1
00:00:00,090 --> 00:00:02,500
The following content is
provided under a Creative

2
00:00:02,500 --> 00:00:04,030
Commons license.

3
00:00:04,030 --> 00:00:06,360
Your support will help
MIT OpenCourseWare

4
00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:10,730
continue to offer high-quality
educational resources for free.

5
00:00:10,730 --> 00:00:13,340
To make a donation, or
view additional materials

6
00:00:13,340 --> 00:00:17,215
from hundreds of MIT courses,
visit MIT OpenCourseWare

7
00:00:17,215 --> 00:00:17,840
at ocw.mit.edu.

8
00:00:21,780 --> 00:00:23,780
DAVID THORBURN: I want
to continue our discourse

9
00:00:23,780 --> 00:00:26,840
about musicals, especially
as a way of trying

10
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,640
to lead into the two remarkable,
in many ways landmark films

11
00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,090
we're going to
juxtapose this evening.

12
00:00:34,090 --> 00:00:37,190
Remember that our plan
here is to juxtapose

13
00:00:37,190 --> 00:00:41,540
one film-- a classic instance,
even a culminating instance

14
00:00:41,540 --> 00:00:43,950
of the studio era
and of the tradition

15
00:00:43,950 --> 00:00:45,640
of the musical in
the studio era--

16
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,360
against another
kind of musical that

17
00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,190
appears after the
advent of television,

18
00:00:51,190 --> 00:00:53,620
and after the studio
system has begun

19
00:00:53,620 --> 00:01:01,630
to break apart, and especially
after the fundamental

20
00:01:01,630 --> 00:01:04,830
transformation that the
audience underwent, migrating

21
00:01:04,830 --> 00:01:08,850
from an habitual, a regular,
a weekly relationship

22
00:01:08,850 --> 00:01:10,830
to Hollywood films,
to essentially

23
00:01:10,830 --> 00:01:15,124
a blockbuster relationship,
in which the vast majority

24
00:01:15,124 --> 00:01:17,040
of Americans would attend
the movies only once

25
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:18,580
or twice a year.

26
00:01:18,580 --> 00:01:20,770
And if you think about
the implications of that,

27
00:01:20,770 --> 00:01:25,720
that fact alone will explain how
profoundly the movie industry

28
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:26,589
was transformed.

29
00:01:26,589 --> 00:01:28,130
Incidentally, I
should mention to you

30
00:01:28,130 --> 00:01:32,000
that this is still not an idea
that has been fully understood

31
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,190
by what I'll call traditional
film historians, who

32
00:01:35,190 --> 00:01:39,690
are so locked into an idea
that film must resemble

33
00:01:39,690 --> 00:01:44,780
the kind of thing that I
watched when I grew up as a boy,

34
00:01:44,780 --> 00:01:47,280
or as a young girl.

35
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:49,420
And now that a
tradition of scholarship

36
00:01:49,420 --> 00:01:51,060
has talked about,
that is to say,

37
00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:53,340
those films that never
were shown on television,

38
00:01:53,340 --> 00:01:55,900
or were never made
for television,

39
00:01:55,900 --> 00:01:56,910
it causes a problem.

40
00:01:56,910 --> 00:01:59,080
Because what these
scholars tend to do is they

41
00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:02,110
ignore the social
context within which

42
00:02:02,110 --> 00:02:05,100
the function of the movies
began to be transformed.

43
00:02:05,100 --> 00:02:07,230
Partly there was a
kind of hostility

44
00:02:07,230 --> 00:02:11,420
on the part of many older film
scholars toward the notion

45
00:02:11,420 --> 00:02:13,910
that television might
be a worthy place

46
00:02:13,910 --> 00:02:18,490
to look for a valuable
cinematic narrative.

47
00:02:18,490 --> 00:02:23,950
And it took a long time
before the community

48
00:02:23,950 --> 00:02:26,070
of film scholars--
even a part of it--

49
00:02:26,070 --> 00:02:29,210
was ready to acknowledge
that television was also

50
00:02:29,210 --> 00:02:33,030
an environment in which cinema--
what we might call cinema

51
00:02:33,030 --> 00:02:36,650
audiovisual narrative--
could be look

52
00:02:36,650 --> 00:02:38,292
at, taken seriously,
and so forth.

53
00:02:38,292 --> 00:02:39,750
And of course,
today it's taken for

54
00:02:39,750 --> 00:02:42,610
granted by many
commentators, many of them

55
00:02:42,610 --> 00:02:46,826
no longer even with a cultural
memory of the studio era,

56
00:02:46,826 --> 00:02:48,200
that what goes on
on television--

57
00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:50,950
that shows like Breaking
Bad or The Sopranos

58
00:02:50,950 --> 00:02:54,510
are the supreme forms of
audiovisual entertainment

59
00:02:54,510 --> 00:02:55,480
in our society.

60
00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:59,400
This too is radically
oversimplified.

61
00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,150
And I will return
to these questions

62
00:03:01,150 --> 00:03:08,060
a bit later when I talk about
the Westerns, and about film

63
00:03:08,060 --> 00:03:11,820
in the '70s, in two weeks.

64
00:03:11,820 --> 00:03:15,020
I want to continue our discourse
about the musical then, first

65
00:03:15,020 --> 00:03:19,610
by giving you a very brief
prospective drawn from the film

66
00:03:19,610 --> 00:03:24,240
scholar Leo Braudy, whose essay
"The Aesthetics of Connection"

67
00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,730
is required reading I think
for this week-- in any case,

68
00:03:27,730 --> 00:03:29,212
for this week or next week.

69
00:03:29,212 --> 00:03:31,170
And he talks in that
essay, among other things,

70
00:03:31,170 --> 00:03:34,191
very richly about the
musical, and about ways

71
00:03:34,191 --> 00:03:35,440
of thinking about the musical.

72
00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,170
And I'm borrowing
from an argument he

73
00:03:38,170 --> 00:03:40,760
makes in that remarkable essay.

74
00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:42,400
He makes a distinction
in that essay,

75
00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:46,950
or a series of comparisons
between Astaire and Kelly,

76
00:03:46,950 --> 00:03:50,560
the two great male
leads we associate

77
00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,450
with the American film musical.

78
00:03:52,450 --> 00:03:56,190
And he sees them very helpfully
as contrasting figures

79
00:03:56,190 --> 00:03:58,740
illustrating what we might
call contrasting elements,

80
00:03:58,740 --> 00:04:03,830
or contrasting tendencies
within the musical form.

81
00:04:03,830 --> 00:04:05,690
If you think about
Astaire-- and you saw him

82
00:04:05,690 --> 00:04:07,500
in one of his
classic performances

83
00:04:07,500 --> 00:04:10,360
at the end of our last lecture,
in that sequence "Cheek

84
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,760
to Cheek," if you think
about Astaire in this way,

85
00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,029
from that sequence
you can get something

86
00:04:16,029 --> 00:04:19,470
of what Braudy had in mind.

87
00:04:19,470 --> 00:04:25,280
He reminds us that Astaire
almost always dances-- and this

88
00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:28,870
is a partial exception in
the film you saw tonight--

89
00:04:28,870 --> 00:04:29,810
only a partial one.

90
00:04:29,810 --> 00:04:35,380
But almost always we
see Astaire dancing

91
00:04:35,380 --> 00:04:38,640
in places that seem
intended for performance.

92
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:43,010
That is to say we
won't see Astaire

93
00:04:43,010 --> 00:04:45,600
dancing in the middle
of a corn field,

94
00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,610
or dancing up the side of
the Empire State Building,

95
00:04:48,610 --> 00:04:52,850
as Frank Sinatra and Gene
Kelly do in a musical-- it's

96
00:04:52,850 --> 00:04:55,040
called On the Town.

97
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:58,610
And it's one of the
wonderful MGM musicals.

98
00:04:58,610 --> 00:05:01,140
Kelly and Sinatra are
dancing in spaces that

99
00:05:01,140 --> 00:05:02,690
are inappropriate for dance.

100
00:05:02,690 --> 00:05:04,790
But almost all of
Astaire's dances

101
00:05:04,790 --> 00:05:07,750
take place either in
literal performance spaces

102
00:05:07,750 --> 00:05:09,690
or in public
environments that seem

103
00:05:09,690 --> 00:05:14,610
as if they're quasi-stage
or dance environments.

104
00:05:14,610 --> 00:05:16,500
In other words, he
dances in spaces

105
00:05:16,500 --> 00:05:17,880
that we expect for dance.

106
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,090
And he doesn't violate
those spaces in some way.

107
00:05:21,090 --> 00:05:24,540
He often in his films plays
either a professional dancer,

108
00:05:24,540 --> 00:05:27,040
or a professional
performer of some kind.

109
00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:29,580
So when he segues
into his performances,

110
00:05:29,580 --> 00:05:32,680
there's a kind of
natural connection.

111
00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,970
He's almost always
very fancily dressed,

112
00:05:35,970 --> 00:05:37,590
as you saw in
tonight's sequence,

113
00:05:37,590 --> 00:05:41,260
sometimes very often
dancing in a tux and tails.

114
00:05:41,260 --> 00:05:44,470
But in any case, in
formal dress of some kind.

115
00:05:44,470 --> 00:05:47,290
So he dances in space is
appropriate for dance,

116
00:05:47,290 --> 00:05:51,470
dressed up in a
kind of formal way,

117
00:05:51,470 --> 00:05:55,580
often playing a professional
dancer or a performer.

118
00:05:55,580 --> 00:05:59,260
But there's an immense grace
and energy in his dancing.

119
00:05:59,260 --> 00:06:02,697
He's one of the
great dancers-- many

120
00:06:02,697 --> 00:06:04,280
would say the greatest
dancer who ever

121
00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:06,430
performed in American movies.

122
00:06:06,430 --> 00:06:10,060
And one way to talk about the
attractions of what he's doing

123
00:06:10,060 --> 00:06:11,980
is we can say that
what he embodies

124
00:06:11,980 --> 00:06:15,510
is the principle of
grace under constraint,

125
00:06:15,510 --> 00:06:17,321
like a great baseball pitcher.

126
00:06:17,321 --> 00:06:17,820
Look.

127
00:06:17,820 --> 00:06:20,670
A lot of people can throw
the ball 97 miles an hour.

128
00:06:20,670 --> 00:06:23,520
But only a very small
number of pitchers

129
00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,580
who make a lot of money can
throw a ball 97 miles an hour

130
00:06:26,580 --> 00:06:28,360
and control where it goes.

131
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,220
And we can say that that kind
of athletic power-- a lot

132
00:06:31,220 --> 00:06:33,860
of athletics
involves this, where

133
00:06:33,860 --> 00:06:38,770
you're trying to control
tremendous physical energy.

134
00:06:38,770 --> 00:06:41,760
And the physical energy has to
be constrained in certain ways.

135
00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:44,780
And part of what we admire
about the expression

136
00:06:44,780 --> 00:06:47,365
of that physical energy is
how constrained or graceful

137
00:06:47,365 --> 00:06:49,070
it can become.

138
00:06:49,070 --> 00:06:50,900
There are many
people who have made

139
00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:52,720
analogies between
Astaire's dancing

140
00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,240
and what great
basketball players do,

141
00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,030
showing tremendous
physical energy,

142
00:06:58,030 --> 00:07:02,430
but also a kind of gracefulness
within the constraints

143
00:07:02,430 --> 00:07:04,800
that are imposed upon them
by the lines on the court,

144
00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,070
by the demands of the basket,
by the claims of gravity when

145
00:07:09,070 --> 00:07:10,640
they jump, and so forth.

146
00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,990
And I make allusion to
these non-dance analogies,

147
00:07:13,990 --> 00:07:16,900
because so many people
seem to respond more fully

148
00:07:16,900 --> 00:07:19,930
to those than to dance itself,
even though those of you who

149
00:07:19,930 --> 00:07:22,960
have danced, or are dancers,
or know serious dancers,

150
00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:25,680
will understand that
dancers themselves

151
00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,010
are much greater athletes
than most athletes,

152
00:07:28,010 --> 00:07:31,370
and that there is a profound
form of athleticism,

153
00:07:31,370 --> 00:07:35,021
of physical energy, grace,
and physical control involved

154
00:07:35,021 --> 00:07:35,520
in dance.

