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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Cabaret (1972)

Cabaret (1972)

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Released 12-Nov-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Musical Main Menu Audio & Animation
Quiz
Gallery-Photo
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1972
Running Time 118:25 (Case: 124)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Bob Fosse
Studio
Distributor
Allied Artists Picts
MRA Entertainment
Starring Liza Minnelli
Michael York
Helmut Griem
Joel Grey
Fritz Wepper
Marisa Berenson
Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel
Helen Vita
Sigrid von Richthofen
Gerd Vespermann
Ralf Wolter
Georg Hartmann
Ricky Renée
Case Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI $24.95 Music John Kander


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Hollywood loves a musical, and Cabaret was the first of a new generation of musicals that split from the mould of wholesome family values and took the musical in new directions. Until that point, musicals were generally bright and happy affairs with children singing in the alps and lovers singing through the streets on roller-skates. In stark contrast to this, Cabaret delved into a darker world, using music to highlight it. In short, it revolutionised the genre.

    The plot of Cabaret follows a British freelance journalist, Brian (Michael York), who travels to Berlin to see the political heart of Germany and teach English on the side while he completes his PhD in philosophy. He winds up boarding in a house with cabaret dancer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), a young American who is the star of the notoriously sleazy Kit Kat Club. At the Kit Kat, Brian is introduced to Fritz (Fritz Wepper), a young German businessman trying to survive in the economic depression that swept through Germany between the wars, and who straddles the divide between the Communists and the Nazis, afraid of both and yet tempted to ally himself with either in order to survive economically. Through their interactions, Brian finds himself becoming increasingly more attracted to Sally, but their mismatched personalities and lifestyles lead to friction and a slow spiral towards self destruction, a metaphor for the insidious rise of fascism in Germany.

    There is little that can be said about this film that has not already been well transcribed in various literature reviews and student theses over the years. It has been a hallmark of the industry for so long, and it has only been with the recent re-popularisation of the musical as a cinematic storytelling vehicle that films such as Moulin Rouge and Chicago have usurped its role at the head of the pack. Given that I cannot elaborate further on what all these critics have said, in brief all I can say is that Cabaret is a unique gem from its time, an unusual and affecting tale featuring great performances, an unusual yet surprisingly catchy array of musical numbers, and great production values. While Minnelli is the centrepiece of this show in most respects, it is the writing, the costumes and set designs and the music that make this movie what it is. Truly a classic and one well worth owning as you will find yourself returning to it.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Presented in 1.78:1, a slight modification of the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, sadly we have not been graced with a 16x9 enhanced transfer, and this is merely a non-anamorphic Letterbox or 4:3 image as the DVD case states. This already gets us off to a bad start.

    As to the quality of the letterboxed image, it is a little soft, although much of that has to do with the source material – both its age and the soft-filter film technique used. It never quite becomes blurry, but it is far from being a crystal clear picture.

    Oddly enough, the image manages to be soft yet grainy, which is quite a feat, but nevertheless the darker scenes are marred with a graininess that is unpleasant on the eye. Consequently, shadow detail also tends to be a bit of a problem and the loss of image clarity in some night scenes is quite unsatisfactory.

    Colours are muted and a little washed out, lacking the real glow of contemporary film colour technology. This is not the faded colour of 1950s films on VHS, although many of them have come up better through the DVD transfer process than this particular transfer.

    There are no really glaring MPEG artefacts, but there are lots of film-to-video transfer artefacts. There are plenty of moire effect here on grilles, closely grouped lines, texturised surfaces - you name it, it’s there. Plus, aliasing is a bit of a problem, particularly if you blow this up on a widescreen TV – the loss of horizontal detail leaves a lot of lines doing that ugly broken up wavering thing that gets distracting after a time.

    Dirt is a real problem, though again I think this has much to do with the quality of the source than with any transfer fault. More irritatingly, however, is that every twenty minutes or so a ‘cigarette burn’ appears in the top right hand corner of the screen indicating a reel change. On more modern films such ‘burns’ are less distracting, but these ones are quite glaring and obvious.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English 2.0 Dolby Surround only. If ever there was a film that deserved a 5.1 Dolby Digital remaster, you would think that a classic award-winning musical would fit the bill, right? Apparently not.

    Clarity is decent and the range is acceptable, but there is a hollowness to this mix that I found quite unappealing to listen to. Maybe I am just spoiled by 5.1 DTS sound, but there is no full complete feel to the audio track, no roundness that makes it feel real. Instead, we have a blandness which is disappointing.

    Dialogue is generally clear and easy to understand, and the only sync issues were faults in the print, not in the transfer.

    There is little in the way of directional cues, but the rears get some use in attempting to fill out the music and to add crowd ambience inside the Kit Kat Club.

    There is no subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced. The main menu has a small clip from the film and 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio. The other menus are static and silent.

Trivia Quiz

    A series of still frames for a trivia quiz made up of five rounds, with ten questions per round, that is meant to be played with a group of friends much as a trivia night in a pub is played.

Photo Gallery

    Another series of still frames featuring 17 promotional art design and production photos.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The original R1 release is a similarly non-anamorphic transfer. It is also a particularly dirty and grainy transfer marred by MPEG artefacts and film-to-video transfer faults such as aliasing and moire. Having owned this disappointing version for some time now, I was hoping that the R4 release would better it. Sadly, no. The R4 release has slightly better horizontal resolution owing to its PAL format, but otherwise, most of the inherent faults are identical.

    The original R1 release distinguishes itself from the R4 release only in the extras it contains:

   Warner Home Video have seen fit to release a new R1 version in August of 2003 but I am getting conflicting reports as to whether it is 16x9 enhanced or not and whether there has been any improvement in video quality. It still contains all the extras of the original release which puts it ahead of the R4 release.

Summary

    Cabaret is a cult classic musical with a deeper edge inside every scene. A fantastic show that is well worth the time.

    The video is sub-standard and reproduced from an obviously dated master source. Almost as bad as the original R1 release, and really a travesty for a film as well known and regarded as this one.

    The sound is available only in 2.0 Dolby Surround, which does the job but is a little lame otherwise.

    The extras are barely worth rating as extras.

    Overall, a disappointing presentation of a classic. Rent if you must, but as far as purchasing goes, leave this on the shelves until a distributor finally does this film some justice.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Edward McKenzie (I am Jack's raging bio...)
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPanasonic DVD-RV31A-S, using S-Video output
DisplayBeko 28" (16x9). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver.
AmplificationMarantz SR7000
SpeakersEnergy - Front, Rear, Centre & Subwoofer

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