'How do the cabaret songs and routines comment on the social issues which are the background for the story of Cabaret?'
Satirical on every level, Bob Fosse's 1972 film Cabaret redefines the previously accepted genre of the musical. Using the songs and routines as cunning tools of social commentary the musical numbers both predict and interpret the world of Berlin in 1931.
The opening routine, 'Wilkommen', is a powerful introduction to the opposing worlds of the protagonists Brian and Sally and also indicates the significance all songs in the Cabaret will be instilled with. As the camera moves from the distorted mirror to the grotesquely masked face of the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) who claims, 'I am your host, wilkommen', the need to look below the 'beautiful' surface of both the cabaret and Berlin is established. As the opening progresses the MC welcomes in three languages, English, French and German, communicating from the outset that the satirical and political messages of the film are universal, but often in need of personal interpretation. It is obvious the the MC as a good host will meet all our needs and it is vital to note that it is with him that we establish our initial identification; the relationship with Brian (Michael York) is secondary even though he is the protagonist. Like the audience, the MC is an observer who seeks to critique the world of Berlin.
The initial establishment of the female protagonist, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), is also undertake...
Looking at theatre reviews and books such as Stephanie Jordan and Dave Allen’s Parallel lines: Media Representations of Dance and Ramsay Burt’s The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities. I will find out more about the history of homosexuality in theatre and how DV8 defied the law to produce shows with gay themes despite it being illegal to promote such themes in the UK during the 80’s and early 90’s.
In Dialogue: Theatre of America, Harold Clurman said, “we make theatre out of life” (27), and it was precisely this view that motivated him to help create a uniquely American theatre. Clurman, considered one of the most influential directors of the modern American theatre, had a unique vision of what the American theatre could become. One of the founders of the quintessentially American troupe, the Group Theatre, Clurman was a contemporary of Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg, and even married to Stella Adler for twenty years. At a ceremony honoring Clurman, Elia Kazan stated that Clurman’s “greatest achievement [was] himself” (Harold Clurman: A Life of Theatre). An important figure in our theatrical past, Clurman’s theories on theatre and directing require close attention. In this paper, I will first provide a brief biography of Clurman, second, examine his theories of theatre and directing, and lastly, I will explore his criticisms of the then-contemporary theatre, and draw conclusions to the current state of the Broadway theatre.
The semiotics of traditional theatrical form reinforce an oppressive patriarchal system. The physical body becomes the catalyst by which gender is assigned and expected. This emphasis on the body is amplified in the theater. Simone Benmussa’s play The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs, adapted from the short story by George Moore, deals with issues of femininity and masculinity and how these are portrayed within the theater as well as how theater is formed by the traditional patriarchal gaze. This play also deals with issues of class and how class status is intrinsically tied to gender, gender performance and sexuality. Through the example of this play it is seen that a form of theater which creates and maintains the woman as subject rather than object (as Sue-Ellen Case proposes) cannot be truly realized until the performative nature and many issues inherent in masculinity are acknowledged and processed. Here also is an excellent case study of how the politics of the theater are deeply rooted in body politics and gender essentialism. All of these factors contribute to the play’s overall complexity in matters surrounding and pertaining to the performative nature of masculinity and the manner in which masculinities are brought forth on stage and how that differs from femininity on stage.
In this essay I will be looking at the topic of the countercultural movement of the 1960’s through counterculture film. The 1960’s were an extremely interesting time in history not only in the United States but all over the western world, as we saw the rise of the counterculture generation. The counter was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation and was embraced in many different ways by the decade’s young people. I have chosen this topic as the 60’s stand out for me as a revolutionary and often misrepresented period in history. The films I have chosen to look at are The Baader Meinhof Complex from director Uli Edel, Woodstock from Michael Wadleigh, Pirate Radio from Richard Curtis, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from director Terry Gilliam. I chose to analyse these films as I believe they clearly demonstrate the social and political issues of the 1960’s and societies response to them.
