Director Cabaret : Bob Fosse
Text: XXX Eleven
2003 [Chicago] It is not easy to win the Oscar for Best Picture, and it is not easy for Bob Fosse , one of the screenwriters, to pass away 15 years after his death. Finally realized the dream of getting involved in the best Oscar film. However, few people know that as early as the 45th Oscars in 1973, the musical [King Hall] directed by Bob Foss won eight of the best director, best actress and best supporting actor in one fell swoop. Awards. Although he lost to the famous [Godfather] in the best film competition, the eight awards match the three of [The Godfather]. The fans have their own decisions. At least [King Hall] was worthy of the "Uncrowned King" that year. Title. Coincidentally, Lisa Minnelli, who won the best actress by relying on [King Hall], is her mother, who has starred in another song and dance classic [The Wizard of Oz], Judy Garland.
Even though the themes of musicals are diverse, they often cannot escape the curse of flesh and lust. The background of [King Hall] is Germany in the early 1930s. Hitler had just come to power and Nazi totalitarianism began to control the country. The political haze is becoming more and more prominent, but the drunken capital, Berlin, is still a corner. In a cabaret, the bright-eyed and white-toothed dancer Sally (Lisa Minnelli) aspires to be a big star. She ran into Brian (Michael York), a serious teacher from England, and they lived in the same place. Under a piece of roof. As a dancer, the boundaries between purity and silver are blurred, and Sally, who has a good impression of Brian, immediately launched a seduction offensive. Wet body, bathrobe, and chest attack were all exhausted, but Brian remained unmoved. Seeing this, you may feel nervous. Don't worry, the time has not come. As the heroine fell in love with the handsome Rich Max (Helmut Griem) at first sight, the triangular relationship of one woman and two men, and the local tyrants and the tyrants and the deflated has basically formed, and the story enters the main body.
They began to travel and carnival together. The three drunk people huddled and danced together. Sally looked expectantly at Max, who could help her realize her celebrity dream. The latter responded with a playful look back in tenderness. Ryan's confused and sad eyes wandered back and forth between the two. The expressions in each other's eyes explained the intricate emotional entanglements between the three and faintly laid the groundwork for the direction of the story. Sally wants to be a star too much, but Max simply wants to tame her, and Brian has no idea who he loves. Under the bridge, the two yelled to vent with the rumbling of the train; in the back seat of the car, the hostess hovered between the shoulders of two men, implying the entanglement of dreams and love. The relationship between the three seems plain and beautiful, but in fact it is undercurrents.
The love triangle soon came to an end, and Sally became pregnant. No one knows who the child's father is. Out of a sense of responsibility, Brian decides to raise the child with her. The sweetness of the two seems to be settled. But at this time, the political turmoil in society deepened. When the three people were having a picnic, they encountered a spontaneous chorus of the Nazi song "Tomorrow Belongs To Me", which made them shudder. Brian, who hates the Nazis, wants to take Sally back to China, but the star dream makes Sally reject him.
After all, the child in his belly was knocked out. Sally said goodbye to Brian at the station and continued to sing in the cabaret. And she turned her back to Brian when she was parting, and the gesture of not looking back with a wave of her hand has also been paid tribute to many movies in later generations. At this time, silence is better than sound, and Sally has become a classic that is difficult to surpass. Sally's love is pure and can't tolerate any impurities.
Of course, the director did not forget the irony of the Nazis. On the other side of the movie, Bryan’s friend Franz fell in love with his student Natalia, a wealthy Jewish girl. Under the social environment in which the Nazis were in power, the situation of Jews became more and more dangerous, and everyone avoided them. However, Franz unswervingly pursued his love, and finally achieved success with Natalia, still expressing the politically correct position of [King Hall].
When it comes to musicals, one has to talk about the singing and dancing scenes in the movie. Different from the general song and dance film that sings at a disagreement, the song and dance in the [King Hall] are interspersed in parallel with the corresponding plot. The inner monologue of the hero and heroine jumped out. The lead vocalist played by Joel Gray appeared 13 times in the film, but it was not directly related to the development of the plot. The ten wonderful singing and dancing performances led by him, interspersed to reflect the experience and mood of the male and female protagonists, can be said to be the finishing touch of [King Hall] winning eight Oscars. His white face, back head, and tuxedo look like exaggerated and funny, but in fact it is eye-catching and tension; his performance is exaggerated, expression is in place, plus a professional female dancer, wearing short black silk, laughing and cursing, extremely As vulgar yet interesting, the visual impact is no different from live singing and dancing. This Oscar for best supporting actor really deserves its name.
In comparison, although Sally is a bit inferior in singing and dancing, her performance on stage is more soulful, and the purpose of a few inner monologues is particularly obvious. When faced with the dilemma of whether to choose the local tyrant Max or really love Brian, there is a "money! money!" expression of entanglement. Especially at the end of the "Welcome to the Grand Hotel" and the phrase "Life is a karaoke hall", we can instantly understand her choice.
Sally wanted true love, but what Brian gave him was more sympathy and responsibility. The vulgar and explicit performance in the cabaret made her yearn for purity even more. He left and she stayed. Although they promised to see each other again, the karaoke hall was where she came and went.
The film begins with a performance led by a karaoke hall, and ends with his performance. Although it did not directly tell the audience the ending of the characters in the story, in the last shot, the image of the Nazi officers reflected in the mirror left a tragic imagination.
No one can know whether tomorrow is good or bad, grasp today’s dreams and love, stick to a little purity, the ending is not important, life is a karaoke hall.
(Written in October 2013)
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