Pierre Granier-Deferre was the heir of the grand tradition of the cinema de papa , a pejorative name which does not do justice to the great works labelled so.
His most ambitious works were huis clos dramas, like "le chat" in which Gabin and Signoret were constantly tearing each other apart in a house surrounded by wrecking ballson a demolition site.
"La cage" is another attempt at pure psychological drama; holding a person captive has become a subject which has exponentially grown over the years ,but in the mid-seventies it was not derivative as it is today.
First schock is the Ventura/Thulin pairing ;both were excellent actors in their field but they were worlds apart : the former was the action film hero whereas the latter was par excellence the intellectual Bergmanian actress who also worked with demanding directors such as Visconti , Resnais or Minelli .Fluent in French ,she's not dubbed and it's her voice you can hear ,no small feat in a movie based on a play.
Against all odds, both brilliantly succeed in their portrayal : Ventura's role was tailor-made :the wealthy businessman whose work has taken the best of him. Down-to earth , probably a self-made man , and not as educated as his wife ; ditto for Thulin whose character is the most debatable though : one learns that she's a successful writer ,but the sequence with his editor is very short , not only because she holds her husband prisoner in her basement ,but because she 's supposed to be a woman whose life was sacrificed by his ambitions.
It may be a women's lib fable , but the fact that Hélène has professionally succeeded gets in the way ;it makes her hatred ,her act less convincing .Fortunately, Thulin 's subtle suave voice and loudmouth Vendura make up for it. The ending ,as others have pointed out ,left us unsatisfied ; in short, it's the actors, not the screenplay.
