parts of this were written with fellow Towson University student Elena Fialkoff
Prior to the New Hollywood, there was very little feminism in film and a great deal of masculinity. Women were subservient to men and needed to be protected or saved from danger. Even the female protagonists of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, who are very strong and independent, spend the entire film searching for men who can financially support them. And despite starring the beautiful and sexy Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, the film avoids the topic of sex itself. This is typical of the films of Classical Hollywood.
The nearly ubiquitous image of women during this period is that of the doting housewife. She wears a pearl necklace and an apron; she stays at home and cooks, and she is obedient to her husband. But this conservative image clashes with the reality of women’s sexuality in the 1950s. The arrival of Elvis and the Beatles caused teenage girls everywhere to scream and obsess over the young men. These girls were not only captivated by the music but also by the looks of the Beatles and the dancing of Elvis (Inglis 60). Their desire was a sexual one, enlightening men to the notion that women have sexual wants just like men.
While this knowledge may not have transferred into film right away, the New Hollywood was more liberal and revisionist, and its films delved deeper into themes regarding sex and sexuality. Two films from this era, Bob Fosse’s Cabaret (1972) and Hal Ashby’s Shampoo (1975), explore blurring gender roles and images of masculinity and femininity that mirror the sexual revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Prior to the New Hollywood, there was very little feminism in film and a great deal of masculinity. Women were subservient to men and needed to be protected or saved from danger. Even the female protagonists of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, who are very strong and independent, spend the entire film searching for men who can financially support them. And despite starring the beautiful and sexy Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, the film avoids the topic of sex itself. This is typical of the films of Classical Hollywood.
The nearly ubiquitous image of women during this period is that of the doting housewife. She wears a pearl necklace and an apron; she stays at home and cooks, and she is obedient to her husband. But this conservative image clashes with the reality of women’s sexuality in the 1950s. The arrival of Elvis and the Beatles caused teenage girls everywhere to scream and obsess over the young men. These girls were not only captivated by the music but also by the looks of the Beatles and the dancing of Elvis (Inglis 60). Their desire was a sexual one, enlightening men to the notion that women have sexual wants just like men.
While this knowledge may not have transferred into film right away, the New Hollywood was more liberal and revisionist, and its films delved deeper into themes regarding sex and sexuality. Two films from this era, Bob Fosse’s Cabaret (1972) and Hal Ashby’s Shampoo (1975), explore blurring gender roles and images of masculinity and femininity that mirror the sexual revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Shampoo follows the exploits of Beverly Hills hairdresser, George, over the course of a day and a half. The film delivers mixed messages regarding George’s sexuality, giving him both masculine and feminine characteristics. George has long hair, wears fashionably tight clothing, and makes his living as a hairdresser. All of these are typically regarded as feminine things, and George is mistaken for a homosexual more than once in the film. But over the course of the film (a day and a half) George has sex with four different women. Multiple sexual partners and an aggressive sex drive are traits usually associated with men and are seen as masculine attributes. George also drives a motorcycle. Motorcycles are loud, brash and dangerous – certainly masculine elements.
The duality of George’s nature is expressed most eloquently in a scene about thirty minutes into the film. George arrives at his ex-girlfriend Jackie’s house to do her hair for a party that night. He brings his own hair dryer and arrives with it tucked in his pants. The shape of the hairdryer and the way it is “holstered” makes it similar to a handgun. A gun is a somewhat conventional image of masculinity, but here it has been replaced with an object of femininity.
The blurring of masculine and feminine is also prominent throughout Cabaret, which is about a brief love affair between a British writer and an American cabaret singer in 1930s Berlin. The first character to appear onscreen is the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey), a petite man with his hair slicked back who wears heavy makeup and lipstick. He is similar in build and size to Sally Bowles. Sally is rather androgynous herself – she has short hair and is often seen without a bra, emphasizing her flat chest. (The most feminine aspect of her is probably her eyelashes, which are heavily accentuated.) Other shots in the opening sequence include a cutaway of an unsightly female audience member wearing a monocle and a shot of a male cabaret dancer putting on a wig (while the emcee is heard off-screen saying, “the girls are beautiful”). This paradox of calling a man in drag a “girl,” along with the other mixing of masculine and feminine features in the characters, hints at the underlying homosexuality and bisexuality of the film.