155
00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:38,270
And we see that in
Astaire's performances.

156
00:07:38,270 --> 00:07:42,460
It's as if he stands for a
form of grace under constraint,

157
00:07:42,460 --> 00:07:49,750
of strength and power
constrained but not undermined

158
00:07:49,750 --> 00:07:53,510
by the rules and boundaries
within which it must operate.

159
00:07:53,510 --> 00:07:55,680
It's a form of classical art.

160
00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:00,800
And what we can say is that
Kelly stands for classicism.

161
00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:01,570
I'm sorry.

162
00:08:01,570 --> 00:08:06,360
Astaire stands for
classicism, and Gene Kelly,

163
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,120
who is a kind of opposite
in this way in his dances,

164
00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:10,990
stands for the romantic.

165
00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:14,290
The classic and the romantic
tendencies or energies.

166
00:08:14,290 --> 00:08:16,430
I'm oversimplifying
here, as Braudy does.

167
00:08:16,430 --> 00:08:19,930
But again, it's a useful and
illuminating simplification.

168
00:08:19,930 --> 00:08:21,610
Because we see
Kelly for example,

169
00:08:21,610 --> 00:08:24,020
mostly he doesn't play
professional performers,

170
00:08:24,020 --> 00:08:25,410
or professional dancers.

171
00:08:25,410 --> 00:08:28,930
He almost always wears
ordinary casual clothing--

172
00:08:28,930 --> 00:08:30,905
open shirts, jeans.

173
00:08:34,780 --> 00:08:37,669
And this casualness
of appearance

174
00:08:37,669 --> 00:08:40,789
is matched by the fact that
the dances he engages in often

175
00:08:40,789 --> 00:08:43,840
take place in spaces that are
not appropriate for dance,

176
00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:45,500
or almost hostile to dance.

177
00:08:45,500 --> 00:08:47,050
And one of the
deepest principles

178
00:08:47,050 --> 00:08:50,830
of Kelly's performances--
of Kelly's dances--

179
00:08:50,830 --> 00:08:54,950
in a certain sense is this
contest between his exuberance

180
00:08:54,950 --> 00:08:58,990
and energy, and the
constraints that surround him.

181
00:08:58,990 --> 00:09:03,770
But unlike Astaire, he does
not reveal the power and grace

182
00:09:03,770 --> 00:09:06,490
of his dance by
acknowledging the constraints

183
00:09:06,490 --> 00:09:07,980
and living within them.

184
00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:10,470
The energy of his
dance expresses itself

185
00:09:10,470 --> 00:09:15,150
in the moments when he over-goes
boundaries, when he violates

186
00:09:15,150 --> 00:09:16,880
borders of various kinds.

187
00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:21,270
And there are numerous examples
of this in Singin' in the Rain.

188
00:09:21,270 --> 00:09:24,450
I'll mention some of
them in a little while.

189
00:09:24,450 --> 00:09:27,070
So the contrast between
Kelly and Astaire

190
00:09:27,070 --> 00:09:31,070
in this way-- and
look, in both cases

191
00:09:31,070 --> 00:09:33,580
I've simplified, because
they also resemble each other

192
00:09:33,580 --> 00:09:34,380
in certain ways.

193
00:09:34,380 --> 00:09:37,120
But these tendencies
distill quality.

194
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,690
This argument distills
qualities in them

195
00:09:39,690 --> 00:09:42,290
that clarify certain
energies or tensions that

196
00:09:42,290 --> 00:09:44,620
can be said to be
characteristic,

197
00:09:44,620 --> 00:09:47,990
not only of two dance styles
and the kinds of movies

198
00:09:47,990 --> 00:09:51,350
these two stars are in, but
also in the musical genre

199
00:09:51,350 --> 00:09:53,334
as a whole.

200
00:09:53,334 --> 00:09:54,750
I'd like to say a
couple of things

201
00:09:54,750 --> 00:09:56,200
about each of the
two films we're

202
00:09:56,200 --> 00:10:00,860
going to see tonight,
by way of framing

203
00:10:00,860 --> 00:10:06,070
some of the most important
issues for you to think about.

204
00:10:06,070 --> 00:10:09,345
And these are very
rich, complex texts.

205
00:10:09,345 --> 00:10:12,800
And 20 minutes of conversation,
no matter how pointed,

206
00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:14,540
can never do full
justice to them.

207
00:10:14,540 --> 00:10:16,800
I don't intend to do
full justice to them.

208
00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:19,120
But I want to suggest
some ways for you

209
00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:22,530
to think about aspects of these
films as you're viewing them.

210
00:10:22,530 --> 00:10:25,100
And my hope and expectation
is that these perspectives

211
00:10:25,100 --> 00:10:27,950
will energize and
enliven the film for you,

212
00:10:27,950 --> 00:10:31,290
and cue you in to
aspects of the film

213
00:10:31,290 --> 00:10:33,480
that you might otherwise
not see as deeply,

214
00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:36,430
or might not occur to you
until you reflected on the film

215
00:10:36,430 --> 00:10:37,890
after the case.

216
00:10:37,890 --> 00:10:39,740
One way to think about
Singin' in the Rain,

217
00:10:39,740 --> 00:10:46,220
then-- our example of
a Hollywood musical,

218
00:10:46,220 --> 00:10:48,660
or a culminating instance
of a Hollywood musical--

219
00:10:48,660 --> 00:10:52,330
is to recognize that it belongs
to a subcategory of musicals--

220
00:10:52,330 --> 00:10:54,730
to several subcategories
of musicals, one of which

221
00:10:54,730 --> 00:10:57,630
I've already mentioned--
the putting on the show,

222
00:10:57,630 --> 00:10:58,770
the backstage story.

223
00:10:58,770 --> 00:11:00,830
But here the backstage
story is the story

224
00:11:00,830 --> 00:11:02,510
of a movie, instead of a play.

225
00:11:02,510 --> 00:11:08,260
But it's the same
basic situation.

226
00:11:08,260 --> 00:11:12,120
But it is also sometimes
called a song catalog

227
00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,560
movie, because there's
so many songs in it.

228
00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:16,300
And that's kind of
a kind of catalog,

229
00:11:16,300 --> 00:11:21,760
or an encyclopedic object.

230
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:26,320
An encyclopedia of film,
of music, and of song.

231
00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:30,600
And this is almost literally
true of Singin' in the Rain.

232
00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:34,530
Arthur Freed, the
executive producer

233
00:11:34,530 --> 00:11:39,040
of so many major films--
over 40 MGM musicals

234
00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:44,690
between something
like 1939-- what

235
00:11:44,690 --> 00:11:47,240
was the great musical in 1939?

236
00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,630
The Wizard of Oz-- the first
musical that is thought

237
00:11:50,630 --> 00:11:52,770
to be a musical in color.

238
00:11:52,770 --> 00:11:55,680
And think how organically
The Wizard of Oz uses color.

239
00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:58,200
Arthur Freed was the executive
producer of that film.

240
00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:00,900
From that point until
sometime in the 1960s,

241
00:12:00,900 --> 00:12:03,970
he was the executive
producer or the supervisor

242
00:12:03,970 --> 00:12:06,880
of something like
40-plus MGM musicals,

243
00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,980
of which Singin' in the
Rain is a classic instance.

244
00:12:10,980 --> 00:12:14,790
And so Freed had
worked as a lyricist.

245
00:12:14,790 --> 00:12:18,090
Arthur Freed had worked
as a lyricist at MGM

246
00:12:18,090 --> 00:12:22,300
with Nacio Herb Brown--
the songwriter--

247
00:12:22,300 --> 00:12:23,530
many years earlier.

248
00:12:23,530 --> 00:12:27,810
And most of the songs in
Singin' in the Rain, 1952,

249
00:12:27,810 --> 00:12:32,490
had been introduced in
MGM musicals from 1929 on.

250
00:12:32,490 --> 00:12:34,380
So in a literal sense,
the film is a kind

251
00:12:34,380 --> 00:12:38,010
of encyclopedia of older songs.

252
00:12:38,010 --> 00:12:41,890
And especially two key songs
in the film-- "Broadway Melody"

253
00:12:41,890 --> 00:12:45,210
and "You Were Meant for
Me," were both featured

254
00:12:45,210 --> 00:12:50,790
in that early and
signature musical,

255
00:12:50,790 --> 00:12:53,640
founding musical that I
mentioned this afternoon,

256
00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,890
The Broadway Melody of 1929.

257
00:12:56,890 --> 00:12:58,950
So part of the pleasure
for older members

258
00:12:58,950 --> 00:13:01,580
of the audience
in 1952 would have

259
00:13:01,580 --> 00:13:03,920
been to hear and
see these numbers

260
00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:06,580
in the new, souped-up
arrangements that

261
00:13:06,580 --> 00:13:12,110
were created for this film, and
in such artful performances.

262
00:13:12,110 --> 00:13:15,470
There's one song in the film
that my colleague Martin

263
00:13:15,470 --> 00:13:19,010
Marks-- M-A-R-K-S-- he
sometimes teaches this course

264
00:13:19,010 --> 00:13:20,230
in the spring.

265
00:13:20,230 --> 00:13:22,920
He's a professor of music.

266
00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:24,950
And he sometimes-- and
I encourage all of you

267
00:13:24,950 --> 00:13:28,280
to consider taking it--
teaches an advanced course

268
00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:29,977
in the American musical.

269
00:13:29,977 --> 00:13:31,560
It's a wonderfully
interesting course.

270
00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:33,059
And he knows more
about the musical,

271
00:13:33,059 --> 00:13:35,700
I think, than almost
any living human being.

272
00:13:35,700 --> 00:13:37,910
And I'm stealing from
some of his teaching notes

273
00:13:37,910 --> 00:13:39,590
here when I say this.

274
00:13:39,590 --> 00:13:42,410
One song that Marty
Marks loves to talk about

275
00:13:42,410 --> 00:13:44,980
is a minor song in the film.

276
00:13:44,980 --> 00:13:47,510
And I'm mentioning it because
you might miss it otherwise.

277
00:13:47,510 --> 00:13:49,000
It's called "Would You?"

278
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:54,020
And it's a song that chose
the process of dubbing.

279
00:13:54,020 --> 00:13:58,920
And it's a song that actually
has a kind of a plot,

280
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:01,270
and historical function
within the film.

281
00:14:01,270 --> 00:14:03,160
It comes near the
end of the film.

282
00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:05,620
And when it was
sung in this moment,

283
00:14:05,620 --> 00:14:09,170
it was already old-fashioned
in its original day,

284
00:14:09,170 --> 00:14:13,150
when it was first
written and sung.

285
00:14:13,150 --> 00:14:16,300
And by 1952 it's
much more outmoded,

286
00:14:16,300 --> 00:14:19,410
Professor Marks tells us.

287
00:14:19,410 --> 00:14:21,730
Although it's a simple
and graceful waltz,

288
00:14:21,730 --> 00:14:24,930
it uses an antiquated
diction, for example.

289
00:14:24,930 --> 00:14:27,360
And there are other
signals-- even the fact

290
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,040
that it's a waltz--
that show it to be

291
00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:30,920
kind of old-fashioned in a way.

292
00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,170
But in Singin' in the Rain,
this old-fashioned song

293
00:14:34,170 --> 00:14:37,720
is used to telescope
the process of recording

294
00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,140
for films shot-by-shot.

295
00:14:40,140 --> 00:14:41,060
Watch how it happens.

296
00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:42,330
It's a very exciting moment.

297
00:14:46,110 --> 00:14:49,000
And so what happens then is
that the old-fashioned song

298
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,940
becomes the cornerstone
of the new technology

299
00:14:51,940 --> 00:14:53,160
of sound recording.

300
00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:54,930
Watch how it
happens in the film.

