not sure how much this one is me overthinking, but Max’s endless stories about a future life in Africa had me thinking about the untold stories of German imperialism. It was only very recently (maybe 10 years ago, long after the release of Cabaret), that the German State admitted to imperial occupation of Africa, in particular Namibia. So, Max was not just in Africa because of his extreme wealth – he was part of a colonialist class who were not at all innocent,

We later hear that Max has not gone to Africa, but fled to Argentina – this is, at least, what he tells Sally and Brian (in that order) in his farewell letter. After the defeat of the Nazis, a lot of Germany’s leaders also ended up in Argentina. This is not to say that Max was a Nazi – he was a pragmatist member of the German ruling class who gambled on using the Nazis. But maybe the fact that he ended up in the same country is not entirely by chance.

Tomorrow Belongs to Me – the anti-Marseillaise?

Two of the most memorable scenes in film history. In Casablanca, German soldiers start singing a patriotic song. Resistance leader Paul Heinreid descends to the bar and calls on the band to play the liberation song La Marseillaise. Many of the actors playing band members had been active in the French resistance. The French singers drown out the Nazis. It is a powerful scene of emotion, which shows that we are strong, and that fascism can be beaten.

Compare and contrast with the Biergarten scene in Cabaret. At first one young man sings a song with a traditional song. As the camera pulls out, we see that he is wearing a Nazi armband. The crowd sing along. The fact that one man – an old, and possibly drunk, man – refuses to sing along makes the Nazi ascendancy more clear. They now have the hegemony. Our side has lost.

Both scenes are absolutely breathtaking. One resonates with the potential of resistance, the other with the inevitability of defeat, Great drama must accommodate the possibility of both sorts of scenes. Of course we’d like to see more victories being depicted, but the Biergarten scene in Cabaret is a powerful indication of just how much the Nazis have already won.

Why is the MC at the Biergarten?

This is one that I’ve never been able to fully answer. In the longer article which I wrote on Cabaret, I expressed dissatisfaction with analyses which saw the Mephistophelian MC as being purely evil, or even as a Hitler figure, For pretty much all of the film, it makes more sense to see him as an opportunist – someone who enjoys the limited power he has within the cabaret (eg the power to grope the female performers), while also satirising the people in government and the Nazis who wanted to replace them.

So why, directly after the Biergarten scene, do we see a brief glimpse of a leering MC – the only time in which he appears outside the Kit Kat Club? My best answer is similar to the one about why Sally Bowles is more talented than she should be. It works dramatically, if not logically, If you think about it too much, it does not make dramatic sense. But at this point the MC’s presence has a visceral effect on us. Once more, thinking too much diminishes the power of the film.

Is Cabaret still relevant?

This is the most worrying thought. I’ve mentioned before that Cabaret appeals to general sentiments and not specifics about Germany in the 1930s. But living in Germany in the 2020s and seeing how Muslims, and in particular Palestinians, are regarded by modern liberal society, the parallels are shocking.

In Cabaret, we see on a number of occasions both the demonisation of Jews and the idea that the Communists (who at the time were in the forefront of defending Jews) and the Nazis posed an equal threat. Looking at Cabaret, or of historical footage of the 1930s, you wonder how on earth such racist paranoia could have happened. Looking at Germany today, you see exactly how.

If Cabaret even raises this issue, it has done its job. Of course, it does much more than this. Still, one of the greats.