Economic instability and social unrest following World War I gave way to a culture of escapism and decadence in Weimar Berlin. Though previously Berlin had not made much of a name for itself on the global stage, the Golden Twenties turned Berlin into the third largest city in the world, with a population of over 4 million. The 20s were a time of rich culture and sophisticated developments in art, architecture, music, fashion, and particularly film and live entertainment. Popular personas of the time included Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya. The city became a haven for many writers and artists, thrill seekers who were drawn to the magnetic, taboo atmosphere— particularly of Berlin’s nightlife.
Many artists interacted and blended with the underground culture, nightlife and cabarets. Described in Voluptuous Panic: the Erotic World of Weimar Berlin as the “International sex-tourist Mecca of the Twenties and early Thirties,” Berlin was known for its sexual perversity and moral degeneracy. The nightlife scenes were famous for their erotic performances and abundance of cocaine and alcohol. As a result, many right-wing individuals viewed the culture of the time as socially disruptive and profane. One American writer of the time, Ben Hecht, described Berlin as the “prime breeding ground for evil.”
Despite the culture of decadence in the newly cosmopolitan Berlin, most of the population still faced poverty and unemployment in the aftermath of WWI. Prostitution rose as a means of survival for both women and men. In the 20s, this was normalized to a point where the German army granted approval to it soldiers to attend certain brothels, and even rationed coupon books for sexual services at establishments that had been inspected and cleared of sexually transmitted infections like syphilis and gonorrhea. Drug trafficking and the black market played a huge role in Berlin’s underground economy. Cocaine, heroin, and tranquilizers were easily accessible at the time.
Nightlife venues were abundant and diverse. They included girlculture venues, homosexual venues, lesbian venues, nudist venues, sex museums, transvestite venues, underworld venues, and Weimar Nazi venues.
Berlin Cabarets
Berlin Cabarets of the 1920’s were of a different variety than the ones that would later arise in the early 1930’s in response to the Depression, growing Nazi influence and social unrest. The twenties featured kick-lines of beautiful women who were shining with exuberance and personality: “Their faces were made up with an optimism that nipped all resistance to economic development in the bud, and the little cries of pleasure, issued in a precisely calculated rhythm, gave ever renewed praise to the splendors of existence in just such circumstances story ... exploiting with unflagging zeal the very boom they themselves were representing.” (Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, and Edward Dimendberg, The Weimar Republic Source Book)
After the Great Depression struck, the tone of Cabarets shifted significantly. Despite their well rehearsed smiles, performers began to represent deterioration and frenzy as opposed to blasé luxury: “Their smiles are those of a mark; their confidence a leftover from better days; their precision a mockery of the difficulties in which the very powers they call to mind now find themselves. Though they might continue to snake and wave as if nothing happened--the crisis to which so many factories have fallen victim has also silently liquidated this machinery of girls.” (ibid.) The dancers became more brash and provocative. Large theatres were censored by Nazis for content (both immoral and libelous), whereas nightclub stages and small cabarets maintained their erotic and subversive atmosphere and slid under the radar for a slightly longer period of time. (Lisa Appignanesi, The Cabaret)
Queer Culture
Berlin has a long and substantial history of queer culture. It was considered, from 1920s until the rise of the Nazi party, to be the gay capital of the European continent. Berlin’s status as a site of prominent cultural production was at odds with formal law; homosexuality was illegal in Germany from 1871 all the way until 1994 under the Strafgesetzbuch, or German penal code. The provision Paragraph 175 outlawed homosexual acts between men (as well as prostitution, bestiality, and underage sexual abuse). It was made more draconian during Hitler’s rein.
The burgeoning gay scene was the result of relatively tolerant policing policy that began in the late 19th century. Leopold von Meerscheidt-Hullessem, Berlin’s police commissioner in the 1880s, identified that the law was functionally unenforceable. The only way to convict someone was if they confessed, if it was a reported act of nonconsensual sexual violence, or if there was a witness who could testify in court. Rather than prioritize convictions, the police shifted their strategy to surveilling suspected individuals. The police tolerated a variety of gay public spaces—bars, cafés, and even gender non-conforming balls. Because Berliners were not penalized for frequenting these spaces a large and fairly open community emerged, one that did not exist in other European cities.
Gay culture in 1920s and early 1930s Berlin is most often, and fairly, associated with cabaret culture. A number of cabaret queens, both from Germany and abroad, were gay. One example is Claire Waldoff. Waldoff was not from Berlin, but moved there before World War I and earned a reputation as a review singer. She recorded the song “There’s Only One Berlin” in 1932, and it was banned by the Nazi Party in 1933 for its political content. However, it was so well known at the time that most people who lived in the city that year would have been familiar with it. Waldoff was a well-known lesbian; she lived with her partner, and owned a gay-lesbian salon. Although she socialized with many straight club owners and cabaret performers as well, her relationship with another woman was known and accepted.
