MartinHafer In this film, a young man is about to marry a girl--a girl from an EXTREMELY moralistic family. In fact, her father is a big-wig with a French political party that prides itself on its righteousness and pro-traditional morality stance. This is a serious problem, as the man was raised in a home with two fathers--a biological one and the father's lover--who just happens to be a cross-dressing star of a cabaret! So, to try to get the father to give his blessing, everyone conspires to hide this--to pretend that the young man was raised in a very conservative home. At first, it means possibly having the boy's biological mother pose as the mother--even though she abandoned him when he was a child. Then, when she doesn't show, the father's lover (already a cross-dresser extraordinaire) decides to fill in for her and pretend to be the mother! Will this elaborate ruse work?! A few months ago, my oldest daughter and I saw the play for "La Cage Aux Folles" on Broadway. The show was marvelous and we had a wonderful time. Now, we both sat down to see the original French film on which the play was based. In retrospect, this was not the best way to have seen the movie, as it simply was better and made the movie look a lot worse by comparison. I think if I'd seen the movie first, I would have done a much more favorable review here on IMDb.Plot-wise, the film and play are very similar. The biggest difference is not WHAT happens but how. So, despite the events being mostly the same, the film falls quite flat in comparison because the characters seem to lack heart. In other words, there isn't the same loving chemistry there was in the play. In the play, no matter what, you KNOW that the people all love each other down deep. In this film, however, they all seem a bit selfish. In addition, the film lacks some of the humor of the play--though I could live more with that than the coldness of the characters towards each other. Good--but it could have been a lot better.By the way, for a French comedy with a gay theme that was better AND directed by the same man who wrote the screenplay for "La Cage Aux Folles", try "The Closet"--a delightful and poignant movie indeed.

MARIO GAUCI I had never watched this because I only owned it in French without subtitles (though it's been shown several times on Italian TV over the years) but did catch the inferior first sequel dubbed in English; to be honest, I'm not particularly interested in checking out the Americanized version – even after acquainting myself with the original (soon after co-star Michel Serrault's passing).The film is well acted (by Serrault, Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Galabru) and very funny, though no masterpiece; it seems surprising now that a 'vulgar' farce would receive an Oscar nomination for Best Direction – that said, there's no denying its originality and style and, in any case, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES epitomized the 'alternative' gay lifestyle and immediately became the prototype of such films.To my mind, the two best gags are: Tognazzi showing his manliness by picking on a dwarf for an offence directed at his lover Serrault (with the little man nonchalantly pointing to the big guy behind him as the real culprit), and the homosexual couple's black manservant (similarly inclined) bursting into laughter at seeing Serrault trying to pass himself off as Tognazzi's wife: the latter's son by a chance encounter is getting hitched and has brought his fiancé to meet the 'family' – the trouble is that the girl's father, Galabru, happens to be an MP with a party dedicated to preserving Moral Order! Unfortunately, the film's ending – the celebration of the wedding (following the fracas at the nightclub which, predictably, sees Galabru in drag) – is rushed and fairly lame when compared to what has gone on before.I know the last entry in the series wasn't very good and, really, this should have been left as a one-off; incidentally, Tognazzi made another popular sequence of comedies around this same time (all of which I still have in my 'unwatched VHS' pile) – AMICI MIEI – which Pietro Germi initiated but Mario Monicelli took over after the latter's death, and with the third and final outing helmed by Nanni Loy.

Lee Eisenberg In the movie on which "The Birdcage" was based, a gay couple have to pretend to be straight to meet their son's right-wing in-laws. Even if "La cage aux folles" stereotypes gays, it's impossible not to love. As with the remake, it shows how the biological mother has completely ignored the son and the ultra-gay man has had to act as the mother, and also what hypocrites the morality-obsessed politicians are. Is it better than the remake? Well, considering that the remake was a shot-for-shot remake, that does give this one a better feeling (what made the remake so good was how it mocked the right-wingers who had just taken control of Congress).So anyway, this one is something that everyone's gotta like. Whether about tolerance or other things, it's great. Starring Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault.

kyrat I first saw the remake Birdcage many years ago, and only last night got around to see La Cage Aux Folles. I liked it a lot. I can only imagine it's impact back in 1978. (I also appear to be in the minority since I also liked the campy/funnier version of Birdcage with it's disco soundtrack).I think what I liked best about the French version was the role of the mother. She was unapologetic about not wanting to raise a child. In this day and age of slow moving public acceptance of gay couples (and hopefully one day gay marriage), I found this challenge to the stereotyped notion of motherhood to be more (refreshingly)shocking than the gay issue. I barely remember how they explained the mother in the American version, I believe the parents had been married and were divorced and the implication was that the mother was in the sons life (I might be misremembering). Not all women have this maternal "instinct" that society insists they have. I was happy to see a successful career woman with no regrets for her choices.I'm glad that they tried to hit on gender issues, class, race AND issues of sexuality, instead of just focusing on one to the exclusion of all others.p.s. it reminded me a of Ang Lee's Wedding Banquet - I wonder if he was influened by this film or maybe trying to appear straight to appease traditional parents a common issue that many people have had to address.