Product Details

• Actors: Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, Shelley Winters, Ron Randell, Lea Seidl
• Directors: Henry Cornelius
• Writers: Christopher Isherwood, John Collier, John Van Druten
• Producers: Jack Clayton, John Woolf
• Format: PAL
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Wienerworld Classic
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002CH7VQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,041 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "I Am a Camera [Region 2]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Julie Harris repeats her stage portrayal of the irrepressible Sally Bowles in John Van Druten's I Am a Camera. Set in pre-Hitler Berlin, the film details the curious, chaste relationship between Sally, an entertainer at a bawdy nightclub, and fledgling writer Christopher Isherwood (Lawrence Harvey). Shelley Winters co-stars as Natalia Landauer, whose impending marriage to a wealthy young Jewish man is imperiled by the anti-Semitism which envelops Berlin as the Nazis gain political power. If all this sounds familiar to you, it is because I Am a Camera is the non-musical precursor to the Broadway musical hit Cabaret. Both properties were based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Those familiar with the film version of Cabaret will notice that certain plot elements have been watered down in Camera. Examples: Isherwood's homosexuality is left unmentioned, save for Lawrence Harvey's opaque opening comment that he is "a confirmed bachelor;" and Sally Bowles' third-act abortion is changed into a false-alarm pregnancy. Also, Julie Harris' dynamic but rather overbaked interpretation of Sally is not nearly as memorable as Liza Minelli's Oscar-winning interpretation of the character in Cabaret. Still, I Am a Camera is well directed and deftly adapted for the screen (by John Collier); and even taking into consideration Ms. Harris' hamminess, she remains one of the most fascinating stage personalities of the mid-20th century. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, ...I Am a Camera

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Characterization of a Zany and Colorful Young Lady, December 30, 2001

By 

William Hare (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Am a Camera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Julie Harris mesmerized screen audiences along with Ethel Waters in "Member of the Wedding." Harris provides a brilliant characterization of zany, madcap, but always interesting, totally effervescent and colorful Sally Bowles in "I am a Camera." The film is an adaptation of the John Druten play, which was in turn adapted from Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories."

Laurence Harvey does a convincing job as the man saddled with the well-nigh impossible job of keeping up with the peripatetic, endlessly energetic Harris. He plays Christopher Isherwood, the actual author of the series of stories depicting Berlin in the days leading up to Hitler's accession to power. The picture conveys a feel for the period, with Isherwood, anything but the type who looks for fights, at one point getting into a brawl with Hitler brownshirts seeking to corral believers.

Shelley Winters performs convincingly in a supporting role. Henry Cornelius, who directed this British production, is also associated with the rollicking comedy "Passport to Pimlico" while the film's photographer, Guy Green, is one of the finest in cinema history, being teamed frequently with the great David Lean. Green won a Best Cinematography Oscar for Lean's "Great Expectations" and could easily have won one for another Lean Dickens classic, "Oliver Twist."

Sallys Bowles is a lady incapable of boring anyone. She keeps the action going at a frantic pace in this excellent film, from which Bob Fosse's great 1975 masterpiece "Cabaret" was adapted.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars LEICA A LOT..........!, February 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: I Am a Camera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

NOW, when this one hit the big screen about half a century ago! What a Stirr!

THEN it was followed by the musical and that 'other movie' - also excellent. This one resonates perhaps just slightly more, more hints of 'actual'. Gone are the 'gorgeous people' ..... except maybe for Laurence Harvey as our Hero.

Justice to these Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood is still to come, still seeking the definitive version of this 'innocent abroad in pre-WWII Berlin and his subsequently peculiar, to say the least 'episodes' with waif Sally Bowles [Miss Harris - also quite devine] and the rest of the motley and tarnished boarding-house crew and other various inhabitants of the city. [Sex was never this fun in the Big City.]

Interesting to see Great Shelley Winters in the role so differently realized in Fosse's "Cabaret" - both views work, but Miss Winters is possibly more 'period perfect".

It seems like a great fuss was made about this movie some 50 years ago, compared to today's fare? Tame indeed, but it's time for a 're-visiting' of Mr. Isherwood's Berlin - so devine, so dark, so decadent!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, April 21, 2000

By 

Karen Hoy - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am a Camera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Very funny, but tempered with a sobering look at the end of Weimar Germany. The contrast in personalities: Chris wants to get ahead, Sally lives for the minute, Fritz and Natalia want to survive; is well-done. The acting is good all around, except for Winters' accent, which is shaky.