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‘La Cage aux Folles’ film: Edouard Molinaro international box office hit (photo: Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in ‘La Cage aux Folles’) (See previous post: “‘La Cage aux Folles’ Director Edouard Molinaro Dead at 85.”) But Edouard Molinaro’s best-known effort — comedy or otherwise — remains La Cage aux Folles (approximate translation: "The Cage of the Queens"), which sold 5.4 million tickets when it came out in France in 1978. Perhaps because many saw it as a letdown when compared to Jean Poiret’s immensely popular 1973 play, Molinaro’s movie ended up nominated for a single César Award — for eventual Best Actor winner Michel Serrault. Somewhat surprisingly, in the next couple of years La Cage aux Folles would become a major hit in the United States and other countries. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the U.S. in 1979, the film grossed $20.42 million at the North American box office — or about $65 million in 2013 dollars, a remarkable sum for a subtitled release.

Brace yourselves. This list of the Top 100 Greatest Gay Movies is probably going to generate some howls of protest thanks to a rather major upset in the rankings. Frankly, one that surprised the hell out of us here at AfterElton.

But before we get to that, an introduction. A few weeks ago we asked AfterElton readers to submit up to ten of their favorite films by write-in vote. We conducted a similar poll several years ago, but a lot has happened culturally since then, and a number of worthy movies of gay interest have been released. We wanted to see how your list of favorites had changed.

We also wanted to expand our list to 100 from the top 50 we had done previously. We figured there were finally enough quality gay films to justify the expansion. And we wanted to break out gay documentaries onto their own list (You'll find the...

If François Truffaut hadn’t been taken from us in 1984, at the age of 52, he would have turned 80 last Monday. At one point he had said that his goal was to make thirty films and then retire to write books. At the time of his death he had made twenty-five.

I recently came across this poster for the American release of Truffaut’s first film, Les quatre cent coups and was struck not only by its lurid and rather innaccurate tagline—"Angel Faces hell-bent for violence"—but also by the fact that it refuses to capitalize on the one thing that made the film such a success: namely the face of Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel. In the poster Léaud’s angel face is barely seen. Doinel’s parents, played by Albert Remy and Claire Maurier (misspelled in the credits), are more prominent, while Doinel seems like one of a number of undistinguished schoolboys.

Rank the week of July 19th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Limitless

(DVD & Blu-ray | PG13 | 201)

Flickchart Ranking: #1890

Times Ranked: 3217

Win Percentage: 51%

Top-20 Rankings: 12

Directed By: Neil Burger

Starring: Bradley Cooper • Robert De Niro • Abbie Cornish • Anna Friel • Andrew Howard

Genres: Psychological Sci-Fi • Psychological Thriller • Science Fiction • Thriller

Rank This Movie

Take Me Home Tonight

(DVD & Blu-ray | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #5722

Times Ranked: 1234

Win Percentage: 49%

Top-20 Rankings: 2

Directed By: Michael Dowse

Starring: Topher Grace • Anna Faris • Dan Fogler • Teresa Palmer • Chris Pratt

Genres: Comedy • Comedy Drama • Coming-of-Age • Drama • Period Film • Romance • Romantic Comedy • Romantic Drama

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The Reef

(DVD & Blu-ray | Nr | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #10667

Times Ranked: 152

Win Percentage: 47%

Top-20 Rankings: 2

Directed By: Andrew Traucki

Starring: Adrienne Pickering • Gyton Grantley • Zoe Naylor • Damian Walshe-Howling • Kieran Darcy-Smith

Genres: Horror • Natural Horror • Thriller

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Tekken

(DVD & Blu-ray | Nr | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #9314

Times Ranked: 332

Win...

[From the Editor: I'm publishing this Mother's Day list tonight, before the holiday, so that readers will have the opportunity to head out to their local video store, and get these films before their Sunday viewing. That is assuming, of course, that you still have a local video store. I'll link to the Hulu Plus / Netflix pages under the films. I'm also linking the covers to their corresponding Amazon pages. Don't forget, many of them are still on sale right now!]

Mother’s Day weekend, besides being one of those pleasant harbingers of spring and typically the occasion for a time of family togetherness, can also be a bit of an awkward time for your typical film geek. Sure, some of us have awesome moms and we enjoy the opportunity to let her know just how wonderful and special she is to us. But let’s admit it, parental relationships also create their share of awkwardness and tension. Even though none of us came into this world by any other route than through our mother, things happen along the way in that pivotal mother-child attachment that tend to complicate the situation going forward.

So even though today is an occasion to celebrate all those wonderful characteristics about Mom that we love and appreciate so much, there’s always more to the story. Let’s take a stroll through a few of the many moods of Motherhood,...

Les Quatre Cents Coups / The 400 Blows (1959) Direction: François Truffaut Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant Screenplay: François Truffaut and Marcel Moussy Oscar Movies Jean Pierre Léaud, The 400 Blows By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: In 1959, a pair of newly released French films were instantly hailed as classics, going on to become the twin pillars of the Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave. One, Jean-Luc Godard's À bout de souffle / Breathless, was bad; the other, François Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups / The 400 Blows, was good. But despite their reputation, neither film can be called great cinema. That said, Truffaut's film is far better than Godard's because it mostly avoids overt clichés, even as the screenplay — the film's weakest element, written by Truffaut and Marcel Moussy — often bogs down in purposelessness. Like Godard, Truffaut shot his film in black and white, [...]...

