The scene is Berlin just before the completion of Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Two apolitical people go about their lives while impending doom surrounds them. Cabaret is a ground-breaking combination of social drama and musical entertainment. It's one of the best examples of films from the New Hollywood. This was a short time in American cinema where the studios were producing challenging and director-led personal films.
What Cabaret does which is so unique is to reinvent what the musical could be. It's a film that is essentially a drama that uses musical numbers to comment on its story. The songs all fit into a realistic narrative. Most of them are sung within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub, the cabaret of the title. In taking this approach the movie is more able to incorporate a disturbing subject such as the Germany's progression to Nazism into this most fantastical and joyous of film genres. All of the songs comment on the social situation in Germany at the time and because they are all performed in the cabaret they can be explained in a real context, cleverly allowing those who do not even like musicals to enjoy them as they do not break the illusion of reality. The one song that is performed outside the club is perhaps the most memorable however. 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' is sung by a young fresh-faced boy with an angelic voice. It starts out quite beautifully but as it progresses the camera pans down and we see the emblem of the swastika on a band around his arm and realise he is a Hitler Youth. The words suddenly take on an altogether more sinister meaning. It's a moment that really encapsulates the way that fascism seemed like a progressive way ahead for the majority of people at the time. With the benefit of hindsight we, of course, see the horror of what it represents but for many Germans at the time, the ideals of Hitlerism had an attraction, and 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' brilliantly illustrates both these points.
Another way in which the film differentiates itself from most others that deal with this time and place is that there is barely a mention of the Nazis at all. All the Nazis characters exist in the periphery of the story, they barely interact with the characters in any way. Their significance is in no need of emphasis; their presence is ominously felt throughout. Cabaret reflects the changes in Germany from the point of view of people living in their own little world but the true horror is never far from the surface. The strange insular world of the Kit Kat Klub encapsulates this perfectly. Hosted by the enigmatic, almost supernatural, Master of Ceremonies, it's a decadent place that exists apart from the realities of Hitlerism, a place that we all know must be ultimately doomed when the Nazis fully rise to power.
Performances are universally great with Michael York and Liza Minnelli both putting in very fine work. Minnelli especially has to be credited for combining both dramatic acting and musical performances of both the highest calibre. The songs themselves are memorable and work in the clever double way of providing entertainment while commenting on dark issues below the surface. In a sense, that is the genius of Cabaret overall.
