Cabaret Film (1972) Film - Essay Example

Let us now look into film by segmenting it, so as to understand the film better. The film begins with a cabaret song performed by Joel Grey and other cast that actually welcomes the audience. Here Bob Fosse blends the introduction of Michael York, the scene takes a transition from the cabaret to the Berlin railway station and this transition happens abruptly with no effects of fade or wipe. The first scene completely focuses on the advent of an English man who enters Berlin with a hope to find a career as an English tutor.

Soon after the completion of the first scene, there is actually a continuity of the English man finding himself a place to live in. Here Bob Fosse brings in the character around which the story actually revolves, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli). The English man meets the singer Sally Bowles and finds accommodation in her place. In this particular scene the director introduces Sally Bowles as atypical woman with a strong desire to become an actress. This also gives us an impression about the girl who has a quite different attitude where she convinces the English man about the rent and persuades him to stay.

The following scene shows Sally Bowles performing at the cabaret and this indeed is a perfect continuation of the previous scene letting the audience know about Sally and her profession. In this performance of Sally Bowles one has to definitely appreciate the work done by John Kander where his tunes leave the audience foot tapping. The third scene begins with a fade and this shows Sally Bowles talking over the phone to the English man Brian Roberts and here comes in the character of a Jewish man, who Sally introduces to Brian and suggests him taking English lessons from Brian.

In the following scenes Sally discloses her strong desire to become an actress to Brian and in the same scene Sally screams under a railway bridge and asks Brian to do the same. This scene particularly tells us about the typical behavior of Sally. The following scenes also have a good sense of continuity where Sally seduces Brian and Brian refuses romancing her. At the end of the scene doubts entail us about the sexuality of Brian for he has a different outlook for women. All the scenes so far have a cause to happen and their effect felt in the progressive sequences.

The upcoming scenes find us in little sense of ambiguity of as to why the parallel story of the Jewish man and his love interest, Natalia happen to take place in this track of the movie revolving around the cabaret singer Sally. But little would we know at the beginning, of why this parallel track runs and at the end of the film this would find a meaningful integration with the main track of the movie. The scene, in which the Jewish woman, Natalia seeking to learn English from Brian pronounces “phlegm” amusingly, is certainly a hilarious scene with Sally’s sarcastic comments.

Though some scenes merely appear as fillers their sense of appearance are found at the end. The Jewish man trying to please his love interest is one among them. The romance between Sally and Brian finds great sense as it is placed in the right time and the director’s art in making the scene a non deliberate one is impeccable. A song (“may be this time”) placed at this point is a mere justification of the emotions of a cabaret singer. The scene in which Sally speaks to the Natalia about physical relationships actually makes little sense as this has got