“Cabaret”: An Audacious Cinematic Masterpiece Turns 50
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Bob Fosse’s mind-bogglingly transgressive and dazzlingly staged 1972 musical Cabaret. The film won a jaw-dropping 8 Academy Awards and has firmly established itself as an all-time classic, but it is all too easy to lump it in with other musicals of the era and forget that this tale of bisexual and transgender performers struggling in Berlin during the rise of Hitler is a singular achievement that remains daring even by today’s standards.
How I Discovered Cabaret
I was very young when I became obsessed with Hollywood History. The obsession was fueled by a book my parents bought me one year about the history of the Academy Awards. I pored over every page, reading about legendary filmmakers and actors (many of who died before I was born) and making a mental note of all of the films I would watch someday.
One of the most fascinating ceremonies I read about was undoubtedly the 45th Academy Awards, which was held on March 27, 1973. I naturally assumed the year had been dominated by The Godfather, a film that my father heralded as the greatest film ever made and one the American Film Institute had just ranked the 3rd greatest in a primetime telecast. Although that mafia masterpiece did win three major awards — Best Adapted Screenplay for the film’s director…
