''La Cage aux Folles II'' is a 1980 French

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 ol ...

and the

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to 1978's '' La Cage aux Folles''. It is directed by

Édouard Molinaro Édouard Molinaro (13 May 1928 – 7 December 2013) was a French film director and screenwriter. Biography He was born in Bordeaux, Gironde. He is best known for his comedies with Louis de Funès (''Oscar'', '' Hibernatus''), '' My Uncle B ...

and stars

Michel Serrault Michel Serrault (24 January 1928 – 29 July 2007) was a French stage and film actor who appeared from 1954 until 2007 in more than 130 films. Life and career His first professional job was in a touring production in Germany of Molière's '' Les ...

as Albin (stage name ZaZa), the female impersonator star of a gay night-club revue, and

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 ...

as Renato, his partner of over 20 years.

Plot

A spy plants a capsule of microfilm on Albin and from then on spies and government agents pursue him. Albin and Renato travel to Italy to hide at Renato's mother's farm. At each point along the way, we see the straight world's reaction to Albin.

Cast

as Albin Mougeotte/ZaZa Napoli *

as Renato Baldi *

Marcel Bozzuffi Marcel Bozzuffi (28 October 19291 February 1988) was a French film actor. He appeared as a hitman in the Oscar-winning American film '' The French Connection''. In 1963, he married French actress Françoise Fabian. Selected filmography *1955: ...

as Broca, chief of the government agents *

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. ...

as Simon Charrier *

Paola Borboni Paola Borboni (1 January 1900 – 9 April 1995) was an Italian stage and film actress whose career spanned nine decades of cinema. Early life Borboni was born on 1 January 1900 in Parma, Italy. Career Borboni made her stage debut in 19 ...

as Mrs. Baldi, Renato's mother *

Benny Luke Benny Luke (March 4, 1939 in Oakland, California – January 13, 2013) was an American-French actor and dancer established in Paris. He is best known for playing the role of Jacob, the domestic of Renato and Albin in the trilogy of films '' ...

as Jacob, Renato and Albin's housekeeper * Giovanni Vettorazzo as Milan *

Glauco Onorato Glauco Onorato (7 December 1936 – 31 December 2009) was an Italian actor and voice actor. As an actor and dubber popular with audiences throughout Italy, he was renowned for voicing over nearly all of Bud Spencer's roles as Spencer had a thick ...

as Luigi *

Roberto Bisacco Roberto Bisacco (1 March 1939 – 10 October 2022)Nazzareno Natale Nazzareno Natale (4 April 1938 – 21 June 2006) was an Italian actor He played Rojo Gang Member in '' Per un pugno di dollari'', Paco in ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965), and Bountyhunter in '' Il buono il bruto il cattivo'' (1966), by Sergio ...

as Demis * Antonio Francioni as Michaux *

Stelio Candelli Stelio Candelli (born 28 March 1931) is an Italian film, stage and television actor. Life and career Born in Trieste, the son of civil servants, in 1954 Candelli enrolled at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica in Rome, graduating in 1957. The sam ...

as Hans * Mark Bodin as Caramel, Albin's would-be replacement *

Tom Felleghy Tom Felleghy (born Tamás Fellegi; 26 November 1921) is a Hungarian-born Italian actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films since 1958. Filmography References External links * 1921 births Possibly living people Hungarian ma ...

as Andrew Manderstam

Critical response

''La Cage aux Folles II'' holds a 60% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on five reviews.

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 "The film is as harmless, reassuring, sentimental and unsurprising as any prime-time situation comedy that has gone on too long." Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote "The new story is even less compelling than the old one, but this time the lead characters are more meaningful. 'Cage II' is a more poignant film, portraying the straight world as pursuers of power while the homosexuals seek love and beauty." ''Variety'' reported that the film was "markedly inferior" to the original and "is basically a Michael Serrault drag variety show ... There's little else here of interest or competence. Tognazzi has less to do than before and just fades into the background." Sheila Benson of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote "Nothing has changed. The plot has only thinned since the real story, Renato and Zaza's relationship, has already been so exhaustively explored." She noted, though, that the film "comes alive at the moments when it deals with double and triple role reversals." Lloyd Grove of ''The Washington Post'' wrote that "the sequel delivers the same punch lines to the same jokes, though this time there's a dash of international intrigue to keep things moving." Gilbert Adair of ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote that "the juxtaposition of campy histrionics with the dreariest type of espionage comedy offers quickly diminishing returns. A pity no worthier vehicle could have been found to reprise Michel Serrault's brilliant performances, the precision of whose comic mimicry can be compared without exaggeration to that of a kabuki female impersonator."

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

of ''The New Yorker'' wrote: " ''La Cage aux Folles II'' has nothing to do with the art of movies, but it has a great deal to do with the craft and art of acting, and the pleasures of farce. Serrault gives a superb comic performance - his Albin is a wildly fanciful creation. There's a grandeur about Albin's inability to see himself as he is. And maybe it's only in this exaggerated form that a movie about the ridiculousness and the tenderness of married love can be widely accepted now." Kael, Pauline.

Taking It All In ''Taking It All In'' is the seventh collection of movie reviews by the critic Pauline Kael and contains the 150 film reviews she wrote for ''The New Yorker'' between June 9, 1980, and June 13, 1983. She writes in the Author's Note at the beginning ...

, p.167

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cage Folles 1980 1980 films 1980s French-language films 1980 comedy films 1980 LGBT-related films French comedy films French LGBT-related films French sequel films Italian comedy films Italian LGBT-related films Italian sequel films Cross-dressing in film Films directed by Édouard Molinaro Films set in France Films set in Sicily Films shot in France Films shot in Italy Gay-related films LGBT-related comedy films United Artists films Drag (clothing)-related films 1980s Italian films 1980s French films