301
00:14:54,930 --> 00:14:56,510
And what this calls
our attention to

302
00:14:56,510 --> 00:15:00,950
is something I've
talked about earlier,

303
00:15:00,950 --> 00:15:04,560
and will return to in a moment--
the idea that in the most

304
00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,854
remarkable works of art we
are surely aware of the fact

305
00:15:07,854 --> 00:15:09,270
that we're in the
presence of what

306
00:15:09,270 --> 00:15:11,520
the literary critics
and the art critics

307
00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:16,210
sometimes call organic form,
in which the form of the text

308
00:15:16,210 --> 00:15:19,300
contributes to its meaning,
in which form and content are

309
00:15:19,300 --> 00:15:22,740
married, can't
really be separated.

310
00:15:22,740 --> 00:15:25,250
That the formal
behavior of the text

311
00:15:25,250 --> 00:15:29,250
enacts or embodies or
articulates or dramatizes

312
00:15:29,250 --> 00:15:31,970
what the film is about,
what the text means.

313
00:15:31,970 --> 00:15:34,660
I'll come back to this point
in a minute with even more

314
00:15:34,660 --> 00:15:39,960
dramatic examples, I hope.

315
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,540
And an added point
about this "Would You?"

316
00:15:42,540 --> 00:15:45,707
song, just this one
sort of minor sequence--

317
00:15:45,707 --> 00:15:47,290
I'm mentioning this
partly to show you

318
00:15:47,290 --> 00:15:48,680
how deeply you
could actually dig

319
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,260
into particular sequences and
particular songs in the film,

320
00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:56,000
and find meaning, relevance,
and complexity there.

321
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:57,790
When Debbie Reynolds,
who sings the song,

322
00:15:57,790 --> 00:16:01,290
looks point blank at Gene
Kelly as she sings it,

323
00:16:01,290 --> 00:16:04,790
she drives home the question of
whether he'll be brave enough

324
00:16:04,790 --> 00:16:08,290
to love her, So it
even implicates itself

325
00:16:08,290 --> 00:16:11,710
in the love story that's
at the heart of the film.

326
00:16:11,710 --> 00:16:16,430
Her singing voice, we might
note ironically and comically,

327
00:16:16,430 --> 00:16:19,040
in this scene is actually
dubbed for this song.

328
00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:20,540
And you'll understand
if you haven't

329
00:16:20,540 --> 00:16:23,730
seen the film why that's a
comic and ironic commentary.

330
00:16:23,730 --> 00:16:25,370
She had the wrong kind of voice.

331
00:16:25,370 --> 00:16:28,820
It was too flat and nasal for
this operetta-like number.

332
00:16:28,820 --> 00:16:30,536
So they dubbed her voice.

333
00:16:30,536 --> 00:16:32,410
So there's a double
irony here, because she's

334
00:16:32,410 --> 00:16:35,320
playing a dubber when
she's singing the song.

335
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:38,110
And you might compare the
voice in "Good Morning,"

336
00:16:38,110 --> 00:16:41,290
another number in the film,
where Debbie Reynolds is really

337
00:16:41,290 --> 00:16:42,160
singing.

338
00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:47,400
And you can see the difference
between the two voices.

339
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:53,470
So the implicit
point that I made

340
00:16:53,470 --> 00:16:56,570
in talking about
this one number,

341
00:16:56,570 --> 00:16:59,560
the "Would You?"
song number, it has

342
00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,450
to do with what we might
call a central element

343
00:17:02,450 --> 00:17:04,550
or feature of
Singin' in the Rain,

344
00:17:04,550 --> 00:17:09,880
its profound self-consciousness,
the profound way in which it

345
00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:13,849
shows itself to be aware of
itself-- to be aware of itself

346
00:17:13,849 --> 00:17:15,819
as a movie, to be
aware of itself

347
00:17:15,819 --> 00:17:19,450
as a bearer of
traditions of singing,

348
00:17:19,450 --> 00:17:21,880
of dancing, and performance.

349
00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:26,250
And so it isn't
simply an encyclopedia

350
00:17:26,250 --> 00:17:27,760
of musical history.

351
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:31,610
It's almost an encyclopedia
of almost all forms

352
00:17:31,610 --> 00:17:32,300
of performance.

353
00:17:32,300 --> 00:17:33,760
I don't want to go too far.

354
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:36,230
But there's many, many
forms of performance

355
00:17:36,230 --> 00:17:41,750
are incorporated in the film's
grasp, in the film's embrace.

356
00:17:41,750 --> 00:17:43,230
All right?

357
00:17:43,230 --> 00:17:47,110
One way we can think of it as
an encyclopedic recapitulation

358
00:17:47,110 --> 00:17:52,200
of the history of musicals,
and of films in general.

359
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,780
As you'll notice when you
look at the film, Singin'

360
00:17:55,780 --> 00:18:01,870
in the Rain begins by being
about the problem of changing

361
00:18:01,870 --> 00:18:06,400
a silent film into a sound film,
because the silent has been

362
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:10,310
made just at that cusp moment
when the transition to sound

363
00:18:10,310 --> 00:18:10,950
is occurring.

364
00:18:10,950 --> 00:18:12,840
And the film in
that sense is also

365
00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:17,520
a wonderful sort of historical
reprise for our course,

366
00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:19,660
even though it wasn't made
for that purpose, alas.

367
00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:24,620
So in the film,
then, we also get

368
00:18:24,620 --> 00:18:26,780
an allusion to and
a representation

369
00:18:26,780 --> 00:18:28,370
of silent movies.

370
00:18:28,370 --> 00:18:31,720
But not just some generic
idea of silent movies--

371
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,750
a very particular kind of
swashbuckler adventure film

372
00:18:35,750 --> 00:18:37,550
is dramatized there.

373
00:18:37,550 --> 00:18:40,670
But then later, in a scene
I mentioned earlier today,

374
00:18:40,670 --> 00:18:43,270
in the audition scene,
the beautiful girls

375
00:18:43,270 --> 00:18:46,940
sequence in Singin' in the
Rain where a megaphone suddenly

376
00:18:46,940 --> 00:18:50,240
turns into a circle of dancers,
alluding to the Busby Berkeley

377
00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:54,010
tradition, we have a
very specific reference

378
00:18:54,010 --> 00:18:57,220
to another kind
of movie musical.

379
00:18:57,220 --> 00:18:59,050
So, juxtaposed
against each other

380
00:18:59,050 --> 00:19:01,160
are two different
kinds of movies,

381
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,530
And I've only mentioned
a couple of examples.

382
00:19:03,530 --> 00:19:05,920
As you watch the film,
you'll see dozens and dozens

383
00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:09,930
of instances in which the
film capaciously reaches back

384
00:19:09,930 --> 00:19:12,570
to older forms of performance,
and tries to incorporate them

385
00:19:12,570 --> 00:19:14,780
in some sense into
its own structure,

386
00:19:14,780 --> 00:19:16,980
into its own energies.

387
00:19:16,980 --> 00:19:19,410
And there are many older
performance forms in the film.

388
00:19:19,410 --> 00:19:23,550
There are forms of slapstick,
and Keaton-like comedy--

389
00:19:23,550 --> 00:19:27,030
especially in Donald O'Connor's
wonderful dance and song

390
00:19:27,030 --> 00:19:28,880
sequence "Make 'em Laugh."

391
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:30,900
There are allusions
and references

392
00:19:30,900 --> 00:19:33,010
and dramatized scenes
from vaudeville,

393
00:19:33,010 --> 00:19:35,325
from jazz, from
what we might call

394
00:19:35,325 --> 00:19:38,930
forms of love melodrama, all
the way through the film.

395
00:19:38,930 --> 00:19:44,410
And I haven't really
cataloged even remotely

396
00:19:44,410 --> 00:19:49,610
all the kinds of performance
spaces and performance types

397
00:19:49,610 --> 00:19:51,700
that the film
incorporates and utilizes

398
00:19:51,700 --> 00:19:54,760
in the course of its length.

399
00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:58,740
Nor have I even begun to list
the number of musical styles--

400
00:19:58,740 --> 00:20:03,160
particular songs and particular
dance styles-- that are also

401
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:04,640
incorporated into the film.

402
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:08,010
But I've said enough to suggest
that Singin' in the Rain

403
00:20:08,010 --> 00:20:10,270
has what might be
called a structural

404
00:20:10,270 --> 00:20:15,140
or a formal exuberance,
a kind of excitement,

405
00:20:15,140 --> 00:20:18,180
as if every time
it turns it wants

406
00:20:18,180 --> 00:20:20,420
to make an allusion to
another kind of text,

407
00:20:20,420 --> 00:20:23,680
as if it feels itself in some
sense with a kind of excitement

408
00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:27,720
and exuberant energy constantly
in touch with its ancestry,

409
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,980
and within ancestry that it
tries to define very generously

410
00:20:30,980 --> 00:20:31,930
and broadly.

411
00:20:31,930 --> 00:20:34,390
And so what we're
saying is that formally,

412
00:20:34,390 --> 00:20:38,030
structurally, the
film is expressing

413
00:20:38,030 --> 00:20:43,040
a special kind of intellectual
energy, excitement, exuberance.

414
00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:46,710
And of course what's interesting
and fundamental about that

415
00:20:46,710 --> 00:20:50,190
is that those energies
are also replicated,

416
00:20:50,190 --> 00:20:54,180
centrally reenacted in
the actual dance sequences

417
00:20:54,180 --> 00:20:58,860
that we see in the film.

418
00:20:58,860 --> 00:21:02,760
It's a profoundly rich example
of what I called a moment ago

419
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:04,410
organic form.

420
00:21:04,410 --> 00:21:06,910
The structure or the
shape of the film

421
00:21:06,910 --> 00:21:09,110
contributes to
our sense not only

422
00:21:09,110 --> 00:21:12,150
that it has a kind of
encyclopedic, self-reflexive

423
00:21:12,150 --> 00:21:14,600
interest in its own
history, and that it's

424
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:19,100
recapitulating its own
history for us as it proceeds.

425
00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:23,920
We also have a deep sense of
the extent to which the film

426
00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,590
understands that many of the
older forms it dramatizes

427
00:21:27,590 --> 00:21:31,360
are now simply being archived,
as if the film understands

428
00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:36,350
itself not only as a
dramatic entertainment,

429
00:21:36,350 --> 00:21:38,280
but also as a kind
of history book,

430
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:40,600
or a kind of encyclopedia--
literally a kind

431
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:45,270
of archive of all the forms of
performance and song and dance

432
00:21:45,270 --> 00:21:48,480
that lie behind the
making of such a film.

433
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,190
And of course that this
formal exuberance, as I said,

434
00:21:51,190 --> 00:21:56,030
is repeated again and again in
an actualized and concrete way

435
00:21:56,030 --> 00:21:58,190
in the story, in
the plot, every time

436
00:21:58,190 --> 00:22:00,330
the characters start
singing or dancing.

437
00:22:00,330 --> 00:22:02,370
And as you'll see,
there's a particular kind

438
00:22:02,370 --> 00:22:06,720
of exuberance and energy
in many of the dances.

439
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:07,470
Key themes.

440
00:22:07,470 --> 00:22:10,120
Well I've already implicitly
been talking about some

441
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:11,520
of the themes.

442
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,220
But let me mention just
two that seem to me

443
00:22:14,220 --> 00:22:16,540
especially significant.

444
00:22:16,540 --> 00:22:19,210
One I've mentioned much earlier.

445
00:22:19,210 --> 00:22:21,050
And I simply want
to remind you again

446
00:22:21,050 --> 00:22:23,880
that this tension between
what might be called high art,

447
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,760
and the pretentious expectations
of a cultural establishment,

448
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,890
are set up for parody
and mockery in this film

449
00:22:30,890 --> 00:22:31,690
repeatedly.

450
00:22:31,690 --> 00:22:36,360
The film is on the side of
the popular and the energetic,

451
00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:39,890
and the unpretentious.

452
00:22:39,890 --> 00:22:43,300
And one can feel that
tension again and again

453
00:22:43,300 --> 00:22:48,410
in many, many of the sequences
in the movie in the film.

454
00:22:51,070 --> 00:22:55,150
Let me give you just
two obvious examples.

455
00:22:55,150 --> 00:22:56,960
In the very opening
sequence of the film,

456
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,090
one of the classic moments in
the history of American movies

457
00:23:00,090 --> 00:23:04,020
replayed again and again
in compilation anthologies

458
00:23:04,020 --> 00:23:07,750
of great moments in Hollywood,
great moments of Hollywood

459
00:23:07,750 --> 00:23:09,940
film, is the
introduction to the film.

