GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM IN THE FILM CABARET

For most people, the mention of Cabaret evokes the images from Bob Fosse's 1972 film, probably of Liza Minnelli in her Oscar-winning role as American ex-pat Sally Bowles, a singer at Berlin's decadent Kit Kat Club, in the period between the two world wars. During the Weimar years were,  Germany suffered economically and politically, due, in large part, to terms and reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles  that ended World War I, and endured out-of-control levels of inflation.

While Fosse's may be the most recognizable version of Cabaret, there have been several other takes on the story, both before and after the release of Fosse's film.  The story first shows up in Christopher Isherwood’s autobiographical Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin, which was published in the 1930s.  An Englishman who made prolonged visits to Berlin between 1929 and 1933, Isherwood wrote about Berlin as a glittering and perverse metropolis, paying special attention to its nightlife, while Nazi storm clouds gathered. (It has been conjectured that the Michael York character in the film version of Cabaret is based on Isherwood.)  Author John Van Druten based his 1955 play I Am a Camera on Isherwood's books.  While it, in turn would go on the 1966 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical version of Cabaret, as well as Fosse's film,  Van Druten's play was also adapted for the silver screen in a 1955 eponymous film.  In addition, the musical was revived on Broadway with award-winning productions in both 1987 and 1998.

Your paper on the Fosse film version of Cabaret should concentrate on the Expressionistic devices employed by Fosse to elucidate for viewers the decadence and instability of the period and the insidiousness of the Nazis. Your paper should address whether these techniques effectively convey these attributes, as opposed to films that are more overt as to the Holocaust.

To do this, you need a comprehensive understanding of German Expressionistic techniques, which can be found here:

Consider how Fosse uses theatrical devices in the following manner:
        - outrageous costumes
        - stylized sets at the Kit Kat club
        - over-the-top make-up
        - stylized dance routines
        - metaphoric nature of the musical numbers
        - garish colors
        - symbolic lighting effects
        - extreme close-ups and angles
        - editing techniques which call attention to themselves, such as cross-cutting
        - evoking famous works of the period
        - closed form
        - theme of persecution
         - contrast between the real world with the realm of cabaret

On-line articles dealing with the film's inherent Expressionism can be found below:
- http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/dvd/review/2000/11/17/cabaret/index.html
- http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/studentsf01/cabaret/

STRUCTURE
The following strategies are applicable to all written assignments for this course:

     When you write about a character, use the character's name, not the actor's, unless you're talking specifically about an actor's persona. For example, if you're writing about Harrison Ford's character in What Lies Beneath, you'd probably want to comment on the fact that this role is the first in which Ford, known for his heroic figures, plays a villain.   

     Your work must be typed (double-spaced), and it should include a title page with your name and a descriptive title of your paper on it. It should be about four to five pages in length. Be sure to hand it in on time.

     When you write about what is going on within a film's narrative, you have to use the present tense, as in the following: Charlie Chaplin's City Lights includes both comedy and pathos.

     Here's a real no-no: Do not put quotation marks around movie titles. Instead, you should put them IN ALL CAPS, italicize them, or underline them. The same holds true for the titles of journals, magazines, books, newspapers and plays. The names of magazine articles, however, are put in quotation marks.

     Proofread your work, employing both spell and grammar check programs. (Hint: The word "lens" is spelled with only one "e," though the plural, "lenses," has two.) Be especially mindful of using homonyms correctly. Employ apostrophes correctly, especially with "its" (possessive) and "it's" (contraction). Use plurals correctly, too. (Lately, students have exhibited a propensity for incorrectly adding an apostrophe before the "s" in simple plurals.) Be especially vigilant with plural possessives. Again, if your paper is filled with grammatical mistakes, I will lower your grade.

     If you choose to use any outside sources, you need to cite them. I am not picky about the style you use, though. Endnotes, footnotes, or citations within the body of the text are all fine. Just be sure to include a separate bibliography at the end of the paper.  Not only do you have to provide the source, but if the quote is longer than three typewritten lines, you must position it differently on the page. A long quote should start three lines down, be indented five spaces on both the left and the right margins, single-spaced, and have no quotation marks, as in the following example:

If you can twist its arm (and anybody can -- the movie is small), Woody Allen's new film, Bananas, proclaims that all of life is raw material for a television game show. It opens with Howard Cosell ... enthusiastically covering the Assassination of the Week, that of the President of the Latin-American republic of San Marcos ... (Canby, 20). 

Failure to adhere to these guidelines will lower your grade.
However, as always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
GOOD LUCK!