Cabaret

Bob Fosse releases musicals from their stigma of loud and enthusiastic entertainment. However, it is so serious that he somehow forgot about the musical itself. The characters don’t sing, there are no stylized song sequences and the cabaret numbers aren’t instrumental in story creation. They just serve as an interlude between parts. So is this a musical or not? In my mind, not at all. Because it works as a regular drama. But in that case, the cabaret performances are sort of just to fill space, unnecessarily adding to the running time. I have some misgivings about Cabaret, because it doesn’t stick to one genre, but at the same time I like it, because it is so original. It may not be absolutely perfect, but even so... Rather paradoxically, the scene that harms the picture most is also the best scene with the “Hitlerjugend" and the cast assembled in the Biergarten. It is so effective, powerful, speaking volumes, but strangely the resulting feeling you get from it is limited only to that one scene. And that's not enough. (01/03/2008)

In 1972, the Academy allowed itself to be taken in by cooked noodles and handed out a bunch of statues, unfortunately not only in the technical categories, to the hands of a easily forgettable musical, which does offer a surprisingly well-pointed love triangle, but technically, it has a somewhat confused choreography and a somewhat hesitant resolution. The viewer can only penetrate the souls of the characters through York's Brian, and the aura of the entire show is so impenetrable that, just like everything else, it is inaccessible even to the prominently protruding (and terribly unsympathetic) Liza Minnelli. The entire message of "The world around us is a cabaret" is then in line with the whole film, strongly unsatisfying. (05/17/2007)

The peak of Bob Fosse's work and at the same time one of the peaks in the field of musical film. It is not a musical in the true sense, although it uses some musical techniques. The film is based on the confrontation between the very relaxed artistic atmosphere of Berlin cabaret scenes full of decadence and provocation and the mire of the economic crisis accompanied by the collapse of the political system of the Weimar Republic and the rise of radical totalitarian ideologies. For Liza Minnelli, it was a life-changing role that made her a superstar of the highest caliber. The suggestive period atmosphere is created as if by accident, subtly using montage and detailed camera shots. Excellent music, song lyrics, editing, camera work, and performances. A film about something. Overall impression: 100%. (05/17/2007)

A musical par excellence. The film version of Cabaret has everything that was missing in the version I unfortunately saw in the Pilsen theatre some six years ago. It's vivid, believable, emotional, gripping... And I don't know what else. I really cannot agree with the opinions that musical numbers are not plot-forming and that the film could even do without them. The story is very firmly based on them, and if it had not been so masterfully handled, it would easily have become ordinary romantic kitsch from the early days of World War II. (05/21/2012)

This is one of the few musicals where I feel that both the musical aspect and the storytelling aspect are great, although it could still be a little bit better. However, they are beautifully balanced and it is evident that Fosse really cared about them, as he was an incredible choreographer and somewhat of a maniac. Nevertheless, everything fits him perfectly. (08/21/2015)