Cabaret - Special Edition

Musical

Liza Minnelli	Sally Bowles
Michael York	Brian Roberts
Joel Grey	Master of Ceremonies
Helmut Griem	Maximilian von Heune
Marisa Berenson	Natalia Landauer
Fritz Wepper	Fritz
Sigrid Von Richtofen	Fraulein Maur
Helen Vita	Fraulein Kost
Ralf Wolter	Herr Ludwig
Kathryn Doby	Cantor
Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel	Fraulein Schneider
Sigrid von Richthofen	Fraulein Mayr
Gerd Vespermann	Bobby

Director	Bob Fosse
Producer	Cy Feuer; Harold Nebenzal
Writer	Jay Presson Allen; Christopher Isherwood; John Van Druten
Cinematography	Geoffrey Unsworth
Musician	John Kander

Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Liza Minnelli), and Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Cabaret would also have taken Best Picture if it hadn't been competing against The Godfather as the most acclaimed film of 1972. (Francis Ford Coppola would have to wait two years before winning Best Director, for The Godfather, Part II.) Brilliantly adapted from the acclaimed stage production, which was in turn inspired by Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories and the play and movie I Am a Camera, this remarkable musical turns the pre-war Berlin of 1931 into a sexually charged haven of decadence. Minnelli commands the screen as nightclub entertainer Sally Bowles, who radiantly goes on with the show as the Nazis rise to power, holding her many male admirers (including Michael York and Helmut Griem) at a distance that keeps her from having to bother with genuinely deep emotions. Joel Grey is the master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub who will guarantee a great show night after night as a way of staving off the inevitable effects of war and dictatorship. They're all living in a morally ambiguous vacuum of desperate anxiety, determined to keep up appearances as the real world--the world outside the comfortable sanctuary of the cabaret--prepares for the nightmarish chaos of war. Director-choreographer Fosse achieves a finely tuned combination of devastating drama and ebullient entertainment, and the result is one of the most substantial screen musicals ever made. The dual-layered Special Edition widescreen DVD includes an exclusive 25th-anniversary documentary, Cabaret: A Legend in the Making, a 1972 promotional featurette, a photo gallery, production notes, the theatrical trailer, and more. --Jeff Shannon