The Distorted Mirror
The film opens with a long white titles on a black background which very, very slowly transforms into an abstract image difficult to make out. The film linger almost silently with only the muted buzzing of a crowd upon that abstract image for more a minute until it comes into focus enough to be recognizable as a distorted window or mirror; some kind of glass anyway. Vague shapes begin to form, but the first genuinely distinguishable reflection is the face of the Master of Ceremonies as it suddenly pops up into view. And even then, his already perversely made up face is further corruption by distortion. The sequence is pure visual imagery with only a token addition of equally distorted sound and it is imagery that quite effective sets the stage for the backdrop of distortion of traditional values and morals which will soon be put on explicit display in the decade entertainment of the Kit Kat Klub. This distortion of values underlies the pervasive and permissive deviancy throughout post-World War I Germany which was an instrumental propaganda tool for selling the fascist ideology of the Nazi party which promised to bring back German values to the German people. The film ends as it begins with a long, slow pan along that mirror, only this time it is Nazi iconography that is distorted, thus becoming imagery that fills in the story of what happened after story ends.
If You Could See Her
The musical number “If You Could See Her” is another of the symbolic juxtapositions of the real life narrative outside the cabaret. The Master of Ceremonies is describing with lyrics what sounds like a perfectly wonderful woman; a woman not far removed from the character of Natalie, in fact. And yet he is dancing with a performer in a gorilla suit. The whole point of the number leads to the shocking final line of the song in which he the message is if you could see her through his eyes, “she wouldn’t look Jewish at all.” This is a terribly powerful piece of imagery because of its truth. This is literal truth situated within the symbolism of the number: a great many members of the German population were allowing themselves to become convinced by Nazi propaganda that Jewish people were nothing more than animals and that the idea of asking others to accept that you had fallen in love with a Jew really was tantamount to asking them to accept that you have fallen in love with a gorilla…or pig…or dog. The reality of Nazi depravity is made palpably real through this imagery.
The Leering Master of Ceremonies
Sally Bowles is so narcissistically self-involved that she probably isn’t going to recognize the threat of Nazis until she’s on the train to a concentration camp. As a member of the dying aristocratic old guard, Max is out of touch, he actually seems to think the ultra-violent Nazis really can be controlled after they have proven useful in driving the communists out of Germany. Brian is more attuned to the potential threat represented by this up and coming faction of extremists, but as an Englishman he really doesn’t have to terribly concerned in 1931. People in Germany didn’t see it coming and others saw it but successfully denied it. Then there were those perceptive souls who clearly saw where Germany was heading and the Master of Ceremony’s leering grin and knowing attitude are recurring bits of imagery that conveys this awareness. The imagery is not used to situate his specific character, however. One cannot help but get the sense that he can see what others aren’t, but whether his leering attitude represents a desire for it to get here or an exhibition of soulless nihilism symbolically spitting in the face before boarding one of those trains himself remains a total mystery.
Tomorrow Belongs to Me
The full measure of the dependency upon mindless conformity, nationalism, patriotic propaganda and the complicity of the average German in the rise of the Nazi Party is portrayed in the film’s most chilling imagery. No tanks, no concentration camps, not even any threatening soldiers or SS men is needed. Just an appropriately Germanic bit of music lending support to a song that almost cruel in it specific lack of evil design being sung by angelic blonde boy. All that is required to make this one of the most perfect demonstrations of the true nature of extremist ideology is the visual imagery that begins accompany the song: people who seemed perfectly nice and normal just minutes before suddenly rising one by one and singing in unison along with the boy who brings his song to a close with a Nazi salute.
