Review of La Cage Aux Folles

Introduction

Renato is owner of a decadent nightclub in St. Tropez called La Cage Aux Folles. Albin is a drag artist (going by the stage name of Zazu) and is the main draw for the club. He is highly strung and demanding and just happens to be Renato`s lover of 20 years. They live the life of a typical happily married couple - much bickering underlined with deep affection. Their idyllic (albeit somewhat debauched) lifestyle is upset when their beloved son Laurent announces he is getting married. To a girl.

And not just any girl. She is the daughter of a Moral Majority style politician. Initially reluctant to have his baby get married, he changes his mind when the party leader is found dead in the arms of a prostitute - a black, underage prostitute. The wedding is a chance to reinforce his commitment to family values.

A dinner party is arranged to introduce both sets of parents and discuss arrangements. Laurent persuades his father to clean up the house (various phallic ornaments are banished) and tries to get Albin to leave town for a few days. This is initially successful and his estranged mother agrees to play the perfect mother for a night. However, Albin decides to play mother also.

The French have a long tradition in writing quality farce, starting with Moliere and Feydeau in the theatre. The tradition continued with film and France has produced some high quality farces (many of which have been remade by Hollywood). La Cage Aux Folles is no exception, being both high quality and the source of a watered down Hollywood adaptation in "The Birdcage".

Video

Video is presented in a letterbox format. It is less than 1.66:1 - more like 1.6:1. The image is a bit hazy, colours have faded, and some print damage is evident. This doesn`t ruin your enjoyment of the film but does make the film older than it is - it`s from 1978.

There is little of visual interest (other than Albin`s outrageous outfits) because this is an indoor, sitcom style piece.

Audio

The soundtrack is mono, duplicated across both DD 2.0 channels. Various dubbed languages are available and I tried the English and the original French. The French track sounds better, being clear and crisp. The English track is slightly muffled but you wouldn`t notice it without the French to compare to. The English dubbing is very good and (for most viewers) probably preferable to the subtitled French. The subtitled version may be more accurate but comes across as being slightly awkward - the dubbing is more fluid.

The score by Ennio Morricone sounds very synthetic and somewhat tinny. It`s unmemorable.

Features

The only extras are a pair of dull trailers. These wouldn`t entice you to try the film.

Conclusion

On it`s release, La Cage Aux Folles was a scandalous piece. Gay men living together! Cross dressing! Phallic symbols on screen! Appalling.

Now, it`s hard to see what the fuss was about. From a morality point of view, this is tame stuff - it`s really just The Odd Couple in drag. So, in that sense, it`s old hat. However, it`s still very, very funny. Laugh-out-loud moments abound - from the discovery that Zazu is actually a highly string man to the high farce of the dinner party where the prudish minister discovers that Greek boys are doing "something" on his soup plate.

The lead performances are excellent - Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault are hilarious as the bickering lovers. Also worth mentioning is Benny Luke as the very un-PC maid Jacob who gets all be best catty lines.

The script is witty, being low-brow without stooping to vulgarity, and direction is spot on. The only problem is the rushed and perfunctory ending.

The film is worth watching (even if you have seen the Hollywood mush remake) but the DVD is perfunctory.