On a Wednesday night I saw Texas State Theatre and Dance Department's performance of A Chorus Line. The main plot of the musical entails the audition of 17 dancers for several Broadway roles on the chorus line. However, during their auditions the director Zach asks for personal stories of each dancer's life. Though the plot of this musical is seemingly simple in its twist on the traditional audition, it explores themes that reveal the human experience, the search for individuality, and the sense of self.
Rob Marshall’s Chicago is an adaptation of Maurine Watkins 1926 musical of the same name. The story took place in the roaring 20’s based on the concept of femme fatale and commercialized criminals. The plot of the movie revolves around ambition and the fickle nature of fame, and breaks the boundaries of stereotypical musicals in its unique theatricality and stagecraft. The success in the cinematic, theatrical, and editing elements aid in the creation of wonderful movie that is Chicago.
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
The film begins with a title card sequence upon a static backdrop of shrubbery, mountains and distant clouds; a lingering sight that doesn’t truthfully establish forthcoming events in Vienna’s saloon. Her saloon may be quiet, but it is always occupied, and whilst the opening sequence, in which we are introduced to Johnny Guitar, is filled with a bravado of horns and orchestral accompaniment, the saloon itself is inversely populated by the sound of wind, tumbleweed, and stark silences - something perhaps more associated with the western expanse in which the story takes place. Yet for this dichotomy in sound, the initial visuals after the credit sequence foreshadow the destruction of locale, and the audience takes the place ...
The film illustrates the common social and sexual anxieties that the Germans were undergoing at that period of time. It also employs cinematic aesthetics alongside with new technology to create what would be considered as one of Germany’s first sound-supported films. Furthermore, it was the film that popularized its star Marlene Dietrich. The film is also known for combining elements of earlier expressionist works into its setting without becoming an expressionist film itself. It is important also to point out that the visual element has helped to balance the film easily against the backdrop the nightclub lifestyle that Lola leads the professor to fall into.
Cabaret provides for its audience an animated and a uniquely exciting dramatization of Berlin, Germany just before the Second World War. The story of many Germans living in an uncertain world is shown through just a few characters. Life is a cabaret, or so the famed song goes. After watching "Cabaret," you'll agree to an extent, but also realize how unsettling the assertion is. Taking place in the early 1930s, a portrait of life in decadent Berlin, is both uplifting and grim. Not your typical musical, it is comedic and dramatic, realistic, very tasteful, and ultimately thought provoking.
An obvious difference in these films is that the 1931 version played to a Depression audience and that the Coppola version played to a modern audience. (I am being extremely careful because, obviously, the 1931 audience was modern in 1931; however, we like to think of ourselves as being more modern than past generations. There are differences in the audiences which viewed the respective versions in their time, and I hope to prove this point as the paper unfolds.)
Goldman, Emma. The Social Significance of the Modern Drama. Berkeley. Edu, n.d. Web. 09 May 2012.
thesis of how the musical brought our inner child out to realize our true struggles in life.
...ro level forum. She revealed the layers in the plot that tend to get overlooked when viewing a Hollywood musical. Also, her Freudian insight of Linda Low’s character, in which she explains the ego formation and narcissism, mirrors Marchetti’s view of the white knight. Hollywood narrations have notoriously reflected the white male, who I perceive as a representation of American national identity, as a highly narcissistic character. He is portrayed as the hero with patriarchal discourse and male privilege. Overall, both essays dive into the role these films took in constructing a national identity under the veil of a romantic narrative. Both speak to a political subplot on an unconscious, rather than diegetic level. In providing such an in depth analysis, they uncloak the racial and national assimilation that these films depict in relation to the East and West.
On stage, these points were, looking at the opinions of a majority of both the audiences and the critics, presented successfully by Brook and the cast he worked with. From the prison guards who loomed in the background, clothed in butcher aprons and armed with clubs, to the half-naked Marat, slouched in a tub and covered in wet rags, forever scratching and writing, to the small group of singers, dressed and painted up as clowns, to the narcoleptic but murderous Charlotte Corday, Weiss and Brook offered a stage production that both engaged and amazed the audience, while at the same time forced them to question their role as the audience; no better exemplified than at the very end of the play, where the inmates, standing menacingly at the edge of the stage, actually begin to applaud the very people who applaud their performance, aggravating and confusing some, but forcing most t...