La Cage aux Folles II
Encyclopedia
La Cage aux Folles II is a French-Italian film released in 1980. It is a sequel to 1979's La Cage aux Folles
. It is directed by Édouard Molinaro
and stars Michel Serrault
as Albin, (stage name ZaZa), the female impersonator star of a gay night-club revue, and Ugo Tognazzi
as Renato, his mate of over twenty years.
in The New Yorker
: " La Cage aux Folles II has nothing to do with the art of movies, but it has a great deal to do with the craft and art of acting, and the pleasures of farce. Serrault gives a superb comic performance - his Albin is a wildly fanciful creation. There's a grandeur about Albin's inability to see himself as he is. And maybe its only in this exaggerated form that a movie about the ridiculousness and the tenderness of married love can be widely accepted now. At the end, after Albin has been kidnapped by the spies, Renato, who is nearby with the police, can't think of anything but his beloved Albin. And, suddenly, forgetting the danger, each starts running toward the other, and they meet between the two armed groups like lovers in an opera. One of the policemen watching their embrace is weeping. "It's beautiful," he says."
La Cage aux Folles (film)
La Cage aux Folles is a 1978 French-Italian film adaptation of the 1973 play La Cage aux Folle by Jean Poiret. It is co-written and directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault.-Plot:...
. It is directed by Édouard Molinaro
Édouard Molinaro
Édouard Molinaro is a French film director, actor, and screenwriter. He was born in Gironde, Bordeaux.He is best known for his comedies with Louis de Funès , My Uncle Benjamin , Dracula and Son , and the Academy Award-nominated La Cage aux Folles Édouard Molinaro (born 13 May 1928) is a French...
and stars Michel Serrault
Michel Serrault
Michel Serrault was a celebrated French actor who appeared in over 150 films.-Biography :...
as Albin, (stage name ZaZa), the female impersonator star of a gay night-club revue, and Ugo Tognazzi
Ugo Tognazzi
Ugo Tognazzi was an Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter.-Early life:Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a traveller clerk for an insurance company.After his return in the native city in 1936, he...
as Renato, his mate of over twenty years.
Synopsis
The film has a comedy-thriller plot. A spy plants a capsule of microfilm on Albin and from then on spies and government agents pursue him. Albin and Renato travel to Italy to hide at Renato's mother's farm. At each point along the way we see the straight world's reaction to Albin.Critical response
The film was reviewed, favourably, by the critic Pauline KaelPauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
: " La Cage aux Folles II has nothing to do with the art of movies, but it has a great deal to do with the craft and art of acting, and the pleasures of farce. Serrault gives a superb comic performance - his Albin is a wildly fanciful creation. There's a grandeur about Albin's inability to see himself as he is. And maybe its only in this exaggerated form that a movie about the ridiculousness and the tenderness of married love can be widely accepted now. At the end, after Albin has been kidnapped by the spies, Renato, who is nearby with the police, can't think of anything but his beloved Albin. And, suddenly, forgetting the danger, each starts running toward the other, and they meet between the two armed groups like lovers in an opera. One of the policemen watching their embrace is weeping. "It's beautiful," he says."
Cast
- Michel SerraultMichel SerraultMichel Serrault was a celebrated French actor who appeared in over 150 films.-Biography :...
as Albin/ZaZa - Ugo TognazziUgo TognazziUgo Tognazzi was an Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter.-Early life:Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a traveller clerk for an insurance company.After his return in the native city in 1936, he...
as Renato - Marcel BozzuffiMarcel BozzuffiMarcel Bozzuffi was a French film actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as a brutal hitman in the Oscar-winning US film The French Connection...
as Broca, chief of the government agents - Benny Luke as Jacob