Merci Zaza - La Folle Histoire de la Cage aux Folles

May 30, 2023

1h 50m

★ 9.5

Overview

A look back at "La Cage aux Folles", which ran non-stop for five years, from February 1973, on the stage of the Théâtre du Palais Royal in Paris. At a time when homosexuality was considered a crime by the law, Poiret and Serrault achieved great success in boulevard theater. Their success continued on the silver screen, with three Oscar nominations and a Broadway musical. Combining never-before-seen archives from the play, extracts from the film, confessions by Poiret and Serrault, and interviews with witnesses, this is the story of a wild epic.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

Paris Première

INA

Merci Zaza - La Folle Histoire de la Cage aux Folles Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Self / Georges (archive footage)

Jean Poiret

Self / Zaza Napoli / Albin (archive footage)

Michel Serrault

Self

Frédéric Norbert

Self

Bernard Murat

Self

Jacques Nerson

Self

Alain Burosse

Self

Jean-Marie Besset

Self / Speakerine

Michel Fau

The story was born from the pen of debutante Callie Khouri: Thelma, married to a macho man, and Louise, an independent waitress, go on a girls' getaway that turns into a runaway when the latter, during a stopover in a bar, shoots a man who was trying to rape her friend. But at the dawn of the 1990s, screens were dominated by testosterone-fueled opuses, and Hollywood studios were reluctant to entrust the steering wheel to a female duo. Seduced by the script, forwarded by his associate Mimi Polk, Ridley Scott agreed to produce the film and decided, against all odds, to direct it himself. Under the British director's watch, the two accidental outlaws, fabulously portrayed by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, flee across the vastness of the Far West on an emancipatory epic that sees them defy male oppression and reveal themselves to themselves.

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