La Cage aux Folles

La Cage aux Folles (1978) is a French-Italian comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Renato runs a drag cabaret in St. Tropez, and his partner Albin is the headliner of that very stage, a temperamental diva who performs as Zaza.

Their settled life cracks open when Renato's son Laurent announces he is getting married. The bride's father is a crusading right-wing politician obsessed with public morals, and her parents are coming to dinner. In one evening the apartment above the club has to be scrubbed of every trace of who lives there, the drag scene downstairs hidden away, the guests convinced this is a model household. Albin is asked to simply disappear for the night, but a star does not exit quietly. Michel Serrault as Zaza and Ugo Tognazzi as Renato carry the whole farce with flawless timing.

Director Édouard Molinaro adapted Jean Poiret's hit stage play, and the film became an international smash that later spawned the Hollywood remake The Birdcage. The comedy works because it laughs with its two leads rather than at them, men who would rather perform a lie than betray themselves. It suits anyone who loves a classic door-slamming farce with real warmth underneath. Stream La Cage aux Folles (1978) online on iFILM.