THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603090048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
FORGET THE feathers, jewels and drag queens: The creators of ``The Birdcage'' say they've made a film about family.
The remake of the phenomenally successful 1978 French farce ``La Cage Aux Folles,'' which spawned two sequels as well as a Broadway musical, opens locally Friday.
``Tolstoy said it a century ago - all (happy) families are the same. It's true,'' Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols said. ``The movie concerns a gay family - a very loyal and loving family. It's suggesting that the value of family is far more important than anyone's notion of family values, and that the two are inseparable. What the film really says is that we're all the same. We're all people trying to get through life.''
The remake stars Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest. But 1996 is not the same as 1978, when the bubbly original film came out. Can ``La Cage Aux Folles'' get the same laughs in today's increasingly intolerant climate?
Nichols and his stars are a little surprised that advance screenings prompted criticism from both the gay press and arch conservatives.
``A laugh tends to cancel all politics,'' Nichols said in an interview at the Essex House hotel in New York. ``For years, we've had the right attacking the left and the left attacking the right. This story doesn't take sides. It loves all the characters. There are no villains.''
The plot is well known: A middle-aged gay couple try to conceal their sexual identity when the strait-laced parents of their son's girlfriend come for a visit. The more masculine member of the couple, Armand, is played by Robin Williams and the flamboyant Albert is played by Broadway star Nathan Lane (``Guys and Dolls''). By night, Albert is highly feminine as the star of the floor show in Miami's Birdcage Club.
Armand's son Vic, via a former marriage, has been lovingly raised by Albert and Armand. But when the son falls in love with the daughter of an ultra-conservative senator, their carefully constructed lives fall to pieces.
The apartment is cleared of all campy furnishings. Albert himself is cleared out. Vic's biological mother (Christine Baranski) agrees to come in to masquerade as the loving mom. When she fails to show up, Albert dons a dress to pose as Vic's mother himself.
Tench Phillips, the co-manager of the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk, remembers that the 1979 booking of ``La Cage Aux Folles'' was one of the most successful in the 18-year history of that theater. ``Throughout the 1980s, we brought it back again and again, and it did well every time,'' he remembered. ``Audiences loved it. We could hear them laughing from out on the street.''
Nichols made his screen directorial debut with ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'' and won his Oscar for the groundbreaking ``The Graduate.''
``The Birdcage'' marks his first on-screen collaboration with his former comedy partner Elaine May, who wrote the script.
``Elaine and I wanted to do an American version of this comedy from the first moment we saw it,'' Nichols said, ``but, for years, we couldn't get the rights.''
The director feels that ``As a society, we should throw the notion of `politically correct' right out the window. It's a notion that has left us battling. Today, people can only carry on conversations in secrecy. Exchanges of ideas are stifled. In a democracy, public discussion is important. We should live for the questions, not battle each other over the conclusions.''
He claims that ``The Birdcage'' is ``pro people.'' Even though it has a Bob Dole joke, he claims ``there are no politics to a joke. We live in a free society and people should be free to live as they choose.''
Robin Williams, the usually wildly comic star, is in a serious mood when he is confronted by the fact that the movie may be attacked.
``Will there be picket lines out front, like with `Last Temptation of Christ'?'' Williams said, shaking his head. ``That would be silly, wouldn't it? But I'm not afraid of it. Can a movie change anyone? I'm not sure. It is for sure that SOME people can't be changed. I don't think Pat Robertson can be changed.
``When you've got your own agenda, you don't hear ideas. This is a movie that is about love, not hate, but I'm not sure anything can reach someone who has shut off their mind. It's the intimacy of love that they're afraid of. The physical thing terrifies them.''
Williams feels that the power of ``The Birdcage'' is not just silly laughs. ``This is about a real family. These two men raised a son, and the son grew up to be heterosexual. This is a real family, not a make-believe family. They aren't perfect. Albert and Armand fight and argue, just like any married couple. They've been together for 27 years.
``Every family is nonfunctional, except maybe for the one frozen in the Norman Rockwell painting. At the core, though, is love.''
Williams' fans, expecting raucous humor from him, may be surprised that he is not playing the plumed, feathered one here.
``I did that already (with `Mrs. Doubtfire'). I've already been a big, bad woman, and, besides, with this one, I couldn't use prosthetics in the makeup. Without prosthetics, let's face it, I'm not very attractive.''
Nathan Lane, the veteran Broadway actor who was the voice of Timon in ``The Lion King,'' has the film's showy role, that of Albert, the star of The Birdcage.
``I modeled her after Barbara Bush,'' he said without a touch of a smile. ``The basic pearls are very Barbara. But Mike cautioned me to keep the beauty of the true person and not become too flamboyant. This is a man who takes his work seriously. Of course, as with many performers, he's a bit much at times. That's to be expected.
``I was encouraged just to become feminine and softer. To my surprise, everyone suddenly became nicer to me. They'd get me chairs and things.''
Lane isn't so sure about all the forecasts that ``Birdcage'' will make him an overnight movie star. After all, the ``overnight'' is here only after over 10 years of roles in Off-Broadway plays. Interrupting his rehearsals for the upcoming Broadway revival of the musical ``A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,'' he said, ``I've been on the cusp of stardom for so many years that it's old hat.''
``The most important thing,'' Lane said, ``was that Robin and I should get along. The whole movie depends on the feeling between us. From the first day, I knew it was going to work. My favorite scene in the movie, the most challenging one, is the one when Robin comes after me at the bus stop. He tells me that `Yes, you're a pain, but I can't imagine life without you.' That's quite a scene.''
He's surprised that some articles in gay publications have resented the fact that there is no physical intimacy between the two characters.
``We do kiss. What do they want? Intercourse or nothing? It's not that kind of relationship. The entire point is that a family exists - beyond just that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Nathan Lane stars as the cross-dressing Albert in ``The Birdcage,''
which is based on the 1978 French hit ``La Cage aux Folles.''
``A laugh tends to cancel all politics.''
- MIKE NICHOLS
``Every family is non-functional except maybe the one frozen in the
Norman Rockwell painting.''
by CNB