La Cage Aux Folles
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Movie Reviews of La Cage Aux Folles
Movie Review: One of the Funniest Movies EVER Released - SIX STARS!
Summary: 5 Stars
American audiences tend to resist foreign films for some good reasons. Sure, its tough to keep up with subtitles at times, and yes, sometimes the translations are lacking the depth the filmaker intends to convey. But this is a film that can and should be enshrined in the Movie Hall of Fame as one of the funniest, most endearing films ever released. Audiences who are willing to put up with subtitles will quickly find themselves hysterical and at last, on DVD, "La Cage Aux Folles" deserves to find a new audience, a new generation that appreciates broad humor, with a few good lessons thrown in. Americans are familiar with the story, since "La Cage" was turned into a successful Broadway show and then a huge money-making comedy "The Birdcage" featuring Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in the lead roles (not to mention a young Calista Flockhart of "Ally McBeal" fame and Dan Futterman who is brilliant in "Urbania.") But "The Birdcage" as funny as it can be, fades by comparison to the original, with star making performances by Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault as the leading cross dressing couple of the French Riviera. Where "The Birdcage" allows for broad humor that both confronts and appeases the typical homophobic US audience, "La Cage" offers no apologies, and rests on its own merits as a farce without limits. When Tognazzi teaches Serrault how to "walk like John Wayne" you quickly forget the language barrier, and give up on Robin William's own attempts to educate the shrill Lane in the English version. Somehow, the fact that these characters are French adds a dimension of humanity that is lacking in the "Birdcage." Even the setting on the French Riviera (versus the buff and tough South Beach in the American version) adds to the three dimensional aspects of the characters. There is a sleazy-humor at work here that has been toned down tremendously for the American version, and that can only be captured by a cast that is uniformly superb, endearing, and wonderful. Oscar nominated for its leading performer, Tognazzi, as well as its superb direction, THIS is one of the funniset movies ever made in ANY language. If you love Robin WIlliams movies, and enjoy laughing, BUY THIS FILM - you will be more than glad you did, and you'll find yourself literally hitting the pause button in order to GAWFAW your way through it.
If there were SIX stars for movies, "La Cage Aux Folles" would warrant six-and-a-half!
Movie Review: An Enduring Hilarious Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
On Saturday, May 1, 2010, I saw the new Broadway revival of the musical "La Cage aux Folles" which originated in London at the tiny but very influential Menier Chocolate Factory theater. The musical starred Kelsey Grammer as Georges and Douglas Hodge as Albin. Hodge from the London production proved by his powerful acting skills how poignant and powerful the show could be. I have seen numerous versions of the show, and this version is the best one I've seen.
The original non-musical movie "La Cage aux Folles"(1978) I saw on its initial release in the U.S. Originally in French, it was dubbed into English, and it's a superior job of dubbing. It stands the test of time with fine acting, great comic thrust, brilliant color cinematography, and its farcical story elements. The movie was adapted from a stage play. The U.S. version is "The Birdcage."
Renato is played by Ugo Tognazzi and his more flamboyant female impersonator lover Albin-ZaZa is Michel Serrault, both excellent. The son Laurent causes a seismic tremor when he gets engaged to a girl who is the daughter of a moralistic prude, a leader of the Pillars of Morality party. The boy's real mother complicates matters in the movie but is not present in the musical. The plot of musical and the original movie are basically the same.
Albin is the temperamental diva with his attacks of depression. He has to be coaxed on the stage and continually reminded that he is still loved and adored. He says to his lover, To you "I am a meal ticket, not a star." The butler is aflame and over the top. We see ZaZa in wild costumes, but we never see him singing or performing. When Renato's son arrives, at first we think he and Georges are lovers.
The scenes change back and forth between the gay couple and the girl's parents. She's trying to break the news that her future in-laws are decidedly unconventional, but doesn't get a chance because her father's political life is threatened by his leader getting involved in a scandal, a cause celebre.
