Cabaret

Cabaret (1972)

Timing: 2:4 (124 min)

7.4/10
945

0/10
24

0/10
0

All about film

Video 14

Photo 98

Actors and characters

Release date

1972-02-13

Country

United States, Germany

Production

Bavaria Film, Allied Artists Pictures, ABC Pictures

Genre

Music, Drama, Romance

Budget

$6 000 000 000

Revenue

$42 804 497 000

Website

Director

Bob Fosse

Actors

Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Berenson, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Helen Vita, Sigrid von Richthofen, Gerd Vespermann
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Fred Ebb

Producer

Cy Feuer

Operator

Geoffrey Unsworth

Composer

John Kander

Artist

Audition

Editing

David Bretherton
All team (33)

• The initial screenplay, written by renowned author and playwright Jay Presson Allen, did not satisfy Fosse, so he hired Hugh Wheeler to revise it. However, Wheeler was credited in the film only as a consultant, while Jay Presson Allen herself was listed as the screenwriter. The film is more heavily based on Christopher Isherwood's cycle of stories "Goodbye to Berlin" and John van Druten’s play "I Am a Camera" than on Joe Masteroff’s stage version.
• Prominent theatrical manager Cy Feuer was realizing the project through "ABC Pictures" and "Allied Artists" studios. Bob Fosse was eager to take the director's chair and offered his candidacy to Feuer. However, the studio executives preferred Joseph Leo Mankiewicz or Gene Kelly, as Fosse’s previous film musical, "Sweet Charity," based on Federico Fellini’s "Nights of Cabiria," had flopped at the box office. Feuer eventually persuaded the bosses to hire Bob Fosse, arguing that the film adaptation of "Cabaret" would focus not on plot twists, but on dance numbers.
• Cy Feuer and Bob Fosse traveled to Germany to recruit the missing part of the film crew. Fosse strongly recommended to Feuer that they hire American cinematographer Robert Surtees. But Feuer, dissatisfied with how Surtees had filmed "Sweet Charity," invited British cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth to work on the film.
• Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey were cast in the roles long before Bob Fosse joined the project. Minnelli had previously been turned down for the role of Sally Bowles in the theatrical production, unlike Joel Grey, who played the same role in the film as he had on Broadway. Michael York was personally invited by the director. The actors for the minor roles, as well as the dancers, were decided to be recruited in Germany.
• The film differs significantly from the stage production. For example, the main character was renamed from American Cliff Bradshaw to Englishman Brian Roberts, however, the character’s bisexuality remained in the film. Fritz, Natalia, and Max were not in the Broadway musical, although the play featured a secondary character named Max – the owner of the "Kit Kat" club – who is absent from the film. Fosse did not use many of the songs from the musical, except those performed directly on the stage of the club. The exception is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," which the characters listen to in an open-air restaurant and which carries important semantic weight. Specifically for the film, composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb wrote the songs "Money, Money" and "Mein Herr," which proved so popular that they were subsequently decided to be included in the theatrical version.
• “Cabaret” was first released on DVD in 1998. Later re-releases followed in 2003 and 2008.