Product Description

Willkommen bienvenue welcome to Cabaret. The winner of eight Academy Awards it boasts a score by the legendary songwriting partnership behind another film that would energize the movie musical genre with equal razzle-dazzle 30 years later: Chicago's John Kander and Fred Ebb. Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and an impish emcee (Joel Grey) sound the clarion call to decadent fun while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force. Cabaret caught lightning (and won Oscars) for Minnelli Grey and director Bob Fosse who shaped a triumph of style and substance. Come to this Cabaret old chum. You'll never want to leave.Running Time: 110 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 085392798629

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1917 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-08-19
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, German, Hebrew
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Liza Minnelli), and Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Cabaret would also have taken Best Picture if it hadn't been competing against The Godfather as the most acclaimed film of 1972. (Francis Ford Coppola would have to wait two years before winning Best Director, for The Godfather, Part II.) Brilliantly adapted from the acclaimed stage production, which was in turn inspired by Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories and the play and movie I Am a Camera, this remarkable musical turns the pre-war Berlin of 1931 into a sexually charged haven of decadence. Minnelli commands the screen as nightclub entertainer Sally Bowles, who radiantly goes on with the show as the Nazis rise to power, holding her many male admirers (including Michael York and Helmut Griem) at a distance that keeps her from having to bother with genuinely deep emotions. Joel Grey is the master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub who will guarantee a great show night after night as a way of staving off the inevitable effects of war and dictatorship. They're all living in a morally ambiguous vacuum of desperate anxiety, determined to keep up appearances as the real world--the world outside the comfortable sanctuary of the cabaret--prepares for the nightmarish chaos of war. Director-choreographer Fosse achieves a finely tuned combination of devastating drama and ebullient entertainment, and the result is one of the most substantial screen musicals ever made. The dual-layered Special Edition widescreen DVD includes an exclusive 25th-anniversary documentary, Cabaret: A Legend in the Making, a 1972 promotional featurette, a photo gallery, production notes, the theatrical trailer, and more. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Only the best
I first saw Cabaret on Broadway in April 1968, wit the original Broadway Cast. I thought that it was fantastic. We talked about it for several days after seeing the production.We enjoyed the play so much that when the movie was released in 1972 we were in no hurry to see it knowing that it couldn’t compare with the play. After several friends encouraged us to see it we gave in, took a drive to the local multiplex, bought the tickets and reluctantly entered the darkened theater expecting to be proven right in that no movie could possible be better then the Broadway play. How wrong we were, the move was so far superior to the play it was like it was two different stories. Happily some of the songs that didn’t work on Broadway were left out and the movie cast did great credit to all of the music in the show. In my eyes nobody but Liza Minnelli could play Sally Bowes. Joel Gray was good on Broadway but he was fantastic in the movie.

Don't remake Cabaret!
I remember when they bring Cabaret to Broadway or the West End like they recycle musicals but to me, Cabaret with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey are the epitome of perfection in the film. You don't mess with perfection or come close to it with these two brilliant performers on stage. Liza gave the role of a lifetime as Sally Bowles, a London singer, who they Americanize her in this film. Fine because it works and nobody sings or belts out the songs better than Liza does. In this film, it is dark Berlin where Nazism and anti-Semitism is on the rise since World War I has ended leaving Germany to pay for it and the onset of World War II. The chilling scenes of Nazism and the rise of it's evil power is done simply in the song, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," with the unsuspecting Germans not realizing about the true meaning of the song. Sally Bowles has led quite sad life despite her upbeat personality. I don't think Liza ever played a role as suitable or close to her personality as Sally Bowles. Liza is not just Judy's daughter but Liza Minnelli is her own person. She can make you cry and laugh with one breath and you want more. The ending is somewhat vague as if it presents what will come to Germany. I get shivers and chills down my spine when the music has ended and the film is done as if knowing what lies head isn't horrifying enough.

spirited and lively entertainment
One of the better musicals and great Fosse choreography. Joel Grey is stupendous as the MC and his musical skits are great entertainment. Liza Minnelli is supreme as Sally Boles.