The liberal attitudes in Berlin were partially the result of advocacy pioneered by Magnus Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was a German physician who advocated for gay and transgender rights decades before the timeline of Cabaret, and his work and revolutionized German thought about homosexuality. The Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, or WhK (“The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee”) was founded by Hirschfeld in 1897. The mission of the WhK was to advocate for the decriminalization and social recognition of gay and transgender people. At its height, the WhK had roughly 500 members and branches in 25 cities across three countries. Hirschfeld went on to found the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (“Institute for Sexology”) in 1918 under the more liberal Weimar Republic. The institute advocated for widely available contraception, the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, women’s emancipation, and sex education. Hirschfeld coined the term “transsexualism”—while terminology has since evolved, it was an important beginning to the discussion of gender nonconformity and medical gender transition—and some of the institute staff were themselves transgender. The institute offered endocrinological and surgical services, including the first modern sexual reassignment surgeries. Hirschfeld also strongly advocated against the arrest of crossdressers, especially those involved in sex work. Documentation of much of Hirschfeld’s would be destroyed in Nazi book burnings, which included the Institute archives.
Outside of cabarets, there was also a sizeable gay literary culture. The 1920s and early 1930s, there were at least 25 different gay German periodicals. These publications were sold alongside other standard papers. They provided community news, listed events, and even listed personal advertisements.
0. Sally 的第一个歌舞桥段 Sally 在影片第 10 分钟首次单独表演时演唱的是 Mein Herr。这时她还不是太熟识 Brian。但是这首歌的歌词表达的却是影片结尾时 Sally 的心理。 歌词://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/cabaret/meinherr.htm 节选: Bye-Bye, Mein Lieber Herr. 再见了,我亲爱的先生。 Farewell, mein Lieber Herr. 再会吧,我亲爱的先生。 It was a fine affair, 这是段美好的感情, But now it's over. 但已经结束。 And though I used to care, 虽然我曾在意, I need the open air. 但我需要开放的空间。 You're better off without me, 没有我你会更好过, Mein Herr. 我的先生。 Don't dab your eye, mein Herr, 不要擦拭你的泪水我的先生, Or wonder why, Mein Herr. 也不要问为什么我的先生, I've always said that I was a rover. 我总说我是个流浪者, You mustn't knit your brow, 你不该皱眉头, You should have known by now 你该知道了 You'd every cause to doubt me, 你不必怀疑我, Mein, Herr. 我的先生。 The continent of Europe is so wide, 欧洲的大陆多么广阔, Mein Herr. 我的先生。 Not only up and down, but side to side, 向四面八方, Mein Herr. 我的先生。 I couldn't ever cross it if I tried, 我不能跨越它, Mein Herr. 我的先生。 1. Sally 的父亲 Sally 向 Brian 介绍她父亲的时候,说他「跑遍全球去处理重大国家事件」,接着叹了一口气。