671 La Cage aux Folles

[zedz]

I worked through the extras on the disc and there's a bright spot in the scholarly talk on the history of drag, which is concise and revealing. Interestingly, he finds the original film preferable to the remake on the grounds that there was really no excuse for a film that retrograde in the 90s, but he cuts the original a lot of slack because of its date and its derivation from a French tradition of drag which is very different to that in the UK and US.

Also revealing, in a different way, is the director interview. Molinaro admits that he was ashamed of the film when he made it (but changed his mind when it was a big hit), and that he has no sense of humour. (It's still not funny, Ed, and you should still be ashamed!) It seems to me pretty telling that the guy's reflections on his own work are predominantly about how commercially successful the films were and how squarely they fell into his comfort zone (which he sees as a good thing).

[Moe Dickstein]

Structurally, The Birdcage is improved once the Keeley's come to dinner. In La Cage, this is almost over before it begins, but May and Nichols make a longer and good sequence out of it.

I do like the sharper more biting tone overall of La Cage, It's less softened than The Birdcage.

All in all, I do enjoy both films though La Cage was not up to the standard I recalled when I re-watched it on this Blu.

[knives]

I do like the sharper more biting tone overall of La Cage, It's less softened than The Birdcage.

What do you mean by this?

[Moe Dickstein]

Just between the two, La Cage seems to be more cutting/less PC. Birdgage always seemed about 10% toned down for American audiences. I'd have to go back and watch them to give you specifics, just more of a general feeling of tone. The Birdcage seems to take place in a world of comedy, where you never feel like anything really bad will happen, but La Cage felt a bit more immediate and of the real world, but just my take on it. I did my major thinking on these two as a teenager xxx.

[domino harvey]

Code Red is releasing the first sequel on Blu