Sally is a very sexually aggressive female character, even for the New Hollywood. Her open discussions about “screwing” and syphilis reveal her sexual promiscuity. It’s unclear whether this is an attempt to highlight her masculine side or an effort to prove women’s power and sexuality, but the audience can perceive it either way. In this way, Sally is just like the women of Shampoo; who seem to have an insatiable sexual desire for George. Likewise, the characters of both films resemble the young women and girls who so voraciously sought the affections of Elvis and the Beatles.
The sexual revolution in the 1960s and 1970s is reflected in the frankness with which sexuality is portrayed in Cabaret and Shampoo. According to the 1996 film The Celluloid Closet, Cabaret was one of the first Hollywood films to openly celebrate the gay lifestyle. The film is set in Berlin in 1931, at the time of the decline of the Weimer Republic and the rise of the Nazi party, and, as is to be expected, the Nazi party did not have a positive view of homosexuality. They believed it to be “a deviation from normal sexual behavior” and that sexual relations must “serve the reproductive process.” However, ironically, it was German fascism that unintentionally helped the cultural decadence of the time, which included homosexuality (Gordon 448). Outsiders sought an escape in the cabarets since sexual freedom was celebrated and not chastised. It gave them a newfound independence that they had never experienced before (Miller).
In the film, when Brian Roberts arrives at Sally’s boarding house, Sally just assumes that their friendship will turn into a romantic relationship. Sally attempts to seduce Brian, asking him if her body “drives [him] wild with desire.” When he appears uninterested in her advances, she jokingly comments that he probably does not sleep with girls, and judging by Brian’s lack of an answer, believes it to be true. Brian clarifies that he tried sleeping with girls three times, but all of them ended up disastrous. He does not, however, reveal if the reason his past sexual encounters were disastrous was because he is in fact gay. Mitchell Morris writes in Cabaret, America’s Weimar, and Mythologies of the Gay Subject, “The failure of Sally and Brian to establish a romance—because of his sexual nature, as is made very clear—is central to the rueful tone that is one aspect of the film’s pervasive irony” (150). It is never explicitly stated that he is homosexual, and it seems more likely that he is actually bisexual, since he eventually does have a relationship with Sally. Brian’s sexuality signifies his status as an outsider, similarly to Sally and the other people who work at the Kit Kat Klub, who go against society’s norms (Miller).
The film also explores both Sally and Brian’s relationship with Maximilian von Huene, a rich baron. While it is Sally who first becomes interested in him, it becomes clear that he is interested in not just Sally, but Brian as well. In one particular scene, Sally and Maximilian are dancing together when Maximilian decides to grab Brian so that the three of them are dancing very closely together. They are all so drunk that none of them seem to be thinking about what is happening, nor do they seem to care. Sally and Brian both use Max’s affection for them to their advantage, as both are interested in his money, since, as Sally puts it, he “loves buying things!”
Similarly, in Shampoo, George Roundy uses his job as a hairstylist to meet and romance his female clients. One client in particular, Felicia Karpf, becomes particularly useful to George when he decides to create his own salon but lacks the funds to do so. No bank will lend him any money, but Felicia offers to convince her wealthy businessman husband, Lester, to invest in him. George uses his good looks and occupation for financial gain, since Lester assumes that George is gay and sees nothing odd about his relationship with his wife. This triggers a chain of events that leads to George being found out by all of the women he had been using. While in Cabaret, Sally and Brian seem to eventually come to an understanding about their relationship with Max and with each other, George is left wondering what could have been.
Observation
Cabaret is a highly sexual film but it does not have an overwhelmingly positive view of sexuality. Linda Mizejewski has suggested that the cabaret transvestites represent a “warped and monstrous” female sexuality (5). It is more likely that the garish, ugly cabaret performers instead represent an ugly world full of decadence and bizarre sexuality.
The film develops two parallel romantic relationships – Brian and Sally’s (which is interrupted by Max) and Fritz and Natalia’s. Fritz and Natalia’s relationship is the more reserved relationship, developing slowly with both characters appearing prude with respect to the other characters in the film. The most aggressive move in the entire relationship, (when Fritz “pounces” on Natalia) is the result of Sally and Brian’s persuasion. Fritz and Natalia end up getting married, while Sally and Brian’s more dysfunctional and deviant sexual relationship (which includes mutual infidelity by both parties) ends in abortion and their separation.
When Sally and Brian are happy with their relationships, it is more because of material comforts than love or connection. Both Brian and Sally allow Max’s wealth to “purchase [their] sexual favors” (Clark 53). One of the cabaret numbers proclaims “money makes the world go around.” Later, a cutaway to the Master of Ceremonies mouthing the word “money” during one of Max, Sally and Brian’s outings reminds the audience why the characters are attracted to Max.