Brian 于是说:「那你肯定很少见到他了」。这时 Sally 马上停下来并且惊讶地望着 Brian:「你在说什么?我们经常见面的。他没法忍受和我分开,一有时间就带我去度假。」后来在伯爵的饭桌上介绍自己父亲时也说:「我们有最好的(most marvelous)关系,他随时都可以离开工作冲到我这里来。」 然而,从 Sally 准备和他父亲见面的那幕我们可以看见,她不仅洗去了手上的指甲油(a nun's hand),整个妆容也和平时完全不一样,同时表现出了极度的期待。一切都表明她和父亲极少见面,正是这种见面的珍贵才导致了父亲失约后 Sally 的崩溃。 Sally 在指责他父亲时说:「刚好只有十个词」。她指的应该是发电报时,以十个词为一个单位计费,而她父亲每次都在一个计费单位内发来电报,一个词也不多说。 2. Sally 的介绍词 Cabaret 的主持人在介绍 Sally 的时候用语是:so beautiful, so talented... 后来 Sally 因为父亲失约哭泣时,Brian 安慰她时也说:"You're a perfectly marvelous girl, and beautiful, and talented." 而 marvelous 也是 Sally 很爱用的一个词。 最开始 Sally 介绍自己时说 "I am a most strange and extraordinary person"。Brian 求婚后,Sally 也形容 Brian 为 "You are a most strange and extraordinary person"。在参加了 Fritz 的婚礼后,他们趴在草丛中,Sally 同样如此形容即将诞生的婴儿 “It'll be a most strange and extraordinary baby, won't it?" 但是 Brian 没有回答,心事重重地望着远处。 3. 蕾迪普蒂 Lya De Putti Sally 说自己最喜欢的演员是蕾迪普蒂,她的发型也和蕾迪普蒂很相似。
4. Landauer 小姐的第一堂英语课 在第一堂英语课中,Fritz 在 Landauer 小姐面前偷偷藏起了自己有补丁的袖子,就和他隐藏自己的犹太身份一样。 Landauer 小姐说 "phlegm" 这个单词时发音是 "plegm"。被 Brian 纠正以后她困惑地问:「既然 g 不发音为什么还在那里?」Brian 也无法回答。这是由于德语的单词拼写和读写非常一致,而英语则有很多无法解释的现象。甚至还有人专门造了一个词说明这点: Ghoti是一个为表现英语拼写的不规则性而被人为创造出来的单词。这个单词与“fish”(英语发音:/ˈfɪʃ/,意为“鱼”)一词发音相同,被认为是fish的另一种拼写形式。“ghoti”一词包括三个音位: “gh”,发/f/音,与“tough”(英语发音:/tʌf/)、“enough”(英语发音:/ɪˈnʌf/)等词中的“gh”相同; “o”,发/ɪ/音,与“women”(英语发音:/ˈwɪmɪn/)中的“o”相同; “ti”,发/ʃ/音,与“mention”(英语发音:/ˈmɛnʃən/)、“action”(英语发音:/ˈækʃən/)等词中的“ti”相同。 大部分英语使用者见到这一单词会认为其发音与“goaty”(英语发音:/ˈɡoʊtɪ/)相同,因此这一单词常被人用于说明英语发音和拼写之间的不规则关系,也常被用作支持英语拼写改革的证据。 //zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti 5. Landauer 小姐向 Sally 的咨询 Landauer 小姐因为 Sally 有很多性经验向她咨询性和爱情有关的问题。在 Landauer 小姐困惑这到底是爱还是被 Fritz 的身体迷惑了时,Sally 不假思索地回答:「只要你们开心,这又有什么关系呢?」Landauer 小姐说 Fritz 向自己求婚,但是有太多现实障碍无法跨越后,Sally 又回答:「既然这样,你最好把整件事忘掉吧。」这和 Sally 后来对 Brian 的做法是一致的。 6. 和伯爵的关系 Sally 第一次见到伯爵时找他要烟,说出了第一次见到 Brian 时一模一样的话:「伟大的颓废」。这也符合 Sally 最开始那首歌中所唱的 "Man by man"。 镜头切到伯爵的豪车后,Sally 和主持人开始唱一首歌颂金钱的歌,Money, Money。随后三人结伴出行,主持人和两个女郎在唱 Two Ladies,讲述的是一位男人和两位女人的生活。初看时也许会以为歌中对应的关系为 Sally 与两位男性。但事实上两个女郎隐喻的是 Brian 与 Sally。 7. 纳粹 片中有多个歌舞桥段直接与纳粹有关,最开始酒店老板被纳粹殴打时反复切换的画面是一个没有人声的,主持人不断拍打女郎的舞蹈。之后在 Landauer 的宠物犬遇害时又出现了模仿纳粹姿势的无名舞蹈。还有一段主持人与猩猩舞蹈的桥段,最后主持人说:「如果你们能通过我的眼睛看到她,她看起来一点也不像犹太人。」接着是 Fritz 推开隐喻牢笼的大门去坦白犹太身份的镜头。 Brian 与伯爵在露天餐厅吃饭时,一位希特勒青年团的团员唱起 Tomorrow Belongs to Me 这首歌,引起很多人共鸣。这时 Brian 问伯爵:「你现在还认为可以控制他们(纳粹)吗?」之后伯爵把 Brian 送回公寓,并且向司机发了脾气,接着以自己「要去阿根廷」为借口取消了去非洲的计划。这是由于纳粹反对同性恋,伯爵察觉到风向不得不和 Brian 断绝关系。Brian 对纳粹的厌恶一定程度上也与此有关。 最后一段歌舞桥段 Finale 与开头的桥段 Willkommen 几乎完全一致。讽刺的是,围绕着 cabaret 发生过这么多事情以后,主持人仍然说着相同的台词:「我们这里没有烦恼。」在影片开始时,歌厅里仅仅出现了一个纳粹党员就被老板赶出,但是在结尾时,通过墙壁的反射,可以看到座位上已经有很多纳粹入座。
这是我很久很久以来看过最好的歌舞片,它不仅仅是一部很先锋的表现2、30年代开放的柏林和那里同志生活的电影,更是通过巧妙的音乐、歌舞描绘了当时的历史图景(故事和歌舞是分开的,并不是那种“说着就唱起来”的歌舞片),我第一次在影院里真切地一直想,快继续唱,不要停,继续唱呀!太喜欢了!
她按时计酬出租自己,她死的那天,邻居们都看窃笑,看吧,那是过量的药物和酒精的后果。但当我看到她像个女王般躺在那里。她是我见过最快乐的尸体。
Life is a cabaret,在最坏的时代来临前,活出最肆意最精彩的人生!电影让人爱不释手,丽莎·明奈利更是令人迷醉!
