La Cage aux Folles

La Cage aux Folles (, "The Cage of Madwomen") is a 1978 Franco-Italian comedy film and the first film adaptation of Jean Poiret's 1973 play La Cage aux Folles. It is co-written and directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault.
==Plot==
Like the play upon which it is based, 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==
Character 	Original Actors 	English Voices
Renato Baldi 	Ugo Tognazzi 	Dick Latessa
Albin Mougeotte/'Zaza Napoli'	Michel Serrault 	Victor Garber
Simone Deblon 	Claire Maurier 	Lucille Patton
Laurent Baldi 	Rémi Laurent 	Don Scardino
Simon Charrier 	Michel Galabru 	Bernard Grant
Louise Charrier 	Carmen Scarpitta	Carmen Scarpitta
Jacob 	Benny Luke 	Northern Calloway
Andrea Charrier 	Luisa Maneri 	Liane Curtis
==Reception==
===Box office===
, La Cage aux Folles has remained the 11.Foreign Language Movies at the Box Office. Box Office Mojo. foreign 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 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."Canby, Vincent (May 13, 1979). "Film: 'Cage aux Folles,' Farce in a French Club". The New York Times. 41. 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 & Desi comedy routine. The film's only distinctive quality is the skill of its veteran actors in working with tired material."Siskel, Gene (July 19, 1979). "Acting helps, but 'La Cage' material seems tired". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 5. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a frequently hilarious French variation on Norman, Is That You? and has the same broad humor and appeal but has been put over with considerably more aplomb."Thomas, Kevin (July 18, 1979). "A French Variation on 'Norman'". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 13. 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."Arnold, Gary (July 18, 1979). "Feeble Farce". The Washington Post. E6. David McGillivray of The Monthly Film Bulletin 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 honors==
Year	Award 	Category 	Recipients 	Result
1979	César Award 	Best Actor 	Michel Serrault 	
1979	David di Donatello 	David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor 	Michel Serrault 	
1979	National Board of Review 	National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film (France/Italy)	National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film (France/Italy)	
1979	National Board of Review 	Top Foreign Films 	Top Foreign Films 	
1979	New York Film Critics Circle	Best Foreign Language Film 	Best Foreign Language Film 	
1980	Academy Awards 	Best Director 	Édouard Molinaro 	
1980	Academy Awards 	Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium 	Francis Veber, Édouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon, Jean Poiret 	
1980	Academy Awards 	Best Costume Design 	Piero Tosi, Ambra Danon 	
1980	Golden Globe Awards 	Best Foreign Film (France/Italy) 	Best Foreign Film (France/Italy) 	
1980	Sant Jordi Award 	Best Performance in a Foreign Film 	Michel Serrault 	
==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.
===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 The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Elaine May, was released, relocated to South Beach, Miami, and stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
=== Mentions ===
La Cage Aux Folles is mentioned in the 1993 teen comedy movie Anything for Love, 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."Just One Of The Girls (1993). YouTube.com. Mark 50:35. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
===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.Tropiano, p. 252
==References==
==Literature==
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==External links==
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*La Cage aux Folles: Folles Family Values an essay by David Ehrenstein at the Criterion Collection
Category:1978 films
Category:French films
Category:Italian films
Category:French-language films
Category:Italian-language films
Category:1978 LGBT-related films
Category:1970s sex comedy films
Category:French LGBT-related films
Category:French sex comedy films
Category:Italian sex comedy films
Category:Italian LGBT-related films
Category:Homophobia in fiction
Category:Films about anti-LGBT sentiment
Category:Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winners
Category:Commedia all'italiana
Category:Cross-dressing in film
Category:Films scored by Ennio Morricone
Category:French films based on plays
Category:Films directed by Édouard Molinaro
Category:Films featuring a Best Actor César Award-winning performance
Category:Films shot in Saint-Tropez
Category:Gay-related films
Category:LGBT-related sex comedy films
Category:1978 comedy films
Category:Drag (clothing)-related films