Cabaret (1972)

Cabaret is a 1972 musical film directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1931, under the ominous presence of the growing Nazi Party. The film is loosely based on the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret by Kander and Ebb, which was adapted from the novel The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood and the 1951 play I Am a Camera adapted from the same book. Only a few numbers from the stage score were used for the film; Kander and Ebb wrote new ones to replace those that were discarded. In the traditional manner of musical theater, every significant character in the stage version sings to express their own emotion and to advance the plot. In the film version, the musical numbers are entirely diegetic, taking place inside the club, with one exception, the only song not sung by either the Emcee and/or Sally. In the sexually charged "Two Ladies", about menage-a-trois, the emcee is joined by two of the Kit Kat girls, who sing part of the song. Cabaret holds the record for most Academy Award wins in a single year without winning the highest honor, Best Picture, with eight awards.