Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 1979

The Contenders:

Apocalypse Now
La Cage aux Folles
Kramer vs. Kramer (winner)
A Little Romance
Norma Rae

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1979

The Contenders:

Bob Fosse: All That Jazz
Francis Ford Coppola: Apocalypse Now
Peter Yates: Breaking Away
Edouard Molinaro: La Cage aux Folles
Robert Benton: Kramer vs. Kramer (winner)

Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage

Film: La Cage aux Folles
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on laptop.

A new quarter at the school where I work begins tomorrow, which means I’ll have a harder time with foreign films again in upcoming weeks. That being the case, it made sense to knock on the one sitting on the table in front of me today: La Cage aux Folles. I hadn’t seen this before except that I kind of already had. I’ve seen the American remake from the ‘90s starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, and especially Nathan Lane. That 1996 film is not merely a remake in spirit of this French original. They are very much the same movie.

Renato Baldi (Ugo Tognazzi) owns a transvestite cabaret club called La Cage aux Folles in Saint-Tropez with his partner and star of the show, Albin (Michel Serrault). Albin is not merely a diva on stage; he’s constantly worried that Renato is cheating on him and that everyone laughs at him behind his back. This night is a special one, though—Laurent (Remi Laurent) is returning home. Laurent is Renato’s son, conceived in a one-time heterosexual fling with Simone (Claire Maurier), but has been raised by Renato and Albin as the equivalent of father and mother respectively.