17 May 2011

Lola-Lola Blackface Drag Tribute?!

Here is a scene from 1980's La Cage aux Folles II, in which Albin (played by Michel Serrault) performs as Marlene Dietrich's Lola-Lola--but in blackface! Carolyn A. Durham wrote this article about the film, which you may wish to read after watching the clip. I will make one observation about all this: the blackface bit appears prominently in the Francophone trailer but not at all in the Anglophone one.

1 comment:

  1. I didn't know where to post it, so I end up here in a Lola related post.

    I suddenly remembered a movie scene from BlackBook (2006).
    "In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance."

    Actress Carice van Houten performs Die Fesche Lola as the incognito Jewish singer between the Germans.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1sF84FwKhI&feature=related

    She is not supossed to be MD, but I wondered if they watched Marlene's screen test for this one. The the movement of her head in the beginning, her hair and the kick in the end of the song remind me of it.

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