460
00:23:09,940 --> 00:23:13,030
And the introduction
to Singin' in the Rain

461
00:23:13,030 --> 00:23:17,220
recreates an
historical actuality

462
00:23:17,220 --> 00:23:19,480
that I need to remind
today's audiences of.

463
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,210
Shows you how old
this course is.

464
00:23:21,210 --> 00:23:23,480
Because when I first began
to teach this course,

465
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:25,280
these practices
were still going on,

466
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:27,830
and the students
still understood,

467
00:23:27,830 --> 00:23:30,830
and in fact had their own
experience of exhibition

468
00:23:30,830 --> 00:23:38,280
movies, and of going to
theaters that were very lavish

469
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:43,277
and, in many ways,
even pretentious.

470
00:23:43,277 --> 00:23:44,860
And what they were
especially aware of

471
00:23:44,860 --> 00:23:46,050
is something I
have to remind you

472
00:23:46,050 --> 00:23:47,800
of now, which is that
very often Hollywood

473
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,830
had a strategy of rolling
out its great blockbuster,

474
00:23:50,830 --> 00:23:52,970
what it hoped would be
great blockbuster films,

475
00:23:52,970 --> 00:23:57,600
with very elaborate
inaugural events.

476
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:00,060
The debut of a film was
often a major event.

477
00:24:00,060 --> 00:24:01,960
And it would be
covered by newspapers.

478
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:06,200
And many Hollywood stars
would come and attend.

479
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,310
And they would turn the
event into a publicity event

480
00:24:09,310 --> 00:24:13,640
partly in order to get publicity
for the release of the film.

481
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:17,590
And Singin' in the Rain
opens with such a moment,

482
00:24:17,590 --> 00:24:19,130
in which a film is opening.

483
00:24:19,130 --> 00:24:25,330
And it dramatizes the
comic hypocrisies that

484
00:24:25,330 --> 00:24:29,190
attend such publicity gestures.

485
00:24:29,190 --> 00:24:33,210
And as the film opens
then, we see a sequence

486
00:24:33,210 --> 00:24:38,680
in which the stars of the film
we're about to see, Gene Kelly,

487
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:39,430
is interviewed.

488
00:24:39,430 --> 00:24:42,500
The star of the film is
interviewed by a reporter.

489
00:24:42,500 --> 00:24:46,850
And he then tells sort of
the story of his career.

490
00:24:46,850 --> 00:24:49,774
But the story that he
tells is fake-- is a lie.

491
00:24:49,774 --> 00:24:50,690
It's very pretentious.

492
00:24:50,690 --> 00:24:54,200
Oh, we went to the
best conservatories.

493
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,190
We were trained by classical
musicians and classical

494
00:24:57,190 --> 00:24:59,440
actors-- "ac-TORS."

495
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:00,760
And he acts very pretentious.

496
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:02,120
But that's what he says.

497
00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:04,270
But what we see,
what is shown to us

498
00:25:04,270 --> 00:25:08,930
is the actual history of how
Don Lockwood and his partner,

499
00:25:08,930 --> 00:25:13,090
his sidekick, played by the
brilliant performer Donald

500
00:25:13,090 --> 00:25:15,920
O'Connor, really
got their start.

501
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:17,710
And so while he
says, we were trained

502
00:25:17,710 --> 00:25:20,060
in the best
conservatories, what we

503
00:25:20,060 --> 00:25:23,650
see are Donald O'Connor
and Gene Kelly dancing

504
00:25:23,650 --> 00:25:24,970
in a burlesque show.

505
00:25:24,970 --> 00:25:29,150
And so that there's this very
obvious, even in some ways

506
00:25:29,150 --> 00:25:35,060
crude mockery or laughter at
the hypocrisies of Hollywood.

507
00:25:35,060 --> 00:25:36,900
And part of what's
being celebrated

508
00:25:36,900 --> 00:25:41,580
there is the exuberance and
energy, of unsanctioned forms

509
00:25:41,580 --> 00:25:44,220
of performance, like
the dances that people

510
00:25:44,220 --> 00:25:48,240
do in burlesque shows, as
against what you do when you go

511
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,460
to the museum, or when
you come to the university

512
00:25:50,460 --> 00:25:54,240
and have your professor
declaim ancient Greek to you

513
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,090
in syllables you have
no understanding of.

514
00:25:57,090 --> 00:26:00,800
So there's one example of
how that theme plays out.

515
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:02,930
But you can find it
in dozens and dozens

516
00:26:02,930 --> 00:26:04,320
of other places in the film.

517
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:09,710
And I hope you'll
watch for such moments.

518
00:26:09,710 --> 00:26:11,410
So I won't give you
my second example.

519
00:26:11,410 --> 00:26:12,740
I'm running out of time.

520
00:26:12,740 --> 00:26:15,900
Let me turn to the
next large theme

521
00:26:15,900 --> 00:26:17,220
I want you to be aware of.

522
00:26:17,220 --> 00:26:19,230
I call it the theme
of outer versus inner.

523
00:26:19,230 --> 00:26:24,980
It's really a variation
on or an extension

524
00:26:24,980 --> 00:26:27,800
of the theme of high versus
popular art, in the sense

525
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,240
that it's also about the
difference between a kind

526
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,940
of pretentious and constraining
and old-fashioned view

527
00:26:34,940 --> 00:26:38,870
of things, and a
more spontaneous

528
00:26:38,870 --> 00:26:42,840
and we might even say
a more spontaneous

529
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:47,134
and popular or democratic
view of things.

530
00:26:47,134 --> 00:26:48,800
And the term I give
it is the difference

531
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,730
between outer and inner, or the
difference between appearance

532
00:26:51,730 --> 00:26:52,710
and reality.

533
00:26:52,710 --> 00:26:55,120
And in fact the example
I just gave you,

534
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:57,830
in which we have Don Lockwood
telling the reporter that he

535
00:26:57,830 --> 00:27:00,380
was educated in the
best conservatories

536
00:27:00,380 --> 00:27:03,790
while we see that he's
dancing in a burlesque show,

537
00:27:03,790 --> 00:27:06,020
is an example of that
kind of thing as well.

538
00:27:06,020 --> 00:27:08,520
But there are many other
very dramatic examples.

539
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:13,320
And I want to mention
one of them now.

540
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:16,880
When the Debbie Reynolds
character-- the love interest

541
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:22,510
of our protagonist-- first meets
the Don Lockwood character--

542
00:27:22,510 --> 00:27:24,550
the character played
by Gene Kelly--

543
00:27:24,550 --> 00:27:26,780
she pretends not to recognize
him, even though he's

544
00:27:26,780 --> 00:27:28,340
a famous movie star.

545
00:27:28,340 --> 00:27:32,260
And she says, oh, she spends
her time watching Shakespeare,

546
00:27:32,260 --> 00:27:34,980
but she doesn't spend much
time watching the movies.

547
00:27:34,980 --> 00:27:37,320
And Don Lockwood is kind
of offended by this.

548
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:40,060
It later turns out-- not
even that much later--

549
00:27:40,060 --> 00:27:42,240
that of course the
Debbie Reynolds character

550
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,910
herself is deeply immersed
in the popular culture.

551
00:27:44,910 --> 00:27:47,120
Right after she makes this
comment to Don Lockwood,

552
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:49,890
or a few minutes
after that, we find

553
00:27:49,890 --> 00:27:55,840
her jumping out of the cake
as a dancer at a party.

554
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,800
And then as more
information emerges later,

555
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,420
we come to recognize, of course,
that she knows a great deal

556
00:28:03,420 --> 00:28:04,300
about Don Lockwood.

557
00:28:04,300 --> 00:28:06,730
She's always been a
tremendous fan of the movies.

558
00:28:06,730 --> 00:28:08,500
But she's been covering it up.

559
00:28:08,500 --> 00:28:11,070
And again and again
in the film we

560
00:28:11,070 --> 00:28:13,710
see this kind of tension
playing itself out,

561
00:28:13,710 --> 00:28:18,510
this tension between a
kind of outer facade.

562
00:28:18,510 --> 00:28:22,190
And the notion is that what
is shown on the outside,

563
00:28:22,190 --> 00:28:27,650
the exterior of things is often
fake, a mere cover for what

564
00:28:27,650 --> 00:28:30,310
is authentic and within,
And you can understand

565
00:28:30,310 --> 00:28:32,640
this in a number of ways.

566
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,350
One of the ways it
plays out in the movie

567
00:28:34,350 --> 00:28:36,410
is the question
of the person who

568
00:28:36,410 --> 00:28:38,080
is in front of the
audience and singing,

569
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:39,874
but it's not really her voice.

570
00:28:39,874 --> 00:28:41,290
It's the voice of
Debbie Reynolds,

571
00:28:41,290 --> 00:28:43,220
who's behind the curtain.

572
00:28:43,220 --> 00:28:48,410
And so that again, this
theme of the artificial

573
00:28:48,410 --> 00:28:51,820
versus the authentic, or
the outer versus the inner,

574
00:28:51,820 --> 00:28:54,260
plays itself out in many,
many ways in the film.

575
00:28:54,260 --> 00:28:58,730
That's part of what makes
the film so coherent, so

576
00:28:58,730 --> 00:29:00,950
dramatically effective
and energetic.

577
00:29:03,510 --> 00:29:06,180
And so another way of
thinking about this sequence,

578
00:29:06,180 --> 00:29:09,890
this idea of the outer person
versus the inner, authentic

579
00:29:09,890 --> 00:29:14,450
person; the outer appearance,
the illusion that film makes,

580
00:29:14,450 --> 00:29:16,200
but what really goes
on behind the scenes.

581
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:18,430
And as you'll discover,
Singin' in the Rain

582
00:29:18,430 --> 00:29:20,470
constantly takes us
behind the scenes

583
00:29:20,470 --> 00:29:24,260
to show us how the illusion
of movies is put together.

584
00:29:24,260 --> 00:29:26,305
And that's a part
of this same theme.

585
00:29:26,305 --> 00:29:28,930
So one of the things I'm trying
to call your attention to again

586
00:29:28,930 --> 00:29:32,350
is the way in which the
central ideas of the film

587
00:29:32,350 --> 00:29:35,070
permeate both its
form and its content

588
00:29:35,070 --> 00:29:38,670
in ways that make it very
difficult to separate.

589
00:29:38,670 --> 00:29:41,430
Finally, one last
fundamental issue

590
00:29:41,430 --> 00:29:43,240
connected to what I've
been saying before,

591
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,360
the way the film
meditates on or dramatizes

592
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,480
an idea about the place of
song and dance in human life.

593
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:53,150
You will have
noticed, of course,

594
00:29:53,150 --> 00:29:55,650
that I myself
feel-- and if you've

595
00:29:55,650 --> 00:29:57,900
seen any of the
performances in this film,

596
00:29:57,900 --> 00:30:01,950
you'll know yourselves-- that a
principle of energy, vitality,

597
00:30:01,950 --> 00:30:04,730
playfulness, exuberance
is almost always

598
00:30:04,730 --> 00:30:07,770
present in the dances
in Singin' in the Rain.

599
00:30:07,770 --> 00:30:10,720
Song and dance is seen
in Singin' in the Rain

600
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,280
as a morally and psychologically
revolutionary experience,

601
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:14,960
I think.

602
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,340
And I use the word "revolution"
in a dangerous way.

603
00:30:17,340 --> 00:30:19,550
I don't mean a politically
revolutionary way,

604
00:30:19,550 --> 00:30:22,531
but I mean in a morally, a
psychologically revolutionary

605
00:30:22,531 --> 00:30:23,030
way.

606
00:30:23,030 --> 00:30:25,960
And so what's going
on in some sense

607
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,110
is the sense that constraint
and convention are constantly

608
00:30:29,110 --> 00:30:33,210
threatened by the exuberance,
spontaneity, energy,

609
00:30:33,210 --> 00:30:36,730
excitement, vitality
of the dance.

610
00:30:36,730 --> 00:30:39,800
And this expresses itself in
all kinds of ways in the film.

611
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,330
Let me just mention a couple
to call your attention to.

