LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

France, 1978, 87 minutes, Colour.
Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru.
Directed by Eduardo Molina.

La Cage aux Folles is the name of a Riviera 'Les Girls'-type nightclub. Camp style opens the film and the audience is also tricked in its judgments about appearances and realities and homosexuality. Soon the film moves our response to a more sympathetic approach to the characters and tests our attitudes and their bases. However, the basic ingredients of the film are those of farce and mistaken identities, funny lines and a fine comic sense of timing. Here the film is almost as hilarious as the advertising boasts. The blend of laughter, feeling for the characters and satire on the double standards of public morals and self-righteousness works very well indeed.

1. The acclaim this film received in 1979-80? The basis of its reputation? Qualities, entertainment value?

2. The screenplay and the director in their presuppositions about homosexuality and audience response to these themes? The presentation of men, relationships, love, fidelity? The presentation of a way of life? The anomalous nature of homosexual behaviour and society? Ordinary behaviour, 'camp' style? Audience presuppositions about all of this? How would it affect response?

3. The French Italian treatment of the theme? The blend of the comic, the light, the serious, the sentimental? The presentation of issues in people? How well did the film blend the farcical and the serious?

4. The title of the film, the reference to the nightclub? The credits and the establishing of the mod? The dances, the female impersonation, the clientele? The world of the nightclub? Renato and his ownership of the club, his style, his handling of situations and people? Albin and the contrived crisis? The visit of the doctor and the camp tone? Immediate audience response to Renato and Albin? To the club?

5. The establishing of the relationship between Albin and Renato? The equivalent of a male-female relationship? The Hoods, the language, dress? The continuing relationship over twenty years? As illustrated in the prima donna tantrums about performance and illness, in ordinary daily life e.g. shopping, clothes? Albin's capacity to be hurt? His response to the crisis, leaving, the sequence in the cafe and the fight, the railway station? His performance as Mother? The basis of the relationship between Albin and Renato, the length of the relationship?

6. Laurent and his arrival? The audience tricked into believing a false relationship between Renato and Laurent? The discovery that he was Renato’s son? A testing of attitudes and changing? The relationship of father and son? The background of the story. Laurent and his wanting to get married, the dilemma for Renato about presenting himself to the in-laws? The dilemma of homosexuality with his son? The contrast with the mother who abandoned her son? The establishing of serious themes as well as the background for farce and mistaken identities?

7. The serious aspects of Laurent and his request? The judgment on his father, on Albin, the demands made in concealing their relationship, the club? Did he have the right to ask this? The basis of farce in mistaken identities? The background of the negro servant and his behaving as a maid -hysterical and giggly reactions? The change in Renato's dress and behaviour, Albin and his crisis, the servant becoming butler? The change of the decor of the house - from camp to plain and religious? The possibilities for mistakes and exposure and audience anticipation of this?

8. The continued ups and downs of Renato's and Albin's relationship? Argument about the change of decor, Albin and his sunning himself, the clash in the cafe, the fight and Renato's being knocked out? Albin and the railway station? His wearing the suit and its not being acceptable?

9. Andrea and her being the nice fiancee, her unwillingness to tell her parents the truth? Their arrogance - snobbery, political connections, the background of the public moral organisation? Her father and his job, the crisis with the death of the President in dubious circumstances? The repercussions with reporters chasing him and his escaping by ladder? The mother and her decision about the white wedding? Pressurising her husband into it? The possibilities for exposure and farce?

10. The satire on the Festival of Light-type organisation? Public sincerity and private hypocrisy? Their being mocked? Exposed? Fairly or not?

11. The family travelling to the coast, the arrival. the chauffeur and his betraying his manager to the press, the photos, the trapping of the family in the nightclub, the humour of the final escape and photo?

12. How much humour was there in the presentation of Renato and Albin? Audiences changing in their attitudes towards him, sentiment,, feelings? The build-up to the anniversary and the farcical intrusion with the cake? The final squabbles?

13. The decision to ask Simone to help with the deception? Renato and his meting his wife,, the irony of the repetition of the seduction? The explanation of the past and the marriage? Simone and her middle-aged seductive style? Albin and his impatience?

14. The build-up to the night - the arrival of the family and the formalities, the butler and the jokes and laughter, Laurent and his trying to cope? Albin changing everything with his arriving as Mother - the farcical elements of the conversation, the wig, the voice, the plates and the art? The arrival of Simone and the confusion? Laurent and Andrea within this context? The anniversary cake? The final double talk and the threat of exposure?

15. The humour of the disguise and the father having to dress as a woman? Albin and the genuine help?

16. The happy ending with the wedding - the camp joke about the priest, Albin and his argument and the ongoing relationship as the final credits came through?

17. A satisfyingly humorous film? The sketches of people.. situations, hypocrisy and morality., attitudes? Audience judgment on people, on the issues of homosexuality. the appreciation of homosexuals as persons? Farce and comedy as an appropriate way for exploring audience reactions and possibly changing them?