The beginning of Max and Brian’s sexual relationship is visually cued by Brian’s acceptance of Max’s gift of the gold cigarette case at the beer garden. This scene is particularly damning of (homo)sexuality because it seems to align the growth of the Nazi party with the growth of the relationship between Max and Brian. In this scene, a very effeminate young German boy sings “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” He is eventually revealed to be in Nazi uniform, and the audience at the beer garden joins him in his song, transforming it into an “aggressive march” (Mizejewski 13).
Not every scene regarding sexuality is quite so grave. Other times sexuality can be fun, beautiful and flirtatious. The most notable example comes when Max, Sally and Brian have been drinking and dancing together at Max’s estate. As their dance comes to an end the three get closer together, and Fosse holds the shot as each character makes eye contact with the others. Their heads move in a way that makes the audience unsure of who is going to kiss whom. The scene reflects happiness and sexual desire that is apart from a mere desire for material goods.
Although Shampoo deals with serious themes, it is more playful than Cabaret. George’s life is full of sex, and seemingly innocent acts even have sexual undertones. About a half an hour into the film, George is in the salon drying a client’s hair. The placement of the client’s head and the way in which George is playing with her hair is reminiscent of oral sex. Everything George does, whether conscious or unconscious, involves sex.
With a chauvinistic male protagonist, it is perhaps ironic that Shampoo is so sympathetic to women (but the film is full of ironies, after all). For all of the sleeping around he does, George listens to women and tries to please them in an immediate way (Lev 68). Lev also says that George understands women better than Lester does, which is evident by what George tells him at the end of the film:
“I'm on my feet all day long listening to women talk and they only talk about one thing: how some guy fucked them over…that's all that's on their minds…Face it, they know we're always trying to nail them and they don't like it.”
George’s revelation into understanding women gives the film a feminist tinge. For a brief moment, events in the film are seen through the eyes of a woman, which was very rare in the films of New Hollywood.
The ending of the film, in which Jackie chooses Lester over George, has complicated implications in regards to feminism. On one hand, Jackie chooses the wealthier and more powerful man in Lester (Man 139), a regression towards the idea that women must be provided for and nurtured. In reality, Jackie has chosen for herself, deciding that Lester’s money is more important than George’s beauty and sex. By making the decision herself, with no regard to how Lester or George feel, she expresses power over both men.
Works Cited
Clark, Randy. "Bending The Genre: The Stage And Screen Versions Of Cabaret." Literature Film Quarterly 19.1 (1991): 51. Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text. Web.
Ebert, Roger. "Cabaret." Rogerebert.com. 01 Jan. 1972. Web. 10 May 2012.
<http://www.rogerebert.com/>.
Gordon, Terri J. “Film in the Second Degree: Cabaret and the Dark Side of Laughter.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 152 (Dec. 2008): 440-465. Print.
Inglis, Ian. “Ideology, Trajectory & Stardom: Elvis Presley & The Beatles.” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jun., 1996). pp. 53-78. Print.
Lev, Peter. American Films of the '70s: Conflicting Visions. Austin, TX: University of Texas, 2000. Print.
Man, Glenn. “Women in Love: The Stepford Wives and Shampoo.” American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations. Ed. Lester D. Friedman. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2007. Print.
Miller, Scott. "Inside Cabaret." New Line Theatre. 2002. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.newlinetheatre.com/cabaretchapter.html>.
Mizejewski, Linda. "Women, Monsters, and the Masochistic Aesthetic in Fosse’s Cabaret." Journal of Film and Video 39.4 (1987): 5-17.
Morris, Mitchell. "Cabaret, America's Weimar, and Mythologies of the Gay Subject." American Music 22 (2004): 146-55. Print.
The Celluloid Closet. Dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. TriStar Pictures, 1996.
The duality of George’s nature is expressed most eloquently in a scene about thirty minutes into the film. George arrives at his ex-girlfriend Jackie’s house to do her hair for a party that night. He brings his own hair dryer and arrives with it tucked in his pants. The shape of the hairdryer and the way it is “holstered” makes it similar to a handgun. A gun is a somewhat conventional image of masculinity, but here it has been replaced with an object of femininity.