612
00:30:42,330 --> 00:30:45,050
You'll discover many,
many other examples.

613
00:30:45,050 --> 00:30:48,530
One is the wonderful sequence,
the Moses supposes sequence.

614
00:30:48,530 --> 00:30:51,760
This is a sequence in which Don
Lockwood and his partner Donald

615
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:53,800
O'Connor have to be
trained, because they're

616
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:55,470
making the transition to sound.

617
00:30:55,470 --> 00:30:58,400
And the studio calls
in an elocution expert,

618
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:02,960
who's dressed up like a very
pretentious old-line professor.

619
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,690
And he's going to teach them how
to pronounce things correctly.

620
00:31:05,690 --> 00:31:07,760
So he comes in,
and he says, I want

621
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:14,230
you to repeat after me-- "Moses
supposes his toses are roses.

622
00:31:14,230 --> 00:31:19,340
But Moses supposes erroneously."

623
00:31:19,340 --> 00:31:20,480
He's also ugly.

624
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:22,390
His teeth are disgusting.

625
00:31:22,390 --> 00:31:24,170
So you're already
offended by the guy

626
00:31:24,170 --> 00:31:27,627
before Don and his
comrade begin to respond.

627
00:31:27,627 --> 00:31:29,710
And also, of course, what's
ridiculous about this?

628
00:31:29,710 --> 00:31:31,340
It's meaningless talk.

629
00:31:31,340 --> 00:31:34,730
He's so interested in making
them pronounce the "O"

630
00:31:34,730 --> 00:31:38,780
vowel properly that he
creates meaningless sentences.

631
00:31:38,780 --> 00:31:43,220
But their meaninglessness amuses
Don Lockwood and his partner.

632
00:31:43,220 --> 00:31:46,850
And essentially what they do
is they take the Moses supposes

633
00:31:46,850 --> 00:31:49,980
lines, and they begin to
sort of make fun of them.

634
00:31:49,980 --> 00:31:53,090
And they begin to make
fun of their interlocutor,

635
00:31:53,090 --> 00:31:53,950
their teacher.

636
00:31:53,950 --> 00:31:57,380
They end up taking a garbage
can and emptying it out

637
00:31:57,380 --> 00:31:59,520
just has paper in it--
putting it on his head.

638
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:01,630
They end up dancing
in a ridiculous way.

639
00:32:01,630 --> 00:32:04,835
So they end up dancing on top of
desks, or up the side of walls.

640
00:32:04,835 --> 00:32:05,960
Again, what are they doing?

641
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,580
Their dances are violating
the normal spaces

642
00:32:08,580 --> 00:32:11,860
in which we expect people to
be walking or standing upright.

643
00:32:11,860 --> 00:32:15,970
The very way in which the dance
violates normal boundaries

644
00:32:15,970 --> 00:32:18,430
creates this sense of
exuberance and of freedom.

645
00:32:18,430 --> 00:32:20,180
So what they're doing
is they're rebelling

646
00:32:20,180 --> 00:32:26,420
against the pretentiousness,
the constraints of this kind

647
00:32:26,420 --> 00:32:29,680
of high-culture expectation.

648
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:34,740
And the song and dance in
the Moses supposes sequence

649
00:32:34,740 --> 00:32:37,270
create a kind of
exuberant chaos in which

650
00:32:37,270 --> 00:32:40,200
they dance on the tables and
make fun of the very elements

651
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,090
that they're supposed
to be learning.

652
00:32:42,090 --> 00:32:43,590
The "Good Morning"
sequence-- one

653
00:32:43,590 --> 00:32:46,390
of the great sequences in the
history of movies, I think--

654
00:32:46,390 --> 00:32:48,250
shows the same thing.

655
00:32:48,250 --> 00:32:51,300
It takes place at breakfast
in an ordinary domestic space,

656
00:32:51,300 --> 00:32:53,900
which is transfigured
or transformed,

657
00:32:53,900 --> 00:32:55,670
including the
props, in something

658
00:32:55,670 --> 00:32:58,890
we might imagine Chaplin
doing such imaginative things,

659
00:32:58,890 --> 00:33:03,690
in which the ordinary props
of the kitchen become partners

660
00:33:03,690 --> 00:33:06,340
in the dance, become elements
in the dance-- what we feel

661
00:33:06,340 --> 00:33:10,610
is the imaginative power
of love and of performance

662
00:33:10,610 --> 00:33:13,000
transforming an ordinary space.

663
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,960
And we can see this
principle operating

664
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:17,860
with an even greater
force in the title

665
00:33:17,860 --> 00:33:21,280
sequence of the film-- probably
the most famous sequence

666
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,860
of dance in the history
of Hollywood, the Singin'

667
00:33:24,860 --> 00:33:27,130
in the Rain sequence itself.

668
00:33:27,130 --> 00:33:28,310
We see the rain itself.

669
00:33:28,310 --> 00:33:30,180
What a funny place
to be dancing,

670
00:33:30,180 --> 00:33:31,350
There's a contradiction.

671
00:33:31,350 --> 00:33:34,190
But your exuberance, your
energy, your sense of love

672
00:33:34,190 --> 00:33:36,900
is so great that even
rain doesn't matter.

673
00:33:36,900 --> 00:33:38,080
And watch what happens.

674
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,320
He has an umbrella, but he
doesn't use the umbrella

675
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,380
to protect him from the rain,
violating our expectation.

676
00:33:43,380 --> 00:33:45,296
There's one wonderful
moment in the film where

677
00:33:45,296 --> 00:33:47,410
he hands the umbrella in
the midst of pouring rain

678
00:33:47,410 --> 00:33:51,537
to someone else, to a
pedestrian who goes by,

679
00:33:51,537 --> 00:33:53,495
There's a moment when
he's dancing in the rain.

680
00:33:53,495 --> 00:33:54,660
He puts the umbrella down.

681
00:33:54,660 --> 00:33:55,410
The rain's coming.

682
00:33:55,410 --> 00:33:57,368
But he doesn't have enough
rain pouring on him.

683
00:33:57,368 --> 00:34:00,510
He steps under a downspout to
have even more rain come down

684
00:34:00,510 --> 00:34:01,010
on him.

685
00:34:01,010 --> 00:34:04,330
And when we experience
this, one of the reasons

686
00:34:04,330 --> 00:34:08,100
we experience this as joyful,
and as assertive, and as

687
00:34:08,100 --> 00:34:10,960
individualizing, is
the sense we have

688
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:13,670
that these are exactly not
things that people normally do.

689
00:34:13,670 --> 00:34:16,929
He's over-going or violating
certain conventions

690
00:34:16,929 --> 00:34:18,389
or literal boundaries.

691
00:34:18,389 --> 00:34:21,520
And there's one moment in
the dance, very dramatic.

692
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:23,510
And I know this
incidentally, not

693
00:34:23,510 --> 00:34:25,000
because I've
discovered it myself,

694
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,217
but because 20 years ago or
15 years ago in this course

695
00:34:28,217 --> 00:34:30,300
a student who later went
on to work in Hollywood--

696
00:34:30,300 --> 00:34:31,341
and he still works there.

697
00:34:31,341 --> 00:34:32,800
He's a sound genius.

698
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:35,590
He was an MIT engineer
who loved this course,

699
00:34:35,590 --> 00:34:37,130
and was a musician as well.

700
00:34:37,130 --> 00:34:40,929
He wrote a paper for
me about that sequence.

701
00:34:40,929 --> 00:34:42,120
And he showed me this.

702
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,330
And I'm sure that some
smart critics also saw it,

703
00:34:45,330 --> 00:34:46,980
but I learned this
from an MIT student

704
00:34:46,980 --> 00:34:49,150
in this course
about 15 years ago.

705
00:34:49,150 --> 00:34:51,392
He analyzed the dance
sequence very closely.

706
00:34:51,392 --> 00:34:52,850
And one of the
things he showed was

707
00:34:52,850 --> 00:34:54,639
that the decisive
moment in the dance

708
00:34:54,639 --> 00:34:58,120
occurs-- or a decisive
moment in the dance

709
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,480
occurs-- when the Kelly
character suddenly-- he's

710
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,430
dancing on the
sidewalk-- jumps off

711
00:35:02,430 --> 00:35:06,050
the sidewalk across the
curb into the street.

712
00:35:06,050 --> 00:35:08,979
And psychologically it has a
tremendously profound effect,

713
00:35:08,979 --> 00:35:10,520
because you don't
walk in the street,

714
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:12,080
much less dance in the street.

715
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,300
The street is for cars.

716
00:35:15,300 --> 00:35:17,690
But that violation
of the boundary

717
00:35:17,690 --> 00:35:19,950
expresses the sense
of exuberance,

718
00:35:19,950 --> 00:35:26,120
of freedom that is the
essential meaning of what

719
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,380
these dances represent.

720
00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:32,210
So energy, spontaneous feeling,
performing and over-going

721
00:35:32,210 --> 00:35:34,240
limits is one of
the things that's

722
00:35:34,240 --> 00:35:37,270
being expressed in the
exuberance of the film's

723
00:35:37,270 --> 00:35:41,650
formal structure, in its
encyclopedic reaching out

724
00:35:41,650 --> 00:35:44,100
to other forms which
it was to incorporate

725
00:35:44,100 --> 00:35:47,050
into itself, and in its
particular dance and song

726
00:35:47,050 --> 00:35:48,550
sequences.

727
00:35:48,550 --> 00:35:51,150
And this energy,
this celebration

728
00:35:51,150 --> 00:35:54,790
of transformative energy, of
the over-going of boundaries,

729
00:35:54,790 --> 00:35:57,080
strikes me as
particularly American,

730
00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:00,460
as a uniquely
interesting expression

731
00:36:00,460 --> 00:36:01,960
of what people have
sometimes called

732
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:06,050
American optimism, and even
of the democratic spirit,

733
00:36:06,050 --> 00:36:11,390
of the openness that we
associate with our ideals--

734
00:36:11,390 --> 00:36:15,250
not the reality, but our
ideals-- of democratic society.

735
00:36:15,250 --> 00:36:17,250
What these dances
and songs tell us

736
00:36:17,250 --> 00:36:21,270
then about the place of
dance and song in our lives,

737
00:36:21,270 --> 00:36:24,530
the idea that you would begin
to dance in a space unused

738
00:36:24,530 --> 00:36:28,730
to dance, hostile to dance,
transforms the space.

739
00:36:28,730 --> 00:36:31,030
So what this film then
says about these things is

740
00:36:31,030 --> 00:36:36,110
that our speech can be nudged
into song, our way of walking

741
00:36:36,110 --> 00:36:39,690
can be edged into a dance,
and that the ordinary objects

742
00:36:39,690 --> 00:36:42,540
in our domestic
and public spaces

743
00:36:42,540 --> 00:36:48,067
can become props in
an improvised ballet.

744
00:36:48,067 --> 00:36:49,650
When we turn to
Cabaret, we're looking

745
00:36:49,650 --> 00:36:52,140
at a very different
kind of object.

746
00:36:52,140 --> 00:36:55,540
And it's important to recognize
what I mentioned earlier,

747
00:36:55,540 --> 00:36:58,420
and I will develop more fully
in a couple of weeks, the fact

748
00:36:58,420 --> 00:37:00,850
that now we have gone
almost beyond genre.

749
00:37:00,850 --> 00:37:02,630
There are people
who would argue--

750
00:37:02,630 --> 00:37:06,570
and there are purists,
scholars of the musical film

751
00:37:06,570 --> 00:37:09,180
who want to argue that,
well, Cabaret really

752
00:37:09,180 --> 00:37:11,170
isn't a musical for
a variety of reasons.

753
00:37:11,170 --> 00:37:13,780
It seems to me a very strange
and unhelpful argument.

754
00:37:13,780 --> 00:37:15,770
But I think if you
watch the film closely,

755
00:37:15,770 --> 00:37:19,180
you'll understand why
people who are partisans

756
00:37:19,180 --> 00:37:22,980
of the great Hollywood musical
tradition, or even the older

757
00:37:22,980 --> 00:37:26,530
operatic tradition
represented by value directors

758
00:37:26,530 --> 00:37:30,540
like Rouben Mamoulian would
have problems fitting Cabaret

759
00:37:30,540 --> 00:37:32,490
into the category of musical.

