Even if he hasn't been able to assimilate India's culture, the country still fascinates him. In talking about it he sounds like some philistine American tourist marvelling at the wonders of England. "Benares especially intrigued me. You really had a sense of a civilization having been there for thousands of years." In India, too, he met his future wife, who had been sent with an assignment to photograph Michael. "We have an excellent marriage; she has subordinated her profession to mine, that's why it works so well." Michael York had not been in America long enough to be attuned to the vibrations of Women's Liberation.

Holland is another one of his favorite countries. In between his numerous film commitments, he and two Dutch friends managed to make a low-budget experimental film, "Confessions of a Loving Couple." The two friends, "Pim" and "Wim," recently broke down all censorship codes in the Netherlands with their pornographic "Blue Movie." They also broke most audience attendance records for a Dutch-language film. Despite his image of only brief encounters with foreign countries. York proved quite knowledgeable when it came to analyzing the film scene in a country like Holland. He is very pleased with the turn things are taking in the traditionally dull Dutch film world. Of course it's still very Burgher there, but I think it's the youth that counts. They're the once who go to the movies and the ones who make them. We made 'Confessions of a Loving Couple' on a shoe-string budget. It was most extraordinary experience, very experimental and all improvisations. Only one take per shot, too, because there wasn't enough money for vast amounts of wilm."

Did he find it difficult working with foreign directors? "No, it was always a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Last year I made a French film with De Broca. Phillipe is the most extraordinary character. This was in Morocco. We were stuck way out in the desert, miles away from everything, just the sand and us. But the French are so marvelous, they create a convivial atmosphere wherever they are. I mean, here we were, in the most godforsaken place, and they were always laughing and cheerful--so wonderfully French! The movie? It's a comedy. I love it. But then, I like zany movies."

The setting for "Cabaret" was not a new adventure for York from a geographical standpoint, but from an historical perspective. Many of the scenes in "Cabaret" would have been familiar to him from his Don Juan-esque escapades in "Something for Everyone," the box-office flop that York stubbornly persists is his favorite film.

IN "CABARET," Berlin on the crumbling brink of the Third Reich and Hitler's holocaust is the historical background York was to blend with his unfortunately recurrent role of the young, innocent, effete British student-scholar. "For background I read a book on the rise of Hitler. What I felt about my role? In 'Cabaret' I tried to preserve the sense of 'I am a Camera' you also find in Isherwood's Berlin Stories." York isn't bullshitting. either, when he cites Isherwood. He means that he has in fact read the stories. "In other words, I was involved in what was happening, as well as looking on. As for being type-cast. I would hate to feel my personality is like Brian's in 'Cabaret,' 'the effete homosexual.' No, the homosexual theme was not just getting on the bandwagon, it has an artistic validity of its own. Now with Liza the case is different. The reason I agreed to do 'Cabaret' was because of Liza, and Bob Fosse, of course. I had admired her before, thoroughly enjoyed all her performance, even 'Junie Moon.' That bouncy, enthusiastic, dynamic personality you see in Sally Bowles -- that's Liza. In all her parts she is always Liza. She's a terribly generous person, you know, a joy to work with, such a professional."

In explaining why he predicts that "Cabaret" would be well received, he pointed to the present popularity of musicals, "especially among modern young people, who a year ago wouldn't have gone near a musical. It's this mood of nostalgia for that sort of thing." But he elaborated this opinion more vehemently with a strong belief of his own. "It is vital that people be entertained." Assuredly, "the whole point of the medium is to communicate," but Michael York has very definite ideas about what should be communicated. "Entertainment should ennoble, uplift, teach, educate, bring out the best." Nor does he like to act in anything he feels would be degrading or undignified for the character he played, unless the artistic terms of the film demanded it -- "but that's just me." An apologetic smile. That is him exactly, uptight but alright.

York is violent on violence. He thoroughly sympathizes with the uproar in the press about violence in contemporary cinema. Even the more sadistic scenes in "Cabaret" were hard for him to stomach, but they were excused for the sake of historical authenticity. He doesn't let a director like Peckinpah off so easily. "My God, a line has to be drawn somehow. There are ways and ways of showing man as a violent animal. I was appalled watching Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs." An attitude like that is bloodthirsty: it's dangerous and corrosive for people to watch these things. I had an offer to star in 'Outback,' that movie made in Australia. You haven't heard of it? There are all these so-called 'roo-bashing' scenes (kangaroo hunting), which were sickening for me to read, let alone watch. I turned it down. One must respect one's private standards."

