Thoughts on La Cage aux Folles.

Sep 27, 2009 16:42

 
I went to see this yesterday, and in the voice of Craig Revel Horwood, it is FAB U LOUS. ( Read more... )

ljb

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takisys November 4 2009, 19:02:55 UTC
Hi, I got to see JB in la cage in September, I'm French, and a big fan of Michel Serrault who created Albin, first on stage, then in the French movies (3 of them)
At first I was a bit thrilled about John playing Albin because I thought that he was too young and too handsome.
But in the end insecurity has nothing to do with what you are, but what you think people see in you
And, even if I think la cage in its first version was outstanding, it is now a days a bit out of date, like my daughter point it out, after watching it over before we leave for London (she’s not very good at English, an wanted to remind herself of the story) gay pride an women rights had change a lot of things and Jb point of view on la cage and his performance are more up to date.
Like you, I didn’t like the John Wayne part, and I’ve the feeling that John knows he is not good on this too; it looked like he wants to skip it
On the other end, I think he does a great job when Albin decides to impersonate the mother, he just stunning
And one thing I hated in the Michel Serrault/ Albin was the way he was screaming like a little girl every single moment!
Oh, by the way got there from madder rose, so I put it here for the both of you

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fide_et_spe November 4 2009, 19:52:02 UTC
Hey thanks for this comment. I agree it is dated, but I think the whole thing is to be honest, and the only way it works is to just either think of it as 70's, or just think, silly musical, not real life. Whereas the original film is brilliant, but of it's time.

I think that JB could have been camper to be true to the character, all the other Albin's have been, so that screaming etc, well JB did it, but he definitely toned it down.

I would say that your countrymen are probably better actors, but as I said, they were of their time.

I do actually think that the actors are too young, and too handsome! It was clearly a commercial decision, and I was kind of fascinated to see that they were giving tickets away for this, they had cheap deals, it didn't sell that well, yet when Douglas Hodge was in it, you couldn't get tickets, I wanted to go, but it sold out. Which for me is a strange thing, in that, I want JB to do well, and you read my review, I did love it. But I can't tell you how heartened I was that something sells out based on the word of mouth of an amazing performance, by an older man, no fan base, just a great actor. That makes me feel very good.

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madder_rose November 5 2009, 17:35:44 UTC
I think his insecurity works better in relation to the others, everyone else is confident and sure of themselves that even if JB is "too" young to play Albin his Albin comes out as someone beginning that slippery slope down to the "older" Albins.

I think he corpsed the John Wayne scene as well and just wanted to bury my face in my hands. Maybe we'll see why JB did it that way in the later part of his added-on IAWIA book...

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takisys November 5 2009, 18:54:15 UTC
Ive just finish the book and nothing about that scene, I think it has more to do with jack harkness than with John himself, I tried to picture him playng that scene in diferente ways, and that before even seing it, and it's always going wrong, I think it would have been better for him to go back to the very first version of that scene. the one of the orriginal theatre version (there was no John Wayne, and it was much funny and more subtil)

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