非歌舞部分的戏剧冲突太平,唱歌和剧情仅靠歌词联系显得彼此分割,男主没有参与任何歌舞环节,化妆浓艳、表情夸张,歌都不好听,舞也局限于一个舞台,没有华丽的剪辑和摄影,全靠音效体验歌舞氛围了,部分歌舞还略显浮夸和聒噪…噢,作为歌舞片,太多低于预期,只能3星啦。敬“伟大的颓废”。
山雨欲来之前的靡靡乱世,时代乱云翻滚下一群小人物被裹挟而去的命运,以为这次可以不一样,以为终于可以停止爱的漂泊,Maybe this time唱得沉醉又揪心,她如灵猫般的盈盈泪眼,盛满了自以为降临的幸福天真,爱一个人有罪吗,转身挥手依旧是舞台上明亮的星;歌舞完美融合叙事,剪辑太棒。
每个英俊小gay的背后都有一个美女毫无指望的爱着他
【A】鲍勃福斯屌爆了!丽莎明耐丽屌爆了!神作!看的过程中一直在忿忿不平,我操,这么牛逼的片,居然在奥斯卡最佳影片角逐中输掉了?!居然输掉了?!看完后赶紧查了查当年是何方神圣干掉的这牛逼片子,哦,是教父.........
几乎是1973年奥斯卡的最大赢家,却并不广为人知。末世情调,社会实况和意识形态结合得几乎天衣无缝,歌舞与类型的完美融合。歌舞表演即便放到今天来也依然前卫大胆,虽对于纳粹和现实的描绘只有寥寥几笔,但是足够生动传神,尤其是纳粹青年演唱《tomorrow belongs to me》那段堪称一绝。★★★★☆
浓妆艳抹、光怪陆离的乱世烟云。虽然是歌舞片,但歌舞主要起串场作用,本质上还是传统叙事,倒是摄影超前时代了。朋友比爱人难找,时代比歌厅疯狂,既然注定纳粹要崛起,倒不如在靡靡之音中将魏玛共和国埋葬...
真是人生如酒店啊!舞台效果非常棒,无论是舞蹈、歌曲还是化妆都极有特点,妩媚且靡靡,并对时代做出暗示。舞台上和舞台下分成两部分,却又有意无意的互相影响着,观众席角度的偷窥镜头极有代入感。丽莎·明奈利永远不肯卸掉的浓妆。形象总让我想起《大力水手》的奥列佛
两个侍候一个,钱让世界转动,人生就像歌厅,欢迎下次光临
饱满浓郁,个人看过的最好看的歌舞片。比神马《雨中曲》、《花都艳舞》、《芝加哥》、《红磨坊》和《歌剧魅影》之流强出三条街
第一部鲍勃·福斯。摄影剪辑登峰造极,迷幻背后自有明晰。你以为生活与政治很割裂,就像你也以为歌舞与现实很割裂,然而一切都不曾割裂,它们或互为表里,或相互侵犯,或共进共退。第89届奥斯卡前夕观第45届奥斯卡上《教父》的最大对手有多牛逼。盛世不再。
真是不长记性,又去看浓妆艳俗的歌舞。。。不过没想到自己还挺喜欢Liza Minnelli的,还是拿男配那位的妆化得太恶心了
歌厅野玫瑰,迷乱三人行,颓浊魏玛风情画,享乐主义的柏林
男女主都很可爱,开始以为只是男主被绿了,还很心疼,结果女主居然又被同一个人给绿了,人生真的很无常,在女主怀孕后男主不计前嫌说愿意娶她时真心挺感动,可惜两人三观差距太大,结局还是没能在一起。主线剧情还好,支线有点弱,觉得犹太人那一对可有可无
这片是瘾,戒不掉。Nazi的暗线实在是高招!它铺下的那种末世情调给这个故事加上了不少的深度,但最要命的是,通过完美的剪辑,主线的爱情故事、音乐剧片段以及副线居然能够如此熨帖的并存、互推、互相挖掘,这简直是个奇迹!
幻世浮生,歌厅是一个缩影,不仅是醉生梦死的幻乐场也是爱情的滋生地更是历史更迭的见证者,鲍勃福斯的剪辑和给传统无脑歌舞片的拔高实在厉害。超喜欢歌厅那个浓妆艳抹的男主持人,虽然没对纳粹着重笔墨,但是历史的压迫感已经油然而生,多角色对爱的选择和动荡感自然而生。歌厅很好的密闭了一个幻象
最佳导演科波拉输得不冤。
它给了我一个20世纪30年代法西斯掌权前夜的柏林社会细微而深刻的变化的直观认识。