760
00:37:32,490 --> 00:37:34,610
I think it's a
misunderstanding of how

761
00:37:34,610 --> 00:37:36,220
we should think about musicals.

762
00:37:36,220 --> 00:37:41,660
But for the moment, let me just
encourage you to watch the film

763
00:37:41,660 --> 00:37:43,470
and think about
how different it is

764
00:37:43,470 --> 00:37:46,180
from traditional musicals--
and especially its tone,

765
00:37:46,180 --> 00:37:50,740
its moral perspective.

766
00:37:50,740 --> 00:37:55,046
But also it's in its structure.

767
00:37:55,046 --> 00:37:56,670
Think about that,
and you'll understand

768
00:37:56,670 --> 00:38:02,500
more fully why it's easy to see
that this film would be very

769
00:38:02,500 --> 00:38:05,990
unlikely to have been
made in the Hollywood era,

770
00:38:05,990 --> 00:38:09,430
that it required the
kind of freedom that

771
00:38:09,430 --> 00:38:13,570
came to film after film
was no longer constrained

772
00:38:13,570 --> 00:38:17,530
by the necessity to speak
in a consensus voice.

773
00:38:17,530 --> 00:38:19,320
And as I said,
these are matters I

774
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,370
will try to clarify and
conclude in two weeks

775
00:38:22,370 --> 00:38:25,510
when I return to this question,
when we talk about film

776
00:38:25,510 --> 00:38:28,350
in the '70s, and the
great '70s Western--

777
00:38:28,350 --> 00:38:33,350
almost contemporary with
Cabaret-- Robert Altman's

778
00:38:33,350 --> 00:38:36,370
McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

779
00:38:36,370 --> 00:38:39,330
I had hoped to say a number of
things about Fosse's career,

780
00:38:39,330 --> 00:38:40,250
but I don't have time.

781
00:38:40,250 --> 00:38:43,250
And I'm just going to
encourage you-- look him up.

782
00:38:43,250 --> 00:38:46,990
He's a very, very
remarkable figure.

783
00:38:46,990 --> 00:38:53,120
I call him "The Inheritor"
because he was both a Broadway

784
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:55,760
director and
choreographer and a dancer

785
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,500
both on Broadway and in films.

786
00:38:57,500 --> 00:39:03,230
And he performed and directed
both on Broadway and in films.

787
00:39:03,230 --> 00:39:05,830
He was first a
choreographer in films

788
00:39:05,830 --> 00:39:07,360
before he became a director.

789
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:10,500
And in this career as a
performer and choreographer,

790
00:39:10,500 --> 00:39:13,180
he linked up with almost
all the other great names

791
00:39:13,180 --> 00:39:16,560
of the American musical
stage-- both the Broadway stage

792
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:18,350
and the Hollywood tradition.

793
00:39:18,350 --> 00:39:22,760
And in that sense, we
can say that Bob Fosse

794
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:26,390
is the inheritor of
the great tradition

795
00:39:26,390 --> 00:39:27,650
of the American musical.

796
00:39:27,650 --> 00:39:29,600
And I wish I could go
into detail about this

797
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:31,570
and show you how
many affiliations

798
00:39:31,570 --> 00:39:34,770
and specific connections he
has with the great figures

799
00:39:34,770 --> 00:39:36,770
of the classical age
of American movies,

800
00:39:36,770 --> 00:39:41,070
and especially the classical
age of the American musical.

801
00:39:41,070 --> 00:39:44,780
But suffice it to say that it's
a very rich set of connections.

802
00:39:44,780 --> 00:39:47,600
And his career is a
very remarkable career,

803
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,830
a very honored career.

804
00:39:50,830 --> 00:39:54,125
Let me mention one fact
about his career, perhaps

805
00:39:54,125 --> 00:39:56,870
the most remarkable
one, easy to remember.

806
00:39:56,870 --> 00:40:01,580
Tells you something
about his diversity

807
00:40:01,580 --> 00:40:03,960
as a director, his
gifts, his ambition.

808
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:08,590
In 1973, Bob Fosse I think
became the only man in history

809
00:40:08,590 --> 00:40:17,850
to win an Oscar, a Tony, and
an Emmy-- an Oscar for Cabaret

810
00:40:17,850 --> 00:40:24,915
as best director, and a Tony
for-- or maybe he either he

811
00:40:24,915 --> 00:40:26,920
won as best director
or the play that he

812
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,600
directed on Broadway-- Pippin
won as best play on Broadway.

813
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,570
And he also won a
television Emmy for a show

814
00:40:33,570 --> 00:40:36,280
starring Liza Minnelli,
the star in Cabaret,

815
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:39,290
called Liza with a
'Z.' So And I think

816
00:40:39,290 --> 00:40:42,310
he's the only man in history
for whom those three awards came

817
00:40:42,310 --> 00:40:47,800
in the same year for
three different texts.

818
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:52,090
He directed one, two,
three, four, five films,

819
00:40:52,090 --> 00:40:53,920
of which Cabaret was the second.

820
00:40:56,590 --> 00:41:02,050
The last four are all very
remarkable and interesting

821
00:41:02,050 --> 00:41:03,660
texts.

822
00:41:03,660 --> 00:41:05,250
I won't talk about
them here, except

823
00:41:05,250 --> 00:41:07,458
to encourage you to look
him up and think about them.

824
00:41:07,458 --> 00:41:11,590
The theme of performance and
the idea of the characters

825
00:41:11,590 --> 00:41:17,770
who are themselves
performers are always

826
00:41:17,770 --> 00:41:20,340
at the center of his films.

827
00:41:20,340 --> 00:41:22,280
Not all of his
films involve dance.

828
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:24,930
He made a film about
the life of Lenny Bruce

829
00:41:24,930 --> 00:41:27,250
called Lenny starring
Dustin Hoffman,

830
00:41:27,250 --> 00:41:30,090
for example, that doesn't
have musical numbers in it.

831
00:41:30,090 --> 00:41:31,860
But it has many
performance numbers in it.

832
00:41:31,860 --> 00:41:37,160
And it's a very rich,
complex, sophisticated film.

833
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:43,650
So an interesting and
profoundly serious director.

834
00:41:43,650 --> 00:41:45,550
I wish I could say
more about his career.

835
00:41:45,550 --> 00:41:47,890
I want to say a word about
the context of Cabaret,

836
00:41:47,890 --> 00:41:51,310
so you'll understand that aspect
of the film more fully, too.

837
00:41:51,310 --> 00:41:56,400
It's set in Weimar Germany,
that curious time in the 1920s

838
00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:00,570
during the rise of Nazism,
but long before Hitler

839
00:42:00,570 --> 00:42:03,110
has come to power,
in which the Weimar

840
00:42:03,110 --> 00:42:08,940
Republic, a vulnerable
and unstable democracy,

841
00:42:08,940 --> 00:42:11,310
but a democracy in
which an enormous amount

842
00:42:11,310 --> 00:42:16,370
of artistic and literary
experimentation was taking

843
00:42:16,370 --> 00:42:17,020
place.

844
00:42:17,020 --> 00:42:19,750
It's the period of
German expressionism.

845
00:42:19,750 --> 00:42:22,630
It's the period of the
great German silent films

846
00:42:22,630 --> 00:42:24,520
that we talked about earlier.

847
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:28,300
And so our film Cabaret
is set in that era,

848
00:42:28,300 --> 00:42:31,560
and in that driven
era, in that divided

849
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:35,960
era in which the rise of Nazism
was coupled with or joined to

850
00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:42,250
and connected to the fact
that German society was

851
00:42:42,250 --> 00:42:44,690
under immense
constraints, because it

852
00:42:44,690 --> 00:42:46,840
had lost the first World War.

853
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,910
Conditions under which they
had been forced to surrender

854
00:42:49,910 --> 00:42:51,640
were very onerous.

855
00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:53,870
There was very high
levels of unemployment.

856
00:42:53,870 --> 00:42:58,450
It was a schizophrenically
divided society,

857
00:42:58,450 --> 00:43:00,990
a society of great
artistic energies,

858
00:43:00,990 --> 00:43:03,840
but of great political
divisions and

859
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:08,030
difficulties, and
nightmare possibilities

860
00:43:08,030 --> 00:43:13,190
that were lurking in
many of its practices.

861
00:43:13,190 --> 00:43:16,190
And there's a link-- or
at least a partial link--

862
00:43:16,190 --> 00:43:18,960
between the instability
and the excitement,

863
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:23,010
but also the dividedness
of Weimar Germany,

864
00:43:23,010 --> 00:43:25,750
and the actual condition of
the United States in the era

865
00:43:25,750 --> 00:43:28,040
when the movie came
out, Because this

866
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:29,830
is the period at
the end of the '60s,

867
00:43:29,830 --> 00:43:31,960
after the late '60s
and early '70s,

868
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,280
probably the most divided
time in American history

869
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:39,020
after the Second World War
before our current moment.

870
00:43:39,020 --> 00:43:41,830
And in fact, the divisions
then were more legitimate.

871
00:43:41,830 --> 00:43:44,920
By more legitimate, I mean
they had a more sensible cause.

872
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,660
There were terrible
wars going on.

873
00:43:47,660 --> 00:43:53,160
There were better reasons
for the partisanship that

874
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:55,860
occurred in the late
'60s and early '70s

875
00:43:55,860 --> 00:43:58,430
than there are for the weird
partisanship we're suffering

876
00:43:58,430 --> 00:44:00,780
in the United States today.

877
00:44:00,780 --> 00:44:03,390
And in any case, there
was a much greater sense

878
00:44:03,390 --> 00:44:06,400
in the late '60s and
early '70s that the fabric

879
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:09,480
of American society was under
attack, that it was imperfect,

880
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,380
not only because the
Vietnam War had so

881
00:44:11,380 --> 00:44:14,170
divided the country
against itself, but because

882
00:44:14,170 --> 00:44:17,670
of other matters as well,
including the increasing

883
00:44:17,670 --> 00:44:20,460
militancy of the
civil rights movement,

884
00:44:20,460 --> 00:44:28,970
which had gone from a sort
of a Martin Luther King type

885
00:44:28,970 --> 00:44:35,120
commitment to nonviolent
protest into much more

886
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,350
disturbing and sometimes
violent confrontations

887
00:44:38,350 --> 00:44:41,800
with authorities, and with some
theorists and speakers actually

888
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:44,690
calling for violence.

889
00:44:44,690 --> 00:44:47,300
And this racial tension
was then coupled

890
00:44:47,300 --> 00:44:50,200
by another kind of political
tension coming from the people,

891
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:52,454
from the young men and
women-- who were mostly

892
00:44:52,454 --> 00:44:54,870
young men and women-- who were
opposed to the Vietnam War.

893
00:44:54,870 --> 00:44:57,180
So it was a very driven
and disturbed time.

894
00:44:57,180 --> 00:45:00,260
There were then parallels
between the instability

895
00:45:00,260 --> 00:45:03,290
and the disturbance
of the Weimar period

896
00:45:03,290 --> 00:45:06,070
and the period in which
the film appeared.

897
00:45:06,070 --> 00:45:08,350
And the original
audiences, I think,

898
00:45:08,350 --> 00:45:11,730
would have been highly
aware of this connection,

899
00:45:11,730 --> 00:45:16,500
would have seen that although
the film was set in the past,

900
00:45:16,500 --> 00:45:20,190
it spoke to the contemporary
moment in a very powerful way.

901
00:45:20,190 --> 00:45:23,930
I want also remind
you that there

902
00:45:23,930 --> 00:45:30,849
are certain aspects of
the style of Cabaret

903
00:45:30,849 --> 00:45:32,140
that are worth keeping in mind.

904
00:45:32,140 --> 00:45:34,210
And one way to
think about this is

905
00:45:34,210 --> 00:45:40,170
to recognize that both mis en
scene style and montage style

906
00:45:40,170 --> 00:45:46,040
are embodied in the film,
and are carried to extremes

907
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:47,400
in certain moments of the film.

