Cabaret movie storyline. Set in a cabaret in sexually-charged, decadent, 1930s pre-war Berlin, one of the greatest musicals ever produced, adapted from the Kander-Ebb Broadway stage musical from John Van Druten’s play (and movie) I Am a Camera, which, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories.
Cambridge University student Brian Roberts arrives in Berlin in 1931 to complete his German studies. Without much money, he plans on making a living teaching English while living in an inexpensive rooming house, where he befriends another of the tenants, American Sally Bowles. She is outwardly a flamboyant, perpetually happy person who works as a singer at the decadent Kit Kat Klub, a cabaret styled venue.
Sally’s outward façade is matched by that of the Klub, overseen by the omnipresent Master of Ceremonies. Sally draws Brian into her world, and initially wants him to be one of her many lovers, until she learns that he is a homosexual, albeit a celibate one. Among their other friends are his students, the poor Fritz Wendel, who wants to be a gigolo to live a comfortable life, and the straight-laced and beautiful Natalia Landauer, a Jewish heiress. Fritz initially sees Natalia as his money ticket, but eventually falls for her.
However Natalia is suspect of his motives and cannot overcome their religious differences. Also into Sally and Brian’s life comes the wealthy Baron Maximilian von Heune, who has the same outlook on life as Sally, but who has the money to support it. Max is willing to lavish his new friends with gifts and his favors. Around them all is the Nazi uprising, to which they seem to pay little attention or care. But they ultimately learn that life in all its good and particularly bad continues to happen to them and around them.
Cabaret is a 1972 American musical drama film which was directed by Bob Fosse and which starred Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey. After the box-office failure of his film version of Sweet Charity in 1969, Bob Fosse bounced back with Cabaret in 1972, a year that would make him the most honored director in the movie business.
And he proved to be far from the only winner in this case, as the film also brought Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, her own first chance to sing on screen, and she also won the Academy Award for Best Actress. With Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Original Song Score and Adaptation, and Best Film Editing, it holds the record for most Oscars earned by a film not honored for Best Picture. It is listed as number 367 on Empire’s 500 greatest films of all time.
Cabaret (1972)
Directed by: Bob Fosse
Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Berenson, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Helen Vita, Sigrid von Richthofen, Georg Hartmann, Kathryn Doby
Screenplay by: Jay Allen
Cinematography by: Geoffrey Unsworth
Film Editing by: David Bretherton
Costume Design by: Charlotte Flemming
Art Direction by: Hans Jürgen Kiebach
Music by: John Kander, Ralph Burns
Distributed by: Allied Artists
Release Date: February 13, 1972
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