La cage aux folles II (1980)
(On Cable TV, January 2021) Forty years later, the characters of La cage aux folles series present a curious conundrum for anyone trying to make sense of what it is to be progressive. On the one hand, it plays in heavy stereotypes of a bygone era, conflating cross-dressing with homosexuality, asking its lead actor Michel Serrault to fully play into the stereotype of the burlesque queen and getting away with jokes that wouldn’t fly in today’s trans-sensitive orthodoxy. On the other hand… the characters are never portrayed in anything but a sympathetic light, with quirks of characterization taking over stereotypes most of the time. Unlike its predecessor, La cage aux folles II doesn’t quite have the dense overplotting that led to its cult status and familiar American remake: it feels like an episode with a shoehorned thriller plot against which the comedy is set. It’s not entirely bad: going back to Italy is a nice nod to co-star Ugo Tognazzi, Serrault turns in a strong performance (the film is rarely as funny as when he goes all-out on those high-pitched squeals) and the film is relatively easy to watch, even if it’s not on the same level as the original. The intricate farce is watered down, even though it does have a few good sequences playing along role reversals (and often double reversals). In the end, what makes La cage aux folles II easier to take even four decades later is the sense that we’re laughing because the characters are funny and good-hearted, not because they’re indulging stereotypes.
