Yes Albin is back, 5 years after after a sold out success in theater for La Cage aux Folles, his Zaza Napoli is about to become the most famous drag queen in the world, and this, is thanks to the movie.
The original 1973 story remains the same, therefore I will focus here on the major differences between the play, and the movie.
Creator, writer and actor Jean Poiret remained in charge of the screenwriting. He wanted to recreate a truly cinematic story from the play. Poiret needed help from with his friend writer and director Francis Veber, and from the film’s director Édouard Molinaro. The actor had to make way on the screen for Ugo Tognazzi, an Italian actor for whom George became Renato Baldi. Because in France, despite the triumph of the play, producers were not rushing in, the cage. A co production with italian investors became necessary.
Michel Serrault was replaced on stage by the actor Jean-Jacques the following year, to work on the movie too, with Edouard Molinaro, who already had experience of Franco-Italian co-productions, and who had had great success with L’Emmerdeur, Hibernatus and Oscar, so he knew the challenge of adapting a play for the cinema.
Let’s look at the characters. Few changes to note : the butcher stays in his shop, the manager and Mercedes virtually disappear, (she is partly Petunia). The script needs to make more room for other characters.
Of course, Zaza remains Zaza, and Albin takes on more importance. It was impossible to do without Michel Serrault. The actor knows Zaza and the audience’s reactions by heart. Remember, Serrault broke new ground with his antiquaire dealer in 1959:
And in 1966, Michel Serrault had the opportunity to create a a hairdresser character portrait that was already almost Albin’s, in the film Le roi de cœur.
As for George, becoming Renato: with the actor Ugo Tognazzi, the character becomes physically and psychologically rounder. George was very nervous; Renato is more tender, quieter, more patient.
Finally, Laurent, Renato’s biological son, is also calmer, more attentive, he doesn’t get angry, and is a little less close to Albin. He looks like a perfect future son-in-law, and he shows that it’s perfectly OK, to be raised by two dads.
And then, Laurent’s mother, Simone, also takes on a more substantial existence. And this woman is also an opportunity to question Renato’s sexual orientation, who may, after all, be bisexual.
Jacob is no longer Belgian with an American accent - actor Benny Luke still plays the part - but now he’s French, with French actor Greg Germain dubbed voice. He receives far fewer jokes about his colour than in the play, and Renato is still very bossy with him.
And then we go to Simon Charrier’s house.
Michel Galabru takes on the character of Simon Charrier, the right-wing politician and father of the bride-to-be. The film allows us to see him in his home. He’s tougher, colder, especially with his daughter. He’s another cliché character, but still, full of truth even nowadays.
The great advantage of cinema is of course the freedom of narrative space. The characters are no longer prisoners of their living room. New rooms open up to the audience. Like the kitchen.
And we also enter the bedroom.
It’s into the couple’s intimacy that we finally enter, by visiting the flat.
And this intimacy brings emotion. The play is made of one joke after another, the film makes pauses from time to time, to reflect on the characters and their states of mind. And sometimes, instead of laughing at the characters, the film brings understanding and empathy. And each place has its own emotion.
Also, we get out of the flat to go down into the cabaret. And this is very important: the visibility of the artists AND the public AND Zaza, in professional drag, performing on stage.
And even further, outdoor in the neighborhood, we follow Albin, who appears belonging into his environment and social life. He has the freedom to get out of his cage, without denying himself, without being ashamed of himself, without this creating the slightest problem. In short, a normal life as an artist and a shopkeeper among other shopkeepers. But the film also places the characters in their rather hateful context, that of the Côte d’Azur, in a scene of gratuitous homophobia (and mockery) in which Renato refuses to be a victim.
The relationship between Albin and Renato becomes more sensitive, more profound, with, for example, the scene (set to music) in which Laurent announces his marriage. The anxiety, the hint of nostalgia, makes the scene totally out of sync, and therefore funnier than in the play.
And then the story develops a crisis between Albin and Renato that goes further than with Albin and George. The film’s great strength is to tone down the very powerful comedy of the play and go for more feelings of sorrow, disappointment or rejection, as Albin stages a desire to break up.
Another advantage of cinema over theatre is the close-ups of Albin’s make-up work, which brings the level of cross-dressing up to that of drag, and allows him and the other actors to overact less.
The film slightly alters the play’s essential and legendary scenes (the breakfast, the dinner party), but they lose none of their laughing power, thanks to Michel Serrault’s performance.
Birds of a Feather, well known for it’s original title La Cage aux Folles, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for three Oscars: Best Director (Molinaro), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Costume Design.
The great victory of the film is that it brings the public into a gay club, introduces them to professional transvestism, drag, and shows that there is no threat from Albin and Renato. On the contrary, they are the victims of unjust prejudice from people who don’t even know them.
In 1978, homosexuality was still a criminal offense in France.
La Cage aux Folles is a great kick in the door for French cinema, opening it up to gay characters who are male, positive, outspoken, in love, integrated and happy. And the plea for tolerance is even stronger when the production shows that you cannot fight against your nature, but never win. Whoever you are.
Almost 5.5 million at the box office in France, over 6 million in Italy, a triumph throughout Europe, and over 8 million in the USA.
The whole world has been won over.
