French Film Series Fall 2016
MFLL Department-Florence Abad Turner at fabadtur @utk.edu
Amours Volés et Malentendus Identitaires
Let's explore this semester the LGBT representation and the question of sex and gender in France with three excellent movies: Tomboy, Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! and La Cage aux Folles. We will follow the tribulations of young Laure to become a boy, Guillaume who is socially conditioned and an old gay couple Albin and Renato trying to be accepted by their straight children.
All movies are in French with English subtitles
La Cage aux Folles by Edouard Molinaro, France-Italy 1978
The French film, which later became a successful Broadway musical with Harvey Fierstein, and a Mike Nichols Hollywood movie, made fun of macho pretensions. The story of a gay couple (played by Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault), who run a nightclub, in which Serrault has a drag act, was a new theme in the 1970s, untouched by most mainstream American movies. It would take at least another decade until the industry makes gay-themed pictures.
The whole movie is based on one premise that gets numerous permutations: Misunderstandings and complications that arise from Tognazzi's son bringing home his fiance and her very straight parents. Emanuel Levy