INTERPRETATIONS

Divine decadence — Bob Fosse’s Cabaret

The author explains the structure of Bob Fosse’s film Cabaret (1972) in the context of Berlin culture in the era of a growing Nazi influence, but also in the context of tradition of cabaret shows, and the tradition of popular musical theatre in Europe and USA (film was inspired by theatre show of composer John Kander and text writer Fred Ebb). However, the prehistory of the theatrical musical Cabaret begins in literature, that is to say, Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories, in which the character Sally Bowles appears, a side character who has inspired John Van Druten to turn Isherwood’s stories in the theatrical show I Am a Camera.

Apart from the context and the history of the making of the show and the film, the author of the study undertakes a formalist, visual-musical analysis of musical acts in Fosse’s film explaining how, for example, the intimacy of Sally’s song is reflected in the choice of camera  distance and movement, while the evilness of the spread of Nazism can be read out from the music structure and the choice of distance in the famous scene in which old and young Germans sing about the future belonging to them. Political connotations of the »involvement« in the generic mix presented in Fosse’s film can be brought in connection with dark political connotations of the film Cabaret.

Irena Paulus