in here, life is beautiful

 

The 1972 film Cabaret is set in 1930s Berlin, with the Nazi menace sort of there, in the background, and growing.  

     The English writer Stephen Spender said, "There was a sensation of doom to be felt in the Berlin streets."

     (In today's culture, we can relate to that in the sense of, When politics gets crazy should we be afraid, or just ignore it?)

     In the movie Liza Minnelli's character Sally Bowles is a nightclub entertainer.  She sings and dances.  Outside of the club, she has a breezy, upbeat personality, and we see her relationships and social life...

     The cinematography is wonderful:  visually, the film is lovely -- the colors, and the European sense of personality, and place.

 

     Joel Grey plays the nightclub's emcee, in extreme makeup and with indomitable attitude; he tells the audience, "Leave your troubles outside.  So life is disappointing, forget it!  In here life is beautiful.  The girls are beautiful.  Even the orchestra is beautiful.... Outside it is winter, but in here it is so hot!  Every night we have the struggle, to keep the girls from taking off all their clothing."

     Then:  "Don't go away -- who knows, tonight we may lose the battle!"

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Director:  Bob Fosse

Screenplay by Jay Allen

Music by John Kander and Fred Ebb

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choreographer Bob Fosse

     Like the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, Fosse won the Oscar, the Tony, and the Emmy...

     [Free Encyclopedia-excerpt] --------------- At the 1973 Academy awards, Bob Fosse won the Academy Award for Best Director for Cabaret.  That same year he won Tony Awards for directing and choreographing Pippin and primetime Emmy Awards for producing, choreographing and directing Liza Minnelli's television special "Liza with a Z."  Fosse was the only person to win all three major industry awards in the same year. --------------------------------- [end, excerpt]

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