I watched Cabaret again tonight. First thing: it really is a very good film, and if by some chance you haven’t seen it, hurry up and do so.
I was struck by how grown up it seems: it touches on serious subjects (Nazis! homosexuality! abortion!) but does so, mainly, in a stylishly, darkly humorous way. It made me wonder when I last saw a new movie which didn’t talk down to its audience.
It also made me want to read some Christopher Isherwood.
2 replies on “Cabaret”
It’s one of the great musicals, owing as much to Brecht and Weill as to its Broadway antecedents in its balance between timelessly serious content and great numbers and in-your-face dance routines. I tried very hard to persuade the head of my last school – a girls’ school from which I have just retired as Head of Drama – to let me stage it. But Nazis, homosexuality and abortion got in the way!
I particularly like the way it manages to be stylish — fabulous choreography and so on — while never making the Kit Kat club look like anything other than a seedy little dive.