Cabaret

This movie portrays a unique transition in history--between new emerging ideas of self and Nazism. Right when people were starting to gain individual momentum--the emergence of new and expressive forms of art, performance (such as cabaret), and increasing comfort with the grotesque, Nazis gained momentum and stomped it all out. The vogue-esque costumes and very openly sexual performances of the Cabaret were quickly banned once the Nazis gained power (the documentary of Degenerate Art we watched in class is also an example of this happening).

One thing I was unaware of before watching Cabaret, though, is that the Nazis started out as a sort of joke, something not to be taken seriously. People thought they could simply deal with them later. My curiosity is, if people wouldn't have had such a nonchalant attitude toward the group to begin with, could they have been stopped? Could the lives of millions of people have been saved?

This reminds me of something I wrote about in my final paper. People are happier in ignorance, and as a result they ignore the warnings that are staring them in the face. At times this tendency of people to favor ignorance causes them a lot of pain and suffering in the long run. Had people of this time period taken the Nazis more seriously, the tragedies that followed may have been less devastating.

This is not to say that it is the fault of the general public for the horrible things that happened during this time period--it is merely a different point from which to view the events that occurred.

It is interesting to muse on what the world could be like now if it weren't for the Nazis putting an end to all of the self-expression that was just beginning to spark. What kind of paths that had been stopped in their tracks would have continued and where would they have gone? If things would have kept going as they were previous to the Nazis coming to power and if the Cabaret could have stayed in business, who knows what it would have morphed into uninterrupted. If only people wouldn't have been fooled by the initial mask worn by the Nazis portraying them as nonthreatening.

Is Vogue a more modern style of Cabaret?

 Cabaret

Vogue