Life is a cabaret, old chum

We had Steve and Elaine over for lunch yesterday. Lunch is such a pale word for what we had. It was more party with astounding feast. Jen and Oni made THE most brill burritos. The Amazing Bob baked exquisite cinnamon-y chocolate chip cookies. Elaine made a dark chocolate chiffon pie (WOW!). My contribution? Wine from that amazing upstate New York vineyard—Amorici's.

The topic of fav movies came up. You know, ones that really stick with us that aren't Star Wars or Star Trek.

For me, the first flick to come to mind was Cabaret. A musical. Yes but, BUT you HATE musicals, Donna! True, this makes little sense.

Gavin Burke at entertainment.ie nails my revilement of this genre concisely and precisely: 

The musical is a contradiction. It wants you to enjoy the songs but for it to work, dramatically speaking, it asks you at the same time to ignore the song's existence.
~snip~
How am I supposed to get involved with the Von Trapp's flight from the Nazis if they're prone to sing at the drop of a hat?

True, TRUE! Cabaret’s different though.
From Roger Ebert's '72 review:

 This is no ordinary musical. Part of its success comes because it doesn't fall for the old cliché that musicals have to make you happy.

In Berlin in 1931, American cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) meets British academic Brian Roberts (Michael York), who is finishing his university studies. Despite Brian's confusion over his sexuality, the pair become lovers, but the arrival of the wealthy and decadent playboy Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) complicates matters for them both. This love triangle plays out against the rise of the Nazi party and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.

Yes, it's bleak and decadent with a big side of flash style and realism.

Another reason, and this is a biggie, that I loved the film was because all but one of the numbers happen inside the club where Sally performs. The tunes are happening logically—this is a cabaret after all. Even the one song done outside the Kit Kat Club happens as it conceivably could’ve in real life. It’s an anthem-esque folk song, sung by a bright blond Hitler youth at a beer garden. This is a big fat pivot point in the story too. Sally and Brian’s lives in Berlin have been irrevocably changed by both their own crazy personal lives as well as the insanity happening around them. Life as fun showtime grows even darker.

A funny, sort of, side note about that tune, Tomorrow Belongs To Me:

It was written for the 1966 Broadway musical version of Cabaret by John Kander and Fred Ebb. It was their attempt to write an authentically sounding German folk tune.

It's since been performed often by Neo Nazi bands, and is probably the only song in their repetoires composed by two Jewish people.

Certainly part of the movie's appeal was that, when it came out, I was 14 years old and just beginning to discover the vast world outside the confines of small town tastes, morals and customs. It was this movie that birthed my dreams of one day visiting and maybe even living in Berlin. It was here that I fell in love with the German Expressionists.

As for traditional-ish musicals, there really are a few good ones which transcend the clunky, often ridiculous formula. In my, ya know, not so humble opinion that is. There's Singin’ In The Rain and Grease. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (because Every Sperm is Sacred!!!), Rocky Horror Picture (DUH!) and, maybe Tommy. This last one purely for that scene of Ann Margaret rolling around in a sea of baked beans, chocolate and champagne.

Of course.