Yet he is far from conservative when it comes to giving his preferences in talking about his taste in film-making. "I would love to do something avant-garde. What's avant-garde?" Time for another compromising York definition. "I would hate to make demarcation lines. But it Andy Warhol offered. I would jump at a chance to work with him. Another instance of wishful thinking is a bout with Bergman. And favorite movies are Fellini's "8 1/2" and Renoir's "The Rules of the Game," "my favorite film ever. I don't know why..." Are there any actors he would like particularly to work with? "So many, so many." Hesitates. Ready for this one? "Paul Newman?"

SINCE HE READS so much, there must be some best-ever book he would like to see made into a movie. "Well yes, actually, one book haunts me: did you ever read E.M. Forster's A Passage to India? You know my weakness for India? You know my weakness for India. Maurice? To be perfectly honest. I wish I hadn't read that book. Forster has always been a kind of idol of mine. I've always loved his work. I met him at Cambridge one, had tea together. Utterly marvelous ... No. I don't think that Maurice should have been published, perhaps just not so soon. It's obviously worth publishing, that's not the point." The point is, Michael York has certain set of standards. One of them is privacy.

Now that we're back with English subject matter, on native soil, how does he understand the alleged "Renaissance" in the English film world of recent years? "The actors have always been there, the Renaissance, as you call it, has been among the directors and in the style of filmmaking. Location is so important in many of these films, especially the very realistic ones. Film-making is now really a mirror held up to nature, for the first time. I'm thinking, of course, if 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' and films of that type. When I was at school, there was this whole New Wave in the film world: you had people coming in like Tony' Richardson or Tom Courtenay."

In view of the changing scene of that period, the question of the rise of satirical entertainment in England at that time comes to mind. York is quick to agree. "Yes, there was definitely a 'satire boom during the 60's. It started with Dudley Moore's and Peter Cook's revue 'Beyond the Fringe.' The impact that show made was phenomenal, it started a whole new movement. Then 'That Was the Week that Was' was a nationwide hit. Still, I think that satire had always been there, it was certainly popular when I was at Oxford. But 'Week' was just so good, it caught the mood of the times." Remember the optimistically disillusioned 60's? "David Frost (who was one of the main forces behind "That Was the Week that Was") was right in the tradition of Oxford and Cambridge ... Do people in England accuse Frost of betrayal when they see his new image on the David Frost Show? It's very strange ... it's hard to reconcile the English and American Frost. People were absolutely shocked when they saw his talk-show. In England he's still considered very much a man of the people. Rather different from the way he comes across in America -- so obsequious." As strong adjective for polite Michael York, and he's by now predictably fast to qualify it: "but it's far from me to criticize David."

DIFFERENCES between England and America are symbolized for him in more ways than David Frost's schizophrenia. Theater is much more a way of life in England. This manifests itself also in a great increase in regional theaters throughout England. "I wouldn't mind going back to the stage myself." Bristol's Old Vic has established a theater called the Young Vic. "It's packed every night. It's a kind of Shakespearean theater-in-the-round, where everyone can come. And they do. In America it's different. An evening at the theater is a major investment. It's so expensive here. First you have to get a babysitter, usually you take a car into the city from the suburb, or a taxi, because there's no place to park. Then an expensive dinner. Theater tickets are exorbitant. It's much more easy to stay home and watch television. In England they don't have these talk-shows, either, the ones that are so popular here. They haven't caught on yet, and I don't know if they every will."

Several days after the interview, I'm watching one of those all-American talk-show. The Dick Cavett Show. As one of his guests Mr. Cavett Show would like to welcome Michael York, currently starring in "Cabaret" with Liza Minelli. Mild applause. York walks on: stiff, uncomfortable, poker-faced in his dangerously British way. Excerpts from "Cabaret" are shown, scenes more with Liza than Michael. As I watch York chat with Dick Cavett, who is obviously as unimpressed with his visitor as the American audience. I can see York getting more and more nervous, as he begins to push the film, thereby obscuring his own engaging personality. The actor in him as defeated by the man, who is uneasy about his own presence in a television-interview situation. Listening to his short, bland statements, I hear his voice of a few days ago. "I hate seeing myself on screen. One cringes, you know. I saw 'Cabaret' in full for the first time a week ago Monday. It was one long series of little cringettes. I would have liked to correct so much. You remember what was going on in your mind and all around you at the moment of each take. Then, at the screening, you miss things you worked so hard on it's sheer torture."

I HATED TO THINK who pained Michael York would have been in watching his nervous self on T. V. While the tension built across from Cavett, I remembered how relaxed York could be. In talking about the power of television he had told an animated little story about a trip he made to Russia some time ago. "It was utterly fantastic. The 'Forsyte Saga' was just being shown on Russian television. Wherever I went, people recognized me. Little girls would come running up to me with bunches of flowers. I was astonished!" He laughs. Michael York is laughing for the first, last and only time. Little girls and flowers ... I had seen his unusual side