908
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,170
That is to say, in many of
the performance sequences

909
00:45:50,170 --> 00:45:53,180
in the film, the camera behaves
in an unbelievably frenetic and

910
00:45:53,180 --> 00:45:59,330
frantic way-- changes your
eye angle, jumps around a lot,

911
00:45:59,330 --> 00:46:02,120
disorients you sometimes--
almost disorients you

912
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:04,650
in the style of a Hitchcock.

913
00:46:04,650 --> 00:46:06,970
And yet in other sequences
in the film, especially

914
00:46:06,970 --> 00:46:10,200
those outside the cabaret that
take place in ordinary life,

915
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,390
not in a performance space,
the camera and the editing

916
00:46:13,390 --> 00:46:16,570
slow down and become more like
a kind of mise en scene style.

917
00:46:16,570 --> 00:46:18,710
And the combination of
the two is especially

918
00:46:18,710 --> 00:46:19,840
rich and interesting.

919
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:22,240
You might want to watch for
the way these rhythms alter

920
00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:24,710
your sense of what's
happening in the film,

921
00:46:24,710 --> 00:46:27,800
the way the film slows down,
and speeds up at certain point.

922
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,760
And I mean this literally in
terms of the number of images

923
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:32,930
that go by quickly, but
also in terms of the way

924
00:46:32,930 --> 00:46:35,410
the physical bodies
of the performers

925
00:46:35,410 --> 00:46:37,030
move across the screen.

926
00:46:37,030 --> 00:46:39,220
And of course the way
in which the camera

927
00:46:39,220 --> 00:46:43,300
itself behaves,
whether it's jittery,

928
00:46:43,300 --> 00:46:44,720
oriented toward
constant movement;

929
00:46:44,720 --> 00:46:46,750
or whether it's more
stable and gives you

930
00:46:46,750 --> 00:46:50,930
a chance to look
at the environment

931
00:46:50,930 --> 00:46:54,570
this scene is set in.

932
00:46:54,570 --> 00:46:57,580
One way I could give you a sense
of the richness of the film

933
00:46:57,580 --> 00:47:00,950
is to remind you that there's a
kind of texture or multiplicity

934
00:47:00,950 --> 00:47:04,130
in Cabaret in almost every
moment, that if you watch

935
00:47:04,130 --> 00:47:05,960
for it, and you're
attentive to it,

936
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:07,410
you will always be rewarded.

937
00:47:07,410 --> 00:47:10,000
Let me just give you
two very quick examples

938
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:11,180
of what I mean by this.

939
00:47:11,180 --> 00:47:14,310
Remember I suggested to you that
this principle of multiplicity

940
00:47:14,310 --> 00:47:16,790
is one of the principles
we turn to if we want

941
00:47:16,790 --> 00:47:18,730
to recognize a work of art.

942
00:47:18,730 --> 00:47:20,460
The difference
between a work of art

943
00:47:20,460 --> 00:47:23,800
and an entertainment in my
terms is that a work of art

944
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:24,890
is just more intelligent.

945
00:47:24,890 --> 00:47:28,220
That is to say, it makes more
complex use of its materials.

946
00:47:28,220 --> 00:47:31,780
So that in a entertainment,
a particular event or gesture

947
00:47:31,780 --> 00:47:33,339
may have only one function.

948
00:47:33,339 --> 00:47:35,630
But in a work of art, you
will have multiple functions.

949
00:47:35,630 --> 00:47:39,530
It will perform several
jobs simultaneously.

950
00:47:39,530 --> 00:47:42,140
I'll give you two
examples of this.

951
00:47:42,140 --> 00:47:45,100
Think about what takes place
on the periphery of what

952
00:47:45,100 --> 00:47:47,710
you're watching, and you'll
begin to get some sense of one

953
00:47:47,710 --> 00:47:52,254
way in which the texture of this
film brings the material alive.

954
00:47:52,254 --> 00:47:54,420
There's one moment I think
fairly early in the film.

955
00:47:54,420 --> 00:47:55,253
It's a street scene.

956
00:47:55,253 --> 00:47:57,380
We're not paying much
attention to what's going on.

957
00:47:57,380 --> 00:48:02,740
We see, I think, the protagonist
walking in the street.

958
00:48:02,740 --> 00:48:06,990
And around on the
periphery-- certainly not

959
00:48:06,990 --> 00:48:08,770
in the center of
the frame, nothing

960
00:48:08,770 --> 00:48:11,340
that is commented on
by the characters--

961
00:48:11,340 --> 00:48:15,460
a cripple slides by on one
of those wheeled platforms

962
00:48:15,460 --> 00:48:19,400
that people without legs
sometimes used in major cities

963
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:21,660
before-- maybe
they still happen.

964
00:48:21,660 --> 00:48:26,325
But they were very common in the
first half of the 20th century.

965
00:48:26,325 --> 00:48:27,210
And we see this guy.

966
00:48:27,210 --> 00:48:31,050
Obviously he's a wounded
veteran, and he's an amputee.

967
00:48:31,050 --> 00:48:32,950
And he pushes himself
along on this cart.

968
00:48:32,950 --> 00:48:34,910
And we just see him go by.

969
00:48:34,910 --> 00:48:36,600
But what's
interesting about that

970
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:38,800
is that this cripple
on the platform

971
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:40,620
has a little flag
on his platform.

972
00:48:40,620 --> 00:48:42,500
Guess what kind of a flag it is?

973
00:48:42,500 --> 00:48:45,250
It's a Nazi flag.

974
00:48:45,250 --> 00:48:47,530
And this is early in the
film, before the Nazis

975
00:48:47,530 --> 00:48:49,310
have become a powerful force.

976
00:48:49,310 --> 00:48:52,040
The rise of Nazism is in
the background of film,

977
00:48:52,040 --> 00:48:53,760
as you will see.

978
00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:55,490
The Nazis moved
from the periphery

979
00:48:55,490 --> 00:48:58,920
to the center of the frame
before the film is over.

980
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:02,750
And that's the fundamental
historical motion of the film.

981
00:49:02,750 --> 00:49:04,820
But all of that's taking
place in the background.

982
00:49:04,820 --> 00:49:07,170
The foreground are the
central characters,

983
00:49:07,170 --> 00:49:12,200
and the comic and innocent--
and ultimately not so comic,

984
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:14,330
disturbing love affairs
and difficulties

985
00:49:14,330 --> 00:49:17,240
that they encounter
in this environment.

986
00:49:17,240 --> 00:49:19,550
They're too naive or
innocent to understand

987
00:49:19,550 --> 00:49:22,910
the historical forces
that are surrounding them.

988
00:49:22,910 --> 00:49:26,962
So that example of the
Nazi flag and this crippled

989
00:49:26,962 --> 00:49:28,920
figure-- because the
crippled figure is in fact

990
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:35,600
an allusion to the
onerous demands that

991
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:39,340
were put upon Germany by
France and the other allies

992
00:49:39,340 --> 00:49:40,460
at the end of the war.

993
00:49:40,460 --> 00:49:42,600
And he's crippled.

994
00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:45,645
So the assumption is he's
probably a war veteran.

995
00:49:45,645 --> 00:49:47,020
I don't remember
if he's actually

996
00:49:47,020 --> 00:49:48,960
wearing a uniform, which
would confirm this.

997
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:49,820
And it would be
helpful if he were.

998
00:49:49,820 --> 00:49:50,700
But I don't remember.

999
00:49:50,700 --> 00:49:52,010
Watch for it, and you'll see.

1000
00:49:52,010 --> 00:49:54,700
But in any case,
he refers to that.

1001
00:49:54,700 --> 00:49:57,090
Anyone attentive to
the firm can recognize

1002
00:49:57,090 --> 00:50:01,560
that the historical
texture of the film

1003
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:03,720
is carried by such moments.

1004
00:50:03,720 --> 00:50:06,020
There's another such
moment, also so minor

1005
00:50:06,020 --> 00:50:07,630
that you might not notice it.

1006
00:50:07,630 --> 00:50:09,650
The foreground is
the love affair,

1007
00:50:09,650 --> 00:50:12,260
or not yet a love affair, but
the acquaintance, the deepening

1008
00:50:12,260 --> 00:50:14,500
friendship between
the two protagonists--

1009
00:50:14,500 --> 00:50:16,240
Sally Bowles and her boyfriend.

1010
00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:18,670
And they go out for
a walk in Berlin.

1011
00:50:18,670 --> 00:50:22,380
And Sally pretends that she's
this immensely sophisticated

1012
00:50:22,380 --> 00:50:23,210
woman.

1013
00:50:23,210 --> 00:50:26,345
Turns out that she's fooling
herself and fooling us.

1014
00:50:26,345 --> 00:50:27,720
She's not at all,
even though she

1015
00:50:27,720 --> 00:50:29,840
pretends to a great
kind of sophistication.

1016
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,370
And she sings dirty
songs in a cabaret,

1017
00:50:32,370 --> 00:50:34,230
and she performs
in a cabaret where

1018
00:50:34,230 --> 00:50:35,910
they make jokes
about everything,

1019
00:50:35,910 --> 00:50:38,590
including all forms
of sexual perversion.

1020
00:50:38,590 --> 00:50:40,200
Nonetheless, she's an innocent.

1021
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:43,570
She has no way of recognizing
the depth and complexity

1022
00:50:43,570 --> 00:50:47,580
of the moral evil and
moral terror that's

1023
00:50:47,580 --> 00:50:48,470
building around her.

1024
00:50:48,470 --> 00:50:49,770
And she's not alone in this.

1025
00:50:49,770 --> 00:50:52,280
Most of the other characters
in the foreground of the film

1026
00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:56,020
perform this same naive
ballet, although Sally Bowles

1027
00:50:56,020 --> 00:50:58,070
is the most powerful
instance of it.

1028
00:50:58,070 --> 00:51:00,957
It is certainly Liza
Minnelli's greatest role.

1029
00:51:00,957 --> 00:51:02,790
Certainly the role that
she'll be remembered

1030
00:51:02,790 --> 00:51:04,700
for long after she's dead.

1031
00:51:04,700 --> 00:51:06,800
Long after we're
all in the ground,

1032
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:08,800
Liza Minnelli's
performance in this film

1033
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:13,040
will still be treasured
and savored, I think.

1034
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:15,280
So another instance
of the multiplicity.

1035
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:20,000
When we find the two characters
are walking in the street,

1036
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,250
and Sally says, oh, I want
to show you something I do.

1037
00:51:22,250 --> 00:51:23,780
And she pulls this guy along.

1038
00:51:23,780 --> 00:51:28,510
She leans up against the side
of an elevated train stanchion.

1039
00:51:28,510 --> 00:51:30,600
And she waits until
the train comes by.

1040
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:33,470
And as the train
comes by, she screams.

1041
00:51:33,470 --> 00:51:34,220
And she says, see?

1042
00:51:34,220 --> 00:51:36,761
Whenever you wait for the noise,
nobody will hear you scream.

1043
00:51:36,761 --> 00:51:39,020
And she's just expressing
her exuberance.

1044
00:51:39,020 --> 00:51:40,650
She's showing him
how she commands

1045
00:51:40,650 --> 00:51:44,010
this space, how she knows
how to use this urban space.

1046
00:51:44,010 --> 00:51:45,810
But there's an irony
she's unaware of.

1047
00:51:45,810 --> 00:51:48,650
When she leans up against the
wall behind her, what we see

1048
00:51:48,650 --> 00:51:50,330
are political posters.

1049
00:51:50,330 --> 00:51:53,440
And the political posters
behind her are defaced.

1050
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:55,860
They're both Nazi and
communist posters.

1051
00:51:55,860 --> 00:51:57,430
And the communists
and the Nazis are

1052
00:51:57,430 --> 00:51:59,340
defacing one another's posters.

1053
00:51:59,340 --> 00:52:02,140
And what is implicit then
again in the background

1054
00:52:02,140 --> 00:52:06,540
against the foreground of these
two relatively naive characters

1055
00:52:06,540 --> 00:52:08,950
carrying on is the
historical reality

1056
00:52:08,950 --> 00:52:10,260
that's building behind them.

1057
00:52:10,260 --> 00:52:13,050
Another example of what I
mean by the multiplicity,

1058
00:52:13,050 --> 00:52:14,820
the texture of this film.

