671 La Cage aux Folles

[Jeff]

La Cage aux Folles



Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and Albin (Michel Serrault)—a middle-aged gay couple who are the manager and star performer at a glitzy drag club in St. Tropez—agree to hide their sexual identities, along with their flamboyant personalities and home decor, when the ultraconservative parents of Renato’s son’s fiancée come for a visit. This elegant comic scenario kicks off a wild and warmhearted farce about the importance of nonconformity and the beauty of being true to oneself. A modest French comedy that became a breakout art-house smash in America, Edouard Molinaro’s La Cage aux Folles inspired a major Broadway musical and the blockbuster remake The Birdcage. But with its hilarious performances and ahead-of-its-time social message, there’s nothing like the audacious, dazzling original movie.

Disc Features

- New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New interview with director Edouard Molinaro
- Archival footage featuring actor Michel Serrault and Jean Poiret, writer and star of the original stage production of La Cage aux Folles
- New interview with Laurence Senelick, author of The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre
- French and U.S. trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic David Ehrenstein

[Matt]

So, is anybody going to be buying this? It seems a historical curiosity at best (albeit with a sprinkling of genuinely funny moments).

[domino harvey]

I've only seen the May and Nichols adaptation, and if they can't make it funny, I have no hopes for this version!

[matrixschmatrix]

I don't know, that version was saddled with a lot of star business from the leads that kind of dragged it down, and it was still reasonably fun. Though I think I'd be a lot more likely to buy this as a gift and sneak a watch in than to blind buy and keep it.

[criterion10]

The Birdcage is one of my favorite films. Haven't seen La Cage aux Folles, but based on my love for Nichols' version, I'll be sure to check this one out.

[Matt]

It's way better than The Birdcage, which also might have been amusing in 1978.

The musical version has been awfully popular with several revivals and national tours, so maybe all those fans will want to buy this (the way they all bought Grey Gardens after that big show).

[The Narrator Returns]

I may, depending on how much "More!" is actually added.

[vsski]

This is far better than the American remake and at the time was very successful with the European college crowd - haven't seen it since it came out, but always remember how disappointed I was by the Nichols version.

[Ashirg]

Wonder if More! means La Cage aux Folles 2

[knives]

No one wants that.

[CSM126]

My only experience with La cage in any form to date is the stage musical (starring George Hamilton!) when it passed through my area a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it, so I'm inclined to think I'd like the film. That delightful cover kinda sells me on it too, which I know is silly, but I don't care.

[Moe Dickstein]

I'm kinda shocked there isn't more love for this one. This was probably the first subtitled film I ever saw when I was about 14 or 15. It's the same plot as Birdcage, but this film has a meaner darker tone to the humor that is great, the Nichols version is softer. I'm very excited, and hope the "more" will be a commentary!

[Zinoviev]

I'm looking forward to the interview with Laurence Senelick. I can't speak for his entire oeuvre, but his translations/editions of Chekhov's plays are the best I've read.

[RossyG]

This was probably the first subtitled film I ever saw when I was about 14 or 15.

It was definitely my first at around the same age. The French teacher at school showed it in the week before Christmas. I loved it then and love it now. If I wasn't region-locked and too poor to remedy that I'd buy this on day one.

[ebkaram]

I also remember it as a terrifically funny movie. Anyway, perhaps "More" might be one of the 18 movies that Michel Serrault (Zaza) and Paul Poiret, who wrote the original play, made together. I've never seen any of the films, but obviously they were a successful team, so a feature supplement might be a nice surprise.

[criterion10]

I was at my library the other day and saw that they had this to rent, so I thought I'd check it out first instead of blind buying the Criterion Blu-Ray.

Boy, am I glad I rented this one before. Really didn't care for it at all. I mean, it's not terrible, but it just felt so dull and lifeless, especially compared with Nichols' remake. Sure, there were some minor funny moments. I chuckled a few times. But, at the end of the day, this really isn't a great film by any means. I found myself rather bored and uninterested. Then again, maybe I'm biased towards The Birdcage, which I've seen numerous times up until now.

The one good thing about this release is that it is sure to improve upon the crappy, non-anamorphic MGM DVD.

[Minkin]

Looks like the tantalizing "more" has been dropped - without any additions.

Lame

[rrenault]

This was probably the first subtitled film I ever saw when I was about 14 or 15.

It was definitely my first at around the same age. The French teacher at school showed it in the week before Christmas. I loved it then and love it now. If I wasn't region-locked and too poor to remedy that I'd buy this on day one.

If you have a laptop with a BD drive you can do what I did and buy AnyDVD, which will cost you about one third the price of a region free blu-ray disc player, and just connect your laptop to your TV. The only issue is the aspect ratio of a widescreen TV is a tad different from that of a laptop screen, so I don't know if there's a way to remedy that dilemma or not.

[manicsounds]

Blu-ray.com gives a very positive review
Everything looks so bright....

[colinr0380]

DVD Beaver review

[zedz]

I see this has been passed over in embarrassed silence ever since it was actually released, and having now watched it I understand why!

My god, what a terrible film! Wall to wall stereotypes, jokes that could only appeal to middlebrow straights who find the very idea of homosexuality hysterical (but mistakenly believe that they've never actually met a real life homosexual, owing to the lack of feathers), and just plain ugly cinematography (smeary and garish, daytime soap mise-en-scene 'animated' by dully functional overuse of zoom).

This easily falls amongst the ten worst films Criterion has ever released, and why they or anybody else would be interested in this film in 2013 is a complete mystery.

[tavernier]

And don't forget its mystifying Oscar noms for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

[criterion10]

My god, what a terrible film!

I think Nichols' remake, The Birdcage, is not only far better than the original, but also a great film. Definitely seek that one out if you haven't already (I didn't care for La Cage aux Folles at all).

[knives]

I wouldn't go as far as to call it great, but Nichols and May do squeeze some blood from that stone. Williams in particular is much better than could be expected and leagues above his French counterpart (that Lane is better than his goes without saying given how truly and absolutely awful that performance is). The only reason to watch the French film is to stand in awe of its presentation of gay people and how it was received at the time. Even ignoring everything wrong about its portrayal of homosexuals the film is just not funny with the drama at best feeling tacked on.

[colinr0380]

In the process of mourning the loss of the BBC's Newsnight Review show I came across this great review of a musical revival of La Cage aux Folles which throws up some interesting comments about the material. I particularly like the comment that it is a product of a previous "I am what I am" generation which has been replaced by the "I am what you are" generation.

I do wonder how much influence La Cage aux Folles had in laying the groundwork for the much better film The Wedding Banquet.