The Ballad of the Sad Café (film)

The Ballad of the Sad Café
Film poster
Directed by	Simon Callow
Produced by	Ismail Merchant
Written by	Edward Albee Michael Hirst Carson McCullers
Starring	Vanessa Redgrave
Music by	Richard Robbins
Cinematography	Walter Lassally
Release dates	February 1991 (1991-02)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Ballad of the Sad Café is a 1991 Merchant Ivory film, produced by Ismail Merchant and directed by Simon Callow,^[1] starring Vanessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine.^[2] Michael Hirst adapted the Edward Albee play, which in turn was based on a novella in a collection of short stories of the same title by Carson McCullers. The film was entered into the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.^[3]

The story's protagonist is a lonely moonshiner named Miss Amelia who dominates a small Georgia town. She changes in attitude and kindness as two men, Cousin Lymon (a small, hunchbacked man claiming to be Miss Amelia's cousin) and Marvin Macy (Miss Amelia's ex-husband) enter her life. Her general store becomes a center for culture and music, and The Sad Café itself becomes a symbol of Miss Amelia's disposition. Amid this plot, issues of work vs. pleasure, material vs. psychological health, and conflicting loyalties emerge. The short story is told in flashback—giving the reader, first, a look at the ruined café before describing its heyday and subsequent demise.

Cast

Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Amelia
Keith Carradine as Marvin Macy
Cork Hubbert as Cousin Lymon
Rod Steiger as Rev. Willin
Austin Pendleton as Lawyer Taylor
Beth Dixon as Mary Hale
Lanny Flaherty as Merlie Ryan
Mert Hatfield as Stumpy McPhail
Earl Hindman as Henry Macy
Anne Pitoniak as Mrs. McPhail
Frederick Johnson as Jeff
Lauri Raymond as Sadie Ricketts
Joe Stevens as Henry Ford Crimp (as Joe Stephens)
Keith Wommack as Tom Rainey
Kevin Wommack as George Rainey
Laura Burns as Molly Kelly

References

↑ "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
↑ "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)". NY Times. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
↑ "Berlinale: 1991 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 21 March 2011.

External links

The Ballad of the Sad Café at the Internet Movie Database

Merchant Ivory Productions

Films

1960s	The Householder (1963) Shakespeare Wallah (1965) The Guru (1969) The Night of Counting the Years (1969)

1970s	Bombay Talkie (1970) Savages (1972) The Wild Party (1975) Autobiography of a Princess (1975) Roseland (1977) Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978) The Five Forty-Eight (1978) The Europeans (1979)

1980s	Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980) Quartet (1981) The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) Heat and Dust (1983) The Bostonians (1984) A Room with a View (1985) Maurice (1987) The Deceivers (1988) The Perfect Murder (1988) Slaves of New York (1989)

1990s	Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990) The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991) Howards End (1992) The Remains of the Day (1993) In Custody (1994) Feast of July (1995) Jefferson in Paris (1995) The Proprietor (1996) Surviving Picasso (1996) Side Streets (1998) A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1999) Cotton Mary (1999)

2000s	The Golden Bowl (2001) The Mystic Masseur (2002) Le Divorce (2003) Heights (2004) The White Countess (2005) The City of Your Final Destination (2007) Before the Rains (2008)

Collaborators and artists

James Ivory Ismail Merchant Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Madhur Jaffrey Saeed Jaffrey Shashi Kapoor Jennifer Kendal Aparna Sen Leela Naidu Tony Pierce-Roberts Richard Robbins Greta Scacchi Helena Bonham Carter Emma Thompson Rupert Graves Hugh Grant James Wilby Simon Callow Anthony Hopkins Glenn Close Uma Thurman Vanessa Redgrave Natasha Richardson Ralph Fiennes

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