Which Christopher is true? SOME PLOT REVEALED
In the film Cabaret, Christopher Isherwood is beaten by a group of Nazis when he tears down one of their banners. The stage show has a similar scene.
When he loses his temper at the brownshirted thugs who attack him, it reveals his evolution from a writer recording his experiences to expressing his anger at what he sees happening around him among the Germans. He takes a stand, as hopeless as it is.
In Christopher and His Kind, his character can best be summed up, throughout most of the film, by the words of his friend, W.H.Auden, that Isherwood only believes in himself. The only scenes where he shows any inclination to actively oppose the Nazis is when he is in England and protesting the deportation of Heinz and when he walks into a Jewish store in Berlin.
His desk pounding protest in England is done for a non-political reason-Heinz. Going into the store took some bravery. But we don't know how long the Nazi-led boycott had been going on at this time and if he had ignored it before. The now brownshirted former hustler, Caspar, tries to stop his entry. Christopher acts shocked. However, his disgust at Caspar is also personal since the latter had disappeared from his life.
When we see Christopher watching the bonfire of books forbidden by the Nazis,
he is like a tourist observing a strange local custom. There is a stunned look to his face. But where is any other reaction in private, when he is away from Hitler's streetgangs?
Not having read The Berlin Stories, I don't know exactly how Isherwood felt
about what should be done concerning the rise of the Nazis. His wealthy Jewish friend in the film seems naive when predicting that when Hitler's followers take over, the working class would arise to fight them. Christopher realistically disagrees. But the Jewish friend, although not seeming to understand Hitler's appeal to the masses, at least cared, had a viewpoint.
The film held my interest. But what it also did was make me want to read Isherwood's account of those times.