The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

source: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

It's good to lose oneself in the hot sweltering world of McCullers, where the characters are giant sized versions of sexual frustration. This has fine performances and a real feel for the south as McCullers writes about it. The south is America's lost innocence, and as nearly everbody in the western world is more or less an American, it is ours too.

I thought this movie had an intriguing title and a list of great actors. The problem is that it is based on a book by Carson McCullers, and she likes going for "themes," and other high-fa-luting literary devices. As such, the characters don't seem real, and their motivations are hard to identify with. Honestly, the plot is totally goofy and unbelievable. If at the end they had said, "It's all a dream," I would have been satisfied: (kind of like "Mulholland Drive"). The movie does well to represent another time and place, but a time and place in someone's horrid dream. I would not watch this movie unless you are a fan of the author, or you need something to watch while you knit or lick Green Stamps.

Having seen the "definitive" stage version of this, featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Michael Dunn, I wasn't hopeful for this film holding a candle to it. I came away feeling that this particular piece does not translate to film. Vanessa Redgrave is a wonderful actress and seeing her beautiful, expressive face with no makeup and her hair cut short is quite startling, but effective. I found myself focusing on her big blue eyes most of the time, as they told the mood of her character throughout. I doubt they could've found anyone better for the role. It's simply that the entire production didn't quite gel. It truly works better in the theatre. I'm still not entirely decided on whether I completely disliked it.

The first time I saw this film I thought it was very bad, and I did not understand it then I read some posts at the discussion board about it and not only watched it again, but read the story on which it was based. I ended up going from my original 1 star rating to a 10 star rating. I became totally enthralled with this film and this story once I finally understood what it was about. Keith Carradine as Marvin Macy, is totally HOT. He is broodingly handsome and how Miss Amelia could resist him, I can't even imagine. However, she is besotted by Lyman a "little person", back then referred to as a dwarf--possibly a distant cousin--who has turned up in her life unexpectedly. Lyman is sometimes unkind to Miss Amelia. He also leeches off her while trying to attract the attentions of Marvin Macy. Yes, there are some marvelous homosexual undercurrents in this story that I completely missed the first time around. Marvin is obsessed with Amelia but he's flattered by Lyman's interest in him. Unfortunately no love scenes occur between any of the characters, but it is still a fascinating character study. Eventually this develops into a jealous, obsessive love triangle with some very unexpected results, and tragic conssequences. Southern Gothic at its best!

I caught this film on IFC one night. I felt compelled to watch this because of the performances. I don't know anything of the book nor the play. I found the movie very enjoyable and the performances rather good. Miss Amelia's part was amazing to me. Vanessa Redgrave did a great job in this movie even if it doesn't fit the book or the play. She was the main reason I was drawn to watching this movie. I found that the part where Rod Steiger told the story of the "lover and the beloved" was the fulcrum of this film. I had the feeling that cousin Lymon was just like Marvin Macy. The character was a user who just latched onto people who he could take advantage of, that is why they get together in the end. They both met the same goal even if they both used Miss Amelia in different ways. I did find that the director could have done a better job with all the coordination between the characters, they could have meshed better. It's OK not to reveal why people act the way they do with each other (Miss Amelia kicking Marvin Macy out on the night of the wedding). Rod Steiger already stated that Marvin Macy was not a great person prior to this. I think that Miss Amelia just wouldn't let Marvin Macy take any advantage of her in any manner and it started on the wedding night. It boiled down to a boxing match between the two. The fact they both hit each other at the first punch and the look on Marvin's face hit this fact home. That's my view.

We watched this movie again last night because I remembered seeing it when it first came out on video and when our local video store sold out all its VHS tapes this is one we bought. I liked it just as much this time but still have not read the Carson Mc Cullers story it was based on. We don't really understand what it is that has formed the character of Miss Amelia. . . her greed, her dominance of the town and its poverty stricken residents. She seemed to fill every need the town had except for that of citizen on an equal footing with the others. Seemingly the store she ran had been her father's before her but that alone does not explain the force of her personality and disposition. She obviously has married Marvin Macy to get his property but we do not understand what the appeal of her "cousin" Lymon is unless it is that he has no respect for her and uses her in the same way she uses everyone else. His infatuation with Marvin is more understandable than is Amelia's with Lymon. I thought the cast were all wonderful, including the preacher, who had some of the best and most human lines. Vanessa Redgrave was marvelous. The pacing and photography were excellent. At times though I felt as if I was watching a stage play instead of a movie. In writing this I do realize why Miss Amelia was who she was. She was angry because her own stage was so limited. For some reason she must have felt locked in to that tiny corner of the world when she could with her personality, have held sway over a much larger number of people and geographic area!

The story in this movie was an Edward Albee stage play. For the most part the movie looks like a stage play, with static camera shots and characters with loud exposition and bold movement. It was set in rural Georgia, we can tell by references to going up to Atlanta, but it was actually filmed near Austin, Texas on the ranch owned by singer Willie Nelson. Vanessa Redgrave is Miss Amelia who seems to practically own the town. She runs the local store and makes and sells good moonshine in this depression era. When a family gets behind in rent she goes into their house at night, takes their sewing machine, and leaves. Things begin to change when a hunchback dwarf, Cork Hubbert as Cousin Lymon, shows up claiming to be her cousin, and he recites the family connections to back up his story. Amelia takes him in and treats him almost like a long lost son, doting on him, feeding him, letting him lounge when she is working in the heat of the day, showing him her moonshine operation. Trouble starts when Keith Carradine as Marvin Macy shows up. He is just out of prison and a flashback shows us that he some time earlier had asked Amelia's hand in marriage and she accepted, but them she threw him out for no apparent reason. When she heard he was headed back their way she announced in her crowded café that she didn't want any part of him. The theme of the movie is obscure because much of what we see doesn't make sense, so we must rely on what is explained at one point by Rod Steiger as Rev. Willin. Love takes two people, the one who loves, and the one who is the be-loved. Being the be-loved is difficult, and that is what Amelia experienced. Marvin Macy wanted to love her, but she was not able to be his be-loved, so her rejection turned Marvin into a criminal. When he returned to that town he was out to destroy her, which he did in a sense. Not my favorite type of movie, but it has some interesting elements.

To take on a film version of this classic play is a bold venture. They almost pull it off, but with a poor acting job by Caradine and some questionable directorial choices it doesn't quite live up to expectations. The flying midget scene actually had me laughing . . . A powerful story that someone should take some time with and do justice to.

This movie was ridiculous from the start. Let me save you all time from watching this movie. A woman who sells corn liquor to the locals takes in her cousin or nephew and he convinces her to open a café downstairs from her home. She does and she and the cousin become close. There is a scene later where she is locking lips with him. Later, the woman finds out an old boyfriend is coming back from jail and its tense between them, leading to a down and out fist fight in the café. The woman's cousin/nephew is enamored by the man. The ending was awful, the story was awful, and if I could get back the time wasted on this movie, I would appreciate it. A definite skip.