La Cage aux Folles (film)

La Cage aux Folles
French release poster
Directed by	Édouard Molinaro
Produced by	Marcello Danon
Screenplay by	Édouard Molinaro Francis Veber Marcello Danon Jean Poiret
Based on	La Cage aux Folles by Jean Poiret
Starring	Ugo Tognazzi Michel Serrault
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Armando Nannuzzi
Editing by	Monique Isnardon Robert Isnardon
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	October 25, 1978 (1978-10-25)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	France Italy
Language	French Italian
Box office	$20,424,259

La Cage aux Folles is a 1978 French-Italian film adaptation of the 1973 play La Cage aux Folles by Jean Poiret. It is co-written and directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault.

Plot

Like the play, the film tells the story of a gay couple – Renato Baldi (Ugo Tognazzi), the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin Mougeotte (Michel Serrault), his star attraction – and the madness that ensues when Renato's son, Laurent (Rémi Laurent), brings home his fiancée, Andrea (Luisa Maneri), and her ultra-conservative parents (Carmen Scarpitta and Michel Galabru) to meet them.

Cast

• Ugo Tognazzi as Renato Baldi (voiced in French by Pierre Mondy)
• Michel Serrault as Albin Mougeotte/'Zaza Napoli' (voiced in Italian by Oreste Lionello)
• Claire Maurier as Simone
• Rémi Laurent as Laurent Baldi
• Carmen Scarpitta as Louise Charrier
• Benny Luke as Jacob
• Luisa Maneri as Andrea Charrier
• Michel Galabru as Simon Charrier

Reception

The film (subtitled "Birds of a Feather" on the US poster) won over audiences with its sight gags, uproarious complications, and a tender and touching conclusion. It played for well over a year at the 68th Street Playhouse, an art house cinema in New York City, as well as theatres throughout the country in both urban and rural areas. For years, it remained the #1 foreign film to be released in the United States; as of 2011, it is #9.

Unlike many other non-English-language films,^{[citation needed]} the English dubbing was done generally by the original cast.^{[citation needed]}

The film currently holds a 100% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sequels and remake

The film was followed by two sequels: La Cage aux Folles II (1980), also directed by Édouard Molinaro, and La Cage aux folles 3 - 'Elles' se marient (1985), directed by Georges Lautner.

A 1983 Broadway musical of the same name based on the play and the film was also successful.

In 1996, an American remake titled The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols, was released, relocated to South Beach, Miami, and stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

Adam and Yves

La Cage aux Folles caught the attention of television producer Danny Arnold, who in 1979 pitched the concept of a weekly series about a gay couple similar to the one in the film to ABC. His planned title was Adam and Yves, a play on both Adam and Eve and a slogan used by some anti-gay groups. After months in development, Arnold realized that the concept was unsustainable as a weekly series, which led to the show getting dropped.

References

• Tropiano, Stephen (2002). The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. ISBN 9781557835574. 

External links

• La Cage aux Folles (film) at the Internet Movie Database
• La Cage aux Folles (film) at Box Office Mojo
• La Cage aux Folles (film) at Rotten Tomatoes