Review: Cabaret (1972) directed by Bob Fosse, starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey.
This movie confused me when I first saw it. I watched it again and again.
I was a teenager in the AIDS decade unsure of his sexuality, growing up in a small New England town, and here was this exotic, decadent image of 1930’s Berlin. Anything Goes comes from another show, but it’s pretty much the worldview of the fabulous and tragic Sally Bowles. And the sexuality is danced around (and elegantly choreographed by the challenging and amazing Bob Fosse (Seriously, have you ever TRIED to do those moves? Liza confided once that they had to nail her chair down for Mein Herr)).
This was the original (to my mind) “Isn’t she amazing and wild and I love her … oh, she just self-destructed” films. This and Harold and Maude were my staples during my teen years. I think they may have screwed me up. Many of my lady friends since have been Sally/Maude types — aka manic pixie dream girl.
I dunno, I still can’t judge this film without remembering the friends I had horrible crushes on piled together in an overstuffed sofa and drinking Red Zinger tea with ginger ale and orange juice and being vaguely aroused for days on end.
It’s a nostalgic memory, but I’m glad I grew out of it.
This is Scix in the Back Row, with two ladies.