When studios put out themed DVD collections for whatever occasion, the final result rarely does the subject in question justice. When they seek to honor independent flicks they typically just go for the most popular ones and not the best. For foreign films they’ll select the few that actually made ripples and not the underdog that had to fight for every theater screen. However, when MGM compiled its Cinema Pride Collection in honor of June being Gay Pride month they hit the nail on the head – and they hit it dead on. The collection not only features some of the favorites within the gay community but it features a few highly acclaimed heavy hitters as well. This may just be one of the best box sets a studio has ever released that isn’t based on one actor or director’s filmography. It has variety and it has quality in spades.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0 Chicago – The Criterion Collection continues its foray into the world of HD with one of the most beloved directors of all time, taking a film already in the collection and giving it the HD treatment while simultaneously releasing a new edition of one of his later films. The legend is Francois Truffaut and the films are “The 400 Blows” and “The Last Metro”.

The “continuing series of important classic and contemporary films” has long-included “The 400 Blows” but this marks the first time that the film has been available on Blu-Ray. Criterion just started doing Blu-Ray and they are wisely alternating bringing some of their most popular films to the format along with issuing new releases on it.

The 400 Blows was released on Blu-Ray on March 24th, 2009.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

“The 400 Blows” is actually Truffaut’s first film. Released in 1959, this classic...

Mascaret Films/Cine Valse

In her eloquent first fiction film, documaker Marceline Loridan-Ivens, a Holocaust survivor who lost 40 members of her family, including her father, in Nazi concentration camps, addresses the ineffable horror of her World War II experience.

Set entirely in the present day, "A Birch Tree Meadow", whose title is the translation of the word "Birkenau", is less an event-driven drama than a meditation. There are no significant plot points in its protagonist's confrontation with the invisible, but the past plays out upon the handsome face of Anouk Aimee with a dramatic force all its own. The French-German-Polish co-production is the first film made on the premises of Birkenau and an important addition to literature of the Shoah.

Aimee plays Myriam, who after years in New York travels to her native France for a reunion of Holocaust survivors. Even as she reconnects with dear friends (Marilu Marini, Claire Maurier) over drinks or penetrating discussions of their memories, it's evident that Myriam is preoccupied with separate plans. She embarks on a solo trip to Poland, and, rather than enter the camp-turned-museum complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a tourist, she squeezes through a back gate. Thus begin days of immersion in the place that was the teenage Myriam's impossible home.

When a young German photographer visiting the camp (August Diehl) becomes inquisitive, Myriam is aloof, deeming trivial his attempt to document traces of the unspeakable. In a sense, though, she's doing the same, and eventually her compassion wins out. Notwithstanding the symbolism of their cat-and-mouse chase -- guilt-ridden contemporary Germany facing evidence of past crimes -- there's human warmth and power to their connection.

Although she has encounters with several other people during her trip, the real subject of the film is Myriam's silent, troubled communion with the charged emptiness of the place. She spends a night in the bunk that was hers a half-century earlier, and the camera follows her past rows of squat brick structures and along overgrown train tracks that once transported human cargo. One of the most haunting moments in the film is Myriam's discovery of rusted music stands amid the weeds. Through it all, Loridan-Ivens never resorts to flashback, instead letting memory resonate in long, slow takes, as though literal re-creation would be an inadequate reduction of the truth.

Mascaret Films/Cine Valse

In her eloquent first fiction film, documaker Marceline Loridan-Ivens, a Holocaust survivor who lost 40 members of her family, including her father, in Nazi concentration camps, addresses the ineffable horror of her World War II experience.

Set entirely in the present day, "A Birch Tree Meadow", whose title is the translation of the word "Birkenau", is less an event-driven drama than a meditation. There are no significant plot points in its protagonist's confrontation with the invisible, but the past plays out upon the handsome face of Anouk Aimee with a dramatic force all its own. The French-German-Polish co-production is the first film made on the premises of Birkenau and an important addition to literature of the Shoah.

Aimee plays Myriam, who after years in New York travels to her native France for a reunion of Holocaust survivors. Even as she reconnects with dear friends (Marilu Marini, Claire Maurier) over drinks or penetrating discussions of their memories, it's evident that Myriam is preoccupied with separate plans. She embarks on a solo trip to Poland, and, rather than enter the camp-turned-museum complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a tourist, she squeezes through a back gate. Thus begin days of immersion in the place that was the teenage Myriam's impossible home.

When a young German photographer visiting the camp (August Diehl) becomes inquisitive, Myriam is aloof, deeming trivial his attempt to document traces of the unspeakable. In a sense, though, she's doing the same, and eventually her compassion wins out. Notwithstanding the symbolism of their cat-and-mouse chase -- guilt-ridden contemporary Germany facing evidence of past crimes -- there's human warmth and power to their connection.

Although she has encounters with several other people during her trip, the real subject of the film is Myriam's silent, troubled communion with the charged emptiness of the place. She spends a night in the bunk that was hers a half-century earlier, and the camera follows her past rows of squat brick structures and along overgrown train tracks that once transported human cargo. One of the most haunting moments in the film is Myriam's discovery of rusted music stands amid the weeds. Through it all, Loridan-Ivens never resorts to flashback, instead letting memory resonate in long, slow takes, as though literal re-creation would be an inadequate reduction of the truth.