La Cage aux folles 3 – ’Elles’ se marient (1985) - film review

Albin and Renato, the owners of St-Tropez’s most notorious night club, are facing financial ruin.  Their one hope is an inheritance from one of Albin’s wealthy relatives.  Unfortunately, the inheritance is conditional upon Albin getting married and producing an heir within 18 months.  Whilst Albin sees this as Mission Impossible, Renato isn’t quite so ready to admit defeat...

The third and final instalment in the Cage aux folles saga has little if any of the charm of its predecessors and seems content to hurl tired clichés about as if they were going out of fashion.  The main reason for the film’s failure is the change of director-writing team – Edouard Molinaro and Francis Veber worked on the original films, whereas here we have Georges Lautner and Michel Audiard, who seem to have far less sympathy with their subject.   This change is reflected not just in the quality of the gags – La Cage aux folles 3 has very few good jokes, yet plenty that are risibly bad – but also in the pace of the film, the quality of the performances, and even the design.  As the turbo-camp drag artiste Albin, Michel Serrault is so outrageously over the top that it’s a wonder he doesn’t go into orbit, but he is still by far the best thing about the film.

© James Travers 2007

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