The blurring of masculine and feminine is also prominent throughout Cabaret, which is about a brief love affair between a British writer and an American cabaret singer in 1930s Berlin. The first character to appear onscreen is the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey), a petite man with his hair slicked back who wears heavy makeup and lipstick. He is similar in build and size to Sally Bowles. Sally is rather androgynous herself – she has short hair and is often seen without a bra, emphasizing her flat chest. (The most feminine aspect of her is probably her eyelashes, which are heavily accentuated.) Other shots in the opening sequence include a cutaway of an unsightly female audience member wearing a monocle and a shot of a male cabaret dancer putting on a wig (while the emcee is heard off-screen saying, “the girls are beautiful”). This paradox of calling a man in drag a “girl,” along with the other mixing of masculine and feminine features in the characters, hints at the underlying homosexuality and bisexuality of the film.
Sally is a very sexually aggressive female character, even for the New Hollywood. Her open discussions about “screwing” and syphilis reveal her sexual promiscuity. It’s unclear whether this is an attempt to highlight her masculine side or an effort to prove women’s power and sexuality, but the audience can perceive it either way. In this way, Sally is just like the women of Shampoo; who seem to have an insatiable sexual desire for George. Likewise, the characters of both films resemble the young women and girls who so voraciously sought the affections of Elvis and the Beatles.
The sexual revolution in the 1960s and 1970s is reflected in the frankness with which sexuality is portrayed in Cabaret and Shampoo. According to the 1996 film The Celluloid Closet, Cabaret was one of the first Hollywood films to openly celebrate the gay lifestyle. The film is set in Berlin in 1931, at the time of the decline of the Weimer Republic and the rise of the Nazi party, and, as is to be expected, the Nazi party did not have a positive view of homosexuality. They believed it to be “a deviation from normal sexual behavior” and that sexual relations must “serve the reproductive process.” However, ironically, it was German fascism that unintentionally helped the cultural decadence of the time, which included homosexuality (Gordon 448). Outsiders sought an escape in the cabarets since sexual freedom was celebrated and not chastised. It gave them a newfound independence that they had never experienced before (Miller).
In the film, when Brian Roberts arrives at Sally’s boarding house, Sally just assumes that their friendship will turn into a romantic relationship. Sally attempts to seduce Brian, asking him if her body “drives [him] wild with desire.” When he appears uninterested in her advances, she jokingly comments that he probably does not sleep with girls, and judging by Brian’s lack of an answer, believes it to be true. Brian clarifies that he tried sleeping with girls three times, but all of them ended up disastrous. He does not, however, reveal if the reason his past sexual encounters were disastrous was because he is in fact gay. Mitchell Morris writes in Cabaret, America’s Weimar, and Mythologies of the Gay Subject, “The failure of Sally and Brian to establish a romance—because of his sexual nature, as is made very clear—is central to the rueful tone that is one aspect of the film’s pervasive irony” (150). It is never explicitly stated that he is homosexual, and it seems more likely that he is actually bisexual, since he eventually does have a relationship with Sally. Brian’s sexuality signifies his status as an outsider, similarly to Sally and the other people who work at the Kit Kat Klub, who go against society’s norms (Miller).
The film also explores both Sally and Brian’s relationship with Maximilian von Huene, a rich baron. While it is Sally who first becomes interested in him, it becomes clear that he is interested in not just Sally, but Brian as well. In one particular scene, Sally and Maximilian are dancing together when Maximilian decides to grab Brian so that the three of them are dancing very closely together. They are all so drunk that none of them seem to be thinking about what is happening, nor do they seem to care. Sally and Brian both use Max’s affection for them to their advantage, as both are interested in his money, since, as Sally puts it, he “loves buying things!”
Similarly, in Shampoo, George Roundy uses his job as a hairstylist to meet and romance his female clients. One client in particular, Felicia Karpf, becomes particularly useful to George when he decides to create his own salon but lacks the funds to do so. No bank will lend him any money, but Felicia offers to convince her wealthy businessman husband, Lester, to invest in him. George uses his good looks and occupation for financial gain, since Lester assumes that George is gay and sees nothing odd about his relationship with his wife. This triggers a chain of events that leads to George being found out by all of the women he had been using. While in Cabaret, Sally and Brian seem to eventually come to an understanding about their relationship with Max and with each other, George is left wondering what could have been.
Observation
Cabaret is a highly sexual film but it does not have an overwhelmingly positive view of sexuality. Linda Mizejewski has suggested that the cabaret transvestites represent a “warped and monstrous” female sexuality (5). It is more likely that the garish, ugly cabaret performers instead represent an ugly world full of decadence and bizarre sexuality.
