I was afraid the decadence and hedonism that I knew would be portrayed in Cabaret would be too much for me, however it was not. The film is PG and is relatively tame. The emcee I would imagine is too much for people, and there is an open tolerance of sexuality talked about with many people that more conservative persons will not enjoy. Historically the depiction of sexuality is accurate in the film. Despite what many people want to believe, all of these controversial bits we talk about today were still around then. Yet, it is not so much the elements of the sexuality that struck me but the technique.
Editing in the film was startling and moved the scenes quickly. We watch Brian Roberts yell at a Nazi soldier, and then kicked down a Nazi flag. Before we can witness the fight there is a straight cut to Roberts in bed with a broken arm and a black eye. The fight is implied, we have the set up, and the resolution, but not the actual event, it is created in our minds from the clues given. Films today rely too much on violence, and spectacle. When in fact they are incredibly unnecessary for story telling purposes, only there to provide bloodlust and dazzle us. Cabaret is all too aware that it detracts from the story, and moves it right along. There are only ever jump cuts throughout the film, no fades, or any other kind of transitions. The cuts add to the immediacy of the growing Nazi threat that is ever so present throughout the film by making us uneasy. It also challenges us as viewers to invest ourselves more into Cabaret because we would suddenly be in another scene without any indication of time or space passing, and we have to be more involved in the film to figure it out.
There was much I wanted to write about the theme of Cabaret, but after several tries to write I felt I could not do it justice without dedicating more time than I originally wanted.
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