The second feature from director-choreographer Bob Fosse is one of his greatest works in any medium. It’s a dazzling adaptation of the John Kander-Fred Ebb Broadway show, inspired by Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories , and a fine demonstration of how a movie musical rooted in realism can be as satisfying as the more traditional variety. When naïve young Brian Roberts (Michael York as the Isherwood figure) moves into a Berlin boardinghouse in 1931, he is unprepared for his new neighbor—the brash, would-be star Sally Bowles, played by Liza Minnelli in her Oscar-winning, career-defining performance. The film received 10 nominations (including Best Picture) and won eight Oscars, including for Fosse’s direction, Joel Grey’s supporting performance, and the art direction of Rolf Zehetbauer, Jurgen Kiebach and set decorator Herbert Strabel. Their work brought the film’s time and place to life and provided Fosse with a realistically claustrophobic Kit Kat Klub, which nonetheless made room for the filmmaker’s typically thrilling musical numbers.