The film develops two parallel romantic relationships – Brian and Sally’s (which is interrupted by Max) and Fritz and Natalia’s. Fritz and Natalia’s relationship is the more reserved relationship, developing slowly with both characters appearing prude with respect to the other characters in the film. The most aggressive move in the entire relationship, (when Fritz “pounces” on Natalia) is the result of Sally and Brian’s persuasion. Fritz and Natalia end up getting married, while Sally and Brian’s more dysfunctional and deviant sexual relationship (which includes mutual infidelity by both parties) ends in abortion and their separation.
When Sally and Brian are happy with their relationships, it is more because of material comforts than love or connection. Both Brian and Sally allow Max’s wealth to “purchase [their] sexual favors” (Clark 53). One of the cabaret numbers proclaims “money makes the world go around.” Later, a cutaway to the Master of Ceremonies mouthing the word “money” during one of Max, Sally and Brian’s outings reminds the audience why the characters are attracted to Max.
The beginning of Max and Brian’s sexual relationship is visually cued by Brian’s acceptance of Max’s gift of the gold cigarette case at the beer garden. This scene is particularly damning of (homo)sexuality because it seems to align the growth of the Nazi party with the growth of the relationship between Max and Brian. In this scene, a very effeminate young German boy sings “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” He is eventually revealed to be in Nazi uniform, and the audience at the beer garden joins him in his song, transforming it into an “aggressive march” (Mizejewski 13).
Not every scene regarding sexuality is quite so grave. Other times sexuality can be fun, beautiful and flirtatious. The most notable example comes when Max, Sally and Brian have been drinking and dancing together at Max’s estate. As their dance comes to an end the three get closer together, and Fosse holds the shot as each character makes eye contact with the others. Their heads move in a way that makes the audience unsure of who is going to kiss whom. The scene reflects happiness and sexual desire that is apart from a mere desire for material goods.
Although Shampoo deals with serious themes, it is more playful than Cabaret. George’s life is full of sex, and seemingly innocent acts even have sexual undertones. About a half an hour into the film, George is in the salon drying a client’s hair. The placement of the client’s head and the way in which George is playing with her hair is reminiscent of oral sex. Everything George does, whether conscious or unconscious, involves sex.
With a chauvinistic male protagonist, it is perhaps ironic that Shampoo is so sympathetic to women (but the film is full of ironies, after all). For all of the sleeping around he does, George listens to women and tries to please them in an immediate way (Lev 68). Lev also says that George understands women better than Lester does, which is evident by what George tells him at the end of the film:
“I'm on my feet all day long listening to women talk and they only talk about one thing: how some guy fucked them over…that's all that's on their minds…Face it, they know we're always trying to nail them and they don't like it.”
George’s revelation into understanding women gives the film a feminist tinge. For a brief moment, events in the film are seen through the eyes of a woman, which was very rare in the films of New Hollywood.
The ending of the film, in which Jackie chooses Lester over George, has complicated implications in regards to feminism. On one hand, Jackie chooses the wealthier and more powerful man in Lester (Man 139), a regression towards the idea that women must be provided for and nurtured. In reality, Jackie has chosen for herself, deciding that Lester’s money is more important than George’s beauty and sex. By making the decision herself, with no regard to how Lester or George feel, she expresses power over both men.
Works Cited
Clark, Randy. "Bending The Genre: The Stage And Screen Versions Of Cabaret." Literature Film Quarterly 19.1 (1991): 51. Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text. Web.
Ebert, Roger. "Cabaret." Rogerebert.com. 01 Jan. 1972. Web. 10 May 2012.
<http://www.rogerebert.com/>.
Gordon, Terri J. “Film in the Second Degree: Cabaret and the Dark Side of Laughter.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 152 (Dec. 2008): 440-465. Print.
Inglis, Ian. “Ideology, Trajectory & Stardom: Elvis Presley & The Beatles.” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jun., 1996). pp. 53-78. Print.
Lev, Peter. American Films of the '70s: Conflicting Visions. Austin, TX: University of Texas, 2000. Print.
Man, Glenn. “Women in Love: The Stepford Wives and Shampoo.” American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations. Ed. Lester D. Friedman. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2007. Print.
Miller, Scott. "Inside Cabaret." New Line Theatre. 2002. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.newlinetheatre.com/cabaretchapter.html>.
Mizejewski, Linda. "Women, Monsters, and the Masochistic Aesthetic in Fosse’s Cabaret." Journal of Film and Video 39.4 (1987): 5-17.
Morris, Mitchell. "Cabaret, America's Weimar, and Mythologies of the Gay Subject." American Music 22 (2004): 146-55. Print.
The Celluloid Closet. Dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. TriStar Pictures, 1996.
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