One of the funniest scenes is the one in the restaurant with Georges trying to teach Albin to butch it up, eat like a man and walk like John Wayne. The apartment above the night club has to be transformed into an austere monastic shrine. The film is full of comic twists and turns. This version is an enduring classic, a laugh-producing farce well-worth viewing.
Movie Review: One of the Most Successful Comedies of All Times
Summary: 5 Stars
It pays to overcome both aversions to foreign films and homophobic sentiments to enjoy this film, which is now already a classic farce that has already made it into a Broadway play and an Americanized version, "Birdcage," with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. The original, however, stands out as especially spectacular, largely due to the talents of actor Michel Serrault who went on to the sequel, "La Cage Aux Folles 2," to demonstrate his acting abilities to an even greater degree.
The story tells of the owner of a gay nightclub, La Cage Aux Folles, one Renato Baldi (Ugo Tognazzi), whose son Laurent (Rémi Laurent) comes home to inform him he is getting married. Because his father has come to live a very openly gay lifestyle with his partner, Albin (Michel Serrault), a drag queen who performs in his club and who is very openly effeminate in real life as well, Laurent is very concerned that his father make a good impression on his fiancée's conservative family, who happen to be involved in politics and are very concerned about negative publicity. The only problem is that the fiancée, Andrea (Luisa Maneri), has also told a little white lie to her family that her fiancé's father is a cultural attaché. Of course, the lie ultimately breaks down when the families meet. The groom's father invites the mother, Simone (Claire Maurier), to come, but then Albin decides, without informing anyone, to dress up as a woman and pretend to be the mother, and the result is classic farce as anyone could expect. To make matters worse, when the truth is out and the bride's parents want to storm out in anger, they discover that the press are outside waiting; the only way they can leave is by way of the gay club that they so loathe and, even worse, to do it in drag to escape detection. The irony is as perfect as any farce writer could want it; the ultra-conservative father of the bride (Michel Galabru), who has been fuming all day about "the honor of his party," is suddenly forced to dress up like a woman, and when he confronts his conniving chauffeur (Venantino Venantini), who has been accepting bribes to give tips to the press about his employer's whereabouts, he lets him have it full in the face.
This film is one that will give you a laugh for sure. It's worth the price and worth having in your collection.
Movie Review: The perfect champagne comedy.
Summary: 5 Stars
There are films that connect one to the joy of laughter, and this film is one of those. It's actually hard to write a review about something that I adore as much as this film.
I even went out to buy the film score on CD just to have the joyous memory of this film with me when I'm driving about town at times. (It's a great mood lifter.)
I love this original French version, and I think the American version was a beautiful homage to this work as well. They are different - as expected they should be - and both have delicious moments.
Again, I'm too much of a devoted lover of this film to write a decent review. It is so hard to write about something that speaks to the joy of my soul as much as this does.
Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault have such chemistry together. They are one of the great screen couples of all-time. I would recommend this film for any good marriage counseling course. Few couples are as well-matched.
Daniel Murray
Movie Review: La cage aux folles (Il vizietto / Birds of a Feather) (1978) by Edouard Molinaro
Summary: 5 Stars
It's strange how time turns the meaning of a movie. La cage aux folles (Il vizietto in Italian) "came out" (no pun intended) in 1978, a period in time when the comedy was not sophisticated, but kitch and heavy. I think no one, nor the director or the actor, wanted to prove something with this movie, they wanted only to do a good comedy. Ugo Tognazzi was one of the most famous Italian actor of the time, someone who more or less always played the playboy, or at least a woman's man, and to choose him for the role of Renato was searching for accentuate the contrast. But when the movie came out in 1978 it was a shock: gay people living as family? one of them having a son? not being repentant, and above all having a good, and wealthy, life? Is it even possible? Yes it was and Il Vizietto gave the chance to many people to realize there was a whole other side of the world to discover.