The Ballad of the Sad Cafe [Blu-ray]

Director: Simon Callow Simon Callow

Overview

This first film directorial effort of actor Simon Callow is based on a novel by Carson McCullers -- which, in turn, was adapted for the stage by Edward Albee in 1964. Vanessa Redgrave plays a powerful Southern matriarch who, sequestered in her café/general store, holds her home town in the palm of her hand. Redgrave's benevolent despotry is threatened by the arrival of her hunchbacked cousin, Cork Hubbert (in the role played on stage by dwarf actor Michael Dunn), and her jailbird husband Keith Carradine. Unable to remove this threat to her authority by her usual means, Redgrave is reduced to challenging Carradine to a bare-knuckle fight! Carson McCullers' fascination with the disintegration of the Old South coupled with her preoccupation with the grotesque requires delicate handling (as witness Heart Is a Lonely Hunter). Callow works overtime keeping things controlled and tasteful; unfortunately, this results in a very mannered and stilted production, all too obviously betraying its stage origins.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/06/2022
UPC:	0738329261238
Original Release:	1991
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Cohen Film
Language:	English
Time:	1:41:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Vanessa Redgrave	Miss Amelia
Keith Carradine	Marvin
Cork Hubbert	Cousin Lymon
Rod Steiger	Rev. Willin
Austin Pendleton	Lawyer Taylor
Beth Dixon	Mary
Lanny Flaherty	Merlie
Mert Hatfield	Stumpy
Earl Hindman	Henry Macy
Anne Pitoniak	Mrs. MacPhail
Trula Marcus	Woman
Shirley Rich	Actor
Richard Robbins	Composer

Technical Credits

Michael Hirst

Simon Callow	Director
Ismail Merchant	Producer
Paul Bradley	Executive Producer
Michael Hirst	Screenwriter
Drew Kunin	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A haunting, occasionally grotesque little film, The Ballad of the Sad Café doesn't really work onscreen, despite the noble efforts of all involved. Michael Hirst has succeeded in bringing the bare bones of the Carson McCullers book (and Edward Albee play) to the screen, but director Simon Callow has not sufficiently filled in the emotional and atmospheric blanks necessary to make this delicate, difficult story the involving and wrenching experience it wants to be. Ballad is an outsized piece, requiring bold and confident yet discreet direction, and Callow's work is too hesitant and too reverential. That Ballad manages to work as well as it does is primarily due to the mesmerizing performance of Vanessa Redgrave. Wearing close-cropped hair and a weathered face that somehow suggests David Bowie, her performance is a powerhouse, almost an act of nature in its strength and intensity. There's life and vibrancy in every move of this character, perhaps too much so; at times, Redgrave overreaches, makes choices that simply don't work , especially given the restraint with which so much of the material is otherwise handled. But she at least has the courage to make those choices and to strive to capture the painful poetry that informs the McCullers original. Ballad needs to dig deeper to capture the perverse beauty it purports to celebrate, but Redgrave provides enough lightning flashes of brilliant illumination to make the film worthwhile.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler