''La Cage aux folles'' (, English: "The Cage of Madwomen"; also released as ''Birds of a Feather'') is a 1978

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Édouard Molinaro, based on

Jean Poiret Jean Poiret, born Jean Poiré (17 August 1926 – 14 March 1992), was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play '' La Cage aux Folles''. Early career Poiret was born in Paris, and f ...

's 1973 play of the same name. It stars

Ugo Tognazzi Ugo Tognazzi (23 March 1922 – 27 October 1990) was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter. Early life Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a travelling clerk fo ...

and Michel Serrault as a gay couple operating a drag nightclub in a French resort town, Rémi Laurent as the former's son, and

Michel Galabru Michel Louis Edmond Galabru (27 October 19224 January 2016) was a French actor. Career Galabru appeared in more than 250 films and worked with directors such as Bertrand Blier, Costa-Gavras, Luc Besson (for ''Subway''), and Jean-Luc Godard. ...

and

Carmen Scarpitta Carmen Scarpitta (26 May 1933 – 26 April 2008) was an Italian stage and film actress. She appeared in 30 films between 1960 and 2001. Scarpitta was born in Hollywood, California. She debuted on stage in 1960 in Alessandro Manzoni's ''Adel ...

as his new fiancée's ultra-conservative parents. The French-language picture was a Franco-Italian co-production by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

. This was the first film adaptation of Poiret's play, which was later adapted into the 1996 American film ''

The Birdcage ''The Birdcage'' is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols, adapted by Elaine May, and starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Dianne Wiest. Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski appear ...

''. The film was released in Italy on October 20, 1978 and in France on October 25. It was a considerable commercial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing foreign-language films released in the United States of all time. It won the

Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film coul ...

and was nominated for three

Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

: Best Director (Molinaro),

Best Adapted Screenplay This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, and Best Costume Design. Michel Serrault won the

César Award for Best Actor This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actor (french: César du meilleur acteur). History Superlatives Winners 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations The following indivi ...

. It was followed by two sequels, with Tognazzi, Serrault, and Galabru reprising their roles.

Plot

Like the play upon which it is based, the film tells the story of a middle-aged

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

couple – Renato Baldi, the manager of a

Saint-Tropez , INSEE = 83119 , postal code = 83990 , image coat of arms = Blason ville fr Saint-Tropez-A (Var).svg , image flag=Flag of Saint-Tropez.svg Saint-Tropez (; oc, Sant Tropetz, ; ) is a commune in the Var department and the region of Provence- ...

nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin Mougeotte, his star attraction – and the madness that ensues when Renato's son Laurent brings home his fiancée Andrea and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.

Cast

Production

Exterior filming was on-location in

and

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

, while interiors were shot at Dear Film and Cinecitta Studios in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy.

Reception

Box office

, ''La Cage aux Folles'' has remained the no. 11 foreign-language film released in the United States of America. The film was the second highest-grossing film of the year in France with 5,406,614 admissions. In Germany, it received 2.65 million admissions, making it the 11th highest-grossing film of the year.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 95% rating based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 7.82/10. The site's consensus reads: "''La Cage aux Folles'' is a fine French-Italian farce with flamboyant, charming characters and deep laughs". Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that "the comic turns in the plot are achieved with such clockwork timing that sometimes we're laughing at what's funny and sometimes we're just laughing at the movie's sheer comic invention. This is a great time at the movies."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''The New York Times'' wrote in a negative review that the film "is naughty in the way of comedies that pretend to be sophisticated but actually serve to reinforce the most popular conventions and most witless stereotypes." Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "For me, 'La Cage aux Folles' was over soon after it began. It's all so predictable. This could have been a

Luci Luci is an English feminine given name variant of Lucy and an Italian surname derived from the Latin personal name Lucius (from Latin ''Lux'', genitive ''Lucis'', meaning "light"). Luci is also an ancient Norman territorial surname derived from ...

Desi DESI may refer to * Desorption electrospray ionization * Drug Efficacy Study Implementation Drug Efficacy Study Implementation (DESI) was a program begun by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the 1960s after the requirement (in the Kefauve ...

comedy routine. The film's only distinctive quality is the skill of its veteran actors in working with tired material." Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' called the film "a frequently hilarious French variation on ''

Norman, Is That You? ''Norman, Is That You?'' is a 1970 play in two acts by American playwrights Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick about a Jewish couple coming to terms with their son's homosexuality. The work is notably the first play written by both writers. After 19 ...

'' and has the same broad humor and appeal but has been put over with considerably more aplomb." Gary Arnold of ''The Washington Post'' panned the film for "stale, excruciating sex jokes" and direction that "has evidently failed to devise a playing rhythm to compensate for whatever farcical tempo the material enjoyed on the stage." David McGillivray of ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' described the film as "a crude amalgam of ''Norman, Is That You?'' and John Bowen's play ''Trevor'' ... All shrieks, mincing and limp wrists, ''La Cage aux folles'' also looks positively antiquated beside the sophisticated gay comedy of such as Craig Russell."

Awards and nominations

Legacy

Sequels

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

Georges Lautner Georges Lautner (; 24 January 1926 – 22 November 2013) was a French film director and screenwriter, known primarily for his comedies created in collaboration with screenwriter Michel Audiard. Lautner's ventures into other genres were less ...

Musical adaptation

The 1983 Broadway musical '' La Cage aux Folles'' based on the play and the film was also successful.

American remake

In 1996, an American remake titled ''

'', directed by

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

and written by

Elaine May Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She has received numerous awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and a Tony. She made her initial impact in the 1950s with he ...

, was released, relocated to

South Beach South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south of Dade Boulevard. This area was the ...

and stars

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

and

Nathan Lane Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, ...

Mentions

''La Cage Aux Folles'' is mentioned in the 1993 teen comedy movie ''

Anything for Love ''Anything for Love'' is a 1993 direct-to-video teen comedy film directed by Michael Keusch and starring Corey Haim and Nicole Eggert. It was aired on television in the United States as ''Just One of the Girls''. Plot Summer is over and 16-year ...

'', a.k.a. ''Just One of the Girls''. When the PE teacher finds out the main character is a boy dressing as a girl, she says "I thought you were gay. Not auditioning for ''La Cage Aux Folles''."

''Adam and Yves''

''La Cage aux Folles'' caught the attention of television producer

Danny Arnold Danny Arnold (born Arnold Rothmann; January 23, 1925 – August 19, 1995) was an American producer, writer, comedian, actor and director known for producing ''Barney Miller'', ''That Girl'', and '' Bewitched''. Early life Born in New York Ci ...

, 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 Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

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.Tropiano, p. 252

References

Literature

External links

* * *
''La Cage aux Folles: Folles Family Values''
an essay by

David Ehrenstein David Ehrenstein (born February 18, 1947) is an American critic who focuses primarily on gay issues in cinema. Life and career Ehrenstein was born in New York City. His father was a Jew with Polish ancestors, and his mother was half-black and ha ...

at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cage Folles 1978 1978 films 1970s French-language films 1970s Italian-language films 1978 LGBT-related films 1970s multilingual films 1970s sex comedy films French LGBT-related films French sex comedy films French multilingual films Italian multilingual films Italian sex comedy films Italian LGBT-related films Homophobia in fiction Films about anti-LGBT sentiment Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winners Commedia all'italiana Cross-dressing in film Films scored by Ennio Morricone French films based on plays Films directed by Édouard Molinaro Films featuring a Best Actor César Award-winning performance Gay-related films LGBT-related sex comedy films 1978 comedy films Drag (clothing)-related films Films shot in Rome Films shot in Nice Films shot in Saint-Tropez Films set in Saint-Tropez Films shot at Cinecittà Studios 1970s Italian films 1970s French films