1059
00:52:17,510 --> 00:52:20,520
Next to finally, the
musical numbers--

1060
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:23,530
penultimately the
musical numbers.

1061
00:52:23,530 --> 00:52:26,730
Another kind of integration
is going on in this film,

1062
00:52:26,730 --> 00:52:29,490
when we talk about the
integrated musical as Arthur

1063
00:52:29,490 --> 00:52:33,690
Freed and his comrades during
the studio era articulated

1064
00:52:33,690 --> 00:52:34,440
this idea.

1065
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:36,680
We're not talking about
the form of integration

1066
00:52:36,680 --> 00:52:38,167
that we see in Cabaret.

1067
00:52:38,167 --> 00:52:39,750
And this in fact is
one of the reasons

1068
00:52:39,750 --> 00:52:43,390
that some people argue that
Cabaret is not a musical.

1069
00:52:43,390 --> 00:52:46,740
Because with one exception,
none of the musical performances

1070
00:52:46,740 --> 00:52:50,270
in Cabaret take place out of
a performance environment.

1071
00:52:50,270 --> 00:52:52,080
They all take place
in the cabaret.

1072
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:54,180
The film is about a
cabaret performer,

1073
00:52:54,180 --> 00:52:56,670
and we see many
performances in the cabaret.

1074
00:52:56,670 --> 00:52:58,416
Now when we watch
those performances,

1075
00:52:58,416 --> 00:53:00,540
we see them from angles
that no one in the audience

1076
00:53:00,540 --> 00:53:03,580
could ever see, because Fosse
is a genius with the camera,

1077
00:53:03,580 --> 00:53:05,930
and creates visual
effects drawing

1078
00:53:05,930 --> 00:53:08,180
on the tradition of
the Hollywood musical

1079
00:53:08,180 --> 00:53:10,420
that could never be
replicated in a theater.

1080
00:53:10,420 --> 00:53:12,730
Nonetheless, the
performances themselves

1081
00:53:12,730 --> 00:53:14,230
are theatrical performances.

1082
00:53:14,230 --> 00:53:15,940
They all are real performances.

1083
00:53:15,940 --> 00:53:18,850
And when we see the characters
behaving like real characters,

1084
00:53:18,850 --> 00:53:22,120
they don't suddenly burst
into song and dance.

1085
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:24,600
Because there's something
theoretically so implausible

1086
00:53:24,600 --> 00:53:28,220
about that, that Cabaret
refuses that convention.

1087
00:53:28,220 --> 00:53:31,380
It refuses to embrace
that basic convention

1088
00:53:31,380 --> 00:53:33,430
of the American musical,
which is that one

1089
00:53:33,430 --> 00:53:36,210
way that people express their
exuberance-- I love you.

1090
00:53:36,210 --> 00:53:36,900
I love you.

1091
00:53:36,900 --> 00:53:38,420
Now let me sing a
song telling you

1092
00:53:38,420 --> 00:53:41,610
how much I love you-- whereas
in real life we don't do that.

1093
00:53:41,610 --> 00:53:44,862
Now I don't think that this
convention is a convention that

1094
00:53:44,862 --> 00:53:45,820
undermines the musical.

1095
00:53:45,820 --> 00:53:48,630
It's a convention, or
a rule, or a habit,

1096
00:53:48,630 --> 00:53:51,570
a protocol you need to
embrace in order to experience

1097
00:53:51,570 --> 00:53:53,110
these films appropriately.

1098
00:53:53,110 --> 00:53:55,700
And it's no more
implausible in one sense

1099
00:53:55,700 --> 00:53:57,820
than the implausibility
of opera singers

1100
00:53:57,820 --> 00:54:01,090
bursting into song at
moments of great passion.

1101
00:54:01,090 --> 00:54:02,910
The convention requires it.

1102
00:54:02,910 --> 00:54:06,900
It's as if we're in a form
of artistic experience

1103
00:54:06,900 --> 00:54:10,060
in which art is crystallizing
experience for us.

1104
00:54:10,060 --> 00:54:12,240
So I don't mean to undermine
this convention at all,

1105
00:54:12,240 --> 00:54:13,610
or cast doubt on it.

1106
00:54:13,610 --> 00:54:17,520
But Cabaret refuses
that convention--

1107
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:19,580
with one exception.

1108
00:54:19,580 --> 00:54:21,760
And I'm calling attention
to that exception.

1109
00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:22,620
I'm not going to
tell you what it is,

1110
00:54:22,620 --> 00:54:23,911
but I want you to watch for it.

1111
00:54:23,911 --> 00:54:27,610
There's one moment in the
film when there is a song sung

1112
00:54:27,610 --> 00:54:29,780
outside by ordinary people.

1113
00:54:29,780 --> 00:54:31,390
It happens spontaneously.

1114
00:54:31,390 --> 00:54:34,670
It may be the most morally
and historically frightening

1115
00:54:34,670 --> 00:54:38,110
moment in the whole of the film.

1116
00:54:38,110 --> 00:54:40,880
And it's completely
believable, totally

1117
00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:42,340
plausible that it would happen.

1118
00:54:42,340 --> 00:54:44,710
But that's the only moment
in the film when there's

1119
00:54:44,710 --> 00:54:48,100
any singing that doesn't take
place inside a space intended

1120
00:54:48,100 --> 00:54:49,610
for singing and dancing.

1121
00:54:49,610 --> 00:54:52,050
So one of the interesting
things about Cabaret

1122
00:54:52,050 --> 00:54:55,360
is that there is a kind of true
integration of song and dance,

1123
00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:58,400
because none of that
happens except in spaces

1124
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:03,220
where it's appropriate--
realistically appropriate.

1125
00:55:03,220 --> 00:55:05,090
And so you might watch for that.

1126
00:55:05,090 --> 00:55:08,630
And the complexity
that this decision

1127
00:55:08,630 --> 00:55:10,660
on the part of Bob
Fosse and the people

1128
00:55:10,660 --> 00:55:14,950
making the film, the
impact of that decision

1129
00:55:14,950 --> 00:55:17,820
on your understanding
of the movie as a whole.

1130
00:55:17,820 --> 00:55:19,619
Finally, the central
themes of the film.

1131
00:55:19,619 --> 00:55:20,910
I've already talked about them.

1132
00:55:20,910 --> 00:55:23,530
The theme of innocence-- the
way the central characters

1133
00:55:23,530 --> 00:55:26,290
in the film are too
innocent to understand

1134
00:55:26,290 --> 00:55:28,670
the historical forces around
them, underestimate them.

1135
00:55:28,670 --> 00:55:30,859
This isn't just true
of the central figures.

1136
00:55:30,859 --> 00:55:32,400
It's true of the
secondary characters

1137
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:40,670
as well, some of whom even more
poignantly embody this theme.

1138
00:55:40,670 --> 00:55:42,030
And then the theme of history.

1139
00:55:42,030 --> 00:55:43,020
What history is.

1140
00:55:43,020 --> 00:55:48,530
How the force of history can
overwhelm individual desires,

1141
00:55:48,530 --> 00:55:51,420
individual hopes, love itself.

1142
00:55:51,420 --> 00:55:54,070
And of course, also
the limits of satire.

1143
00:55:54,070 --> 00:55:57,850
The cabaret is a space of
satire, a space of mockery,

1144
00:55:57,850 --> 00:56:00,990
a space of exuberant
intellectual distance

1145
00:56:00,990 --> 00:56:02,660
and disdain.

1146
00:56:02,660 --> 00:56:04,330
Much of the energy
of the cabaret

1147
00:56:04,330 --> 00:56:08,167
comes from an impulse of
parity, mockery, satire.

1148
00:56:08,167 --> 00:56:09,750
And in the very
beginning of the film,

1149
00:56:09,750 --> 00:56:12,160
there's actually a moment
where you can see the Joel Grey

1150
00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:15,620
character, who plays this
ominous, strange figure

1151
00:56:15,620 --> 00:56:20,730
of the emcee, the
interlocutor, in the cabaret.

1152
00:56:20,730 --> 00:56:23,980
He sort of is the
master of ceremonies.

1153
00:56:23,980 --> 00:56:26,710
And there's one moment
early in the film when

1154
00:56:26,710 --> 00:56:31,060
he, in a rather disgusting
scene in which they replicate

1155
00:56:31,060 --> 00:56:32,450
a scene of mud wrestling.

1156
00:56:32,450 --> 00:56:33,514
And he's emceeing it.

1157
00:56:33,514 --> 00:56:35,680
And he reaches down, and
he picks up a piece of mud.

1158
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:37,210
And he rubs it on his upper lip.

1159
00:56:37,210 --> 00:56:39,020
And he makes himself
look like Hitler.

1160
00:56:39,020 --> 00:56:40,760
And he's mocking Hitler in that.

1161
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:42,620
Well if you compare
that early moment

1162
00:56:42,620 --> 00:56:46,351
in which Hitler and Nazism
are objects of mockery,

1163
00:56:46,351 --> 00:56:47,850
there's also an
early scene in which

1164
00:56:47,850 --> 00:56:51,340
we see a Nazi being pulled out
of the audience of the cabaret

1165
00:56:51,340 --> 00:56:54,640
and pushed outside,
kicked out of the cabaret,

1166
00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:59,330
because Nazis are thought
to be unacceptable.

1167
00:56:59,330 --> 00:57:00,780
They're thought
to be vulgarians.

1168
00:57:00,780 --> 00:57:02,040
This is early in the film.

1169
00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:03,960
By the time the film is
over, by the time you

1170
00:57:03,960 --> 00:57:05,335
come to the very
end of the film,

1171
00:57:05,335 --> 00:57:07,880
one of the very final
images of the film

1172
00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:10,520
shows us the audience
of the cabaret filled

1173
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:13,990
with Nazi officers,
filled with Nazi uniforms.

1174
00:57:13,990 --> 00:57:16,330
The Nazis have moved
from the periphery

1175
00:57:16,330 --> 00:57:17,740
to the center of the movie.

1176
00:57:17,740 --> 00:57:22,660
And that's part of the terror
that the film dramatizes.

1177
00:57:22,660 --> 00:57:24,810
And it also therefore
of course dramatizes

1178
00:57:24,810 --> 00:57:27,620
the limits of satire,
because the cabaret itself,

1179
00:57:27,620 --> 00:57:30,580
like the characters, imagines
itself to be exempted

1180
00:57:30,580 --> 00:57:32,260
from or apart from history.

1181
00:57:32,260 --> 00:57:35,150
It can maintain its
mockery, its distance.

1182
00:57:35,150 --> 00:57:37,110
Satire can protect me.

1183
00:57:37,110 --> 00:57:38,950
And of course the
cabaret is just

1184
00:57:38,950 --> 00:57:41,660
as naive as the
characters themselves.

1185
00:57:41,660 --> 00:57:45,690
It's overwhelmed by the
forces of history in a way

1186
00:57:45,690 --> 00:57:49,040
that the characters
themselves also are.

1187
00:57:49,040 --> 00:57:51,240
Both of these films
in their own way

1188
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:56,900
have generated a tremendously
interesting and serious volume

1189
00:57:56,900 --> 00:58:00,830
of discourse, both in terms
of their musical qualities

1190
00:58:00,830 --> 00:58:03,760
and the qualities of
their choreography,

1191
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:05,870
and in terms of their content.

1192
00:58:05,870 --> 00:58:07,750
They're really
such complex films

1193
00:58:07,750 --> 00:58:09,380
that watching them
together makes

1194
00:58:09,380 --> 00:58:12,380
an immense intellectual
demand on everyone.

1195
00:58:12,380 --> 00:58:14,080
I know you're capable
of that, but I

1196
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:16,260
hope that you'll
take the time to let

1197
00:58:16,260 --> 00:58:19,550
the implications of these films
settle into your mind for days,

1198
00:58:19,550 --> 00:58:22,270
and maybe even weeks
after you've watched them.

1199
00:58:22,270 --> 00:58:25,720
And I hope, of course, that
this first viewing will only

1200
00:58:25,720 --> 00:58:27,810
be the first of many.

1201
00:58:27,810 --> 00:58:31,090
I wish you the joy of
these wonderful movies.