RA RANSVESTIA

MOVIE

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Birds of a Feather)

Starring - Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault

Released in North America by United Artists

This film is not about us (the heterosexual crossdresser), but, as a "gay farce" with a large dose of female impersonation and solid humor that avoids either sneering or condescending it is worth the time and money to view. In the theatre which I attended, gays, straights, and hetero crossdressers all were com- pletely entertained and no one seemed to feel "put down" or threatened in the presence of mincing drag queens.

Audience acceptence in New York City and other centers where this film is attracting good box office (and not just from gays) says something about the evolution of this sensitive sub- ject-- the homosexual drag queen, the fag, the swish and so on. In films of yesteryear the homosexual never got out of the movie alive. Moral convention demanded that the gay character be killed and the matter was usually dispatched in some blunt sym- bolic manner -- like having a church fall on them.

By the 1960's the plot had been improved to the extent that a homosexual could take his own life (after all, what would you do in that situation?).

In this decade the homosexual has found new sophistication and is generally respected as a serious character although there is still a tendency to portray sterotypes. Perhaps this is an inevit- able condition of the motion picture art.

-30-