La Cage Aux Folles / The Birdcage

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (aka BIRDS OF A FEATHER) (15)

D: Edouard Molinaro

United Artists/PAA (Marcello Danon)

France/Italy 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 1978 (released 1979)

91 mins

Comedy

W: Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon & Jean Poiret [based on the play by Jean Poiret]

DP: Armando Nannuzzi

Ed: Robert Isnardon & Monique Isnardon

Mus: Ennio Morricone

Ugo Tognazzi (Renato Baldi), Michel Serrault (Albin Mougeotte / Zaza Napoli), Claire Maurier (Simone Deblon), Remi Laurent (Laurent Baldi)

Classic French farce about a homosexual nightclub owner who is persuaded by his heterosexual son to behave straight in front of his girlfriends parents, but the night of the meeting descends into chaos.

This was remade in 1996 as The Birdcage. The original version is much funnier.

7/10

THE BIRDCAGE (15)

D: Mike Nichols

United Artists (Mike Nichols)

USA 🇺🇸 1996

119 mins

Comedy

W: Elaine May [based on the screenplay 'La Cage Aux Folles' by Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon & Jean Poiret]

DP: Emmanuel Lubezki

Ed: Arthur Schmidt

Mus: Jonathan Tunick & Steven Goldstein

PD: Bo Welch

Robin Williams (Armand Goldman), Nathan Lane (Albert), Gene Hackman (Senator Keeley), Dianne Wiest (Louise Keeley), Christine Baranski (Katharine), Hank Azaria (Agador), Dan Futterman (Val Goldman), Calista Flockhart (Barbara Keeley)

American remake of a French cross-dressing farce from 1979 about the son of a gay nightclub owner who persuades his father to act straight at a dinner with his future in-laws, a conservative senator and his wife. His father's partner however, a drag act, insists on joining them at dinner posing as the boy's mother.

As far as remakes go, this certainly isn't terrible, but it's simply too stereotypical and old-fashioned to be funny, it is quite entertaining though with some decent performances. It probably came out 10 years after it would have been best appreciated.

6/10

Nathan Lane & Robin Williams in The Birdcage