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The Ballad of the Sad Café (1991)

The curious, androgynous Miss Amelia runs her Southern town’s only café and controls the locals through the careful distribution of her own secretly brewed “hooch.”

Movie|PG-13|1 hr. 40 min.|

© 1991 Merchant Ivory Productions, Inc.

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Title Details

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

Title	The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
Runtime	1 hr. 40 min.
Director	Simon Callow
Country	UK, USA
Studio	Criterion Collection
Genres	Drama \| Gay and Lesbian
Description	Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine, and Rod Steiger star in Merchant Ivory Productions’ extraordinary 1991 film directed by the British actor Simon Callow. The Ballad of the Sad Café , based on the novella by Carson McCullers and the play by Edward Albee, is both a grotesque black comedy and a prime slice of Southern Gothic set in a poverty-stricken rural community dominated by the curious, androgynous character of Miss Amelia. A forceful personality with a mysterious past, she runs the town’s only café and controls the locals through the careful distribution of her own secretly brewed “hooch.”

4 months ago

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Yuck. Except for Carradine and some supporting players the actors really ham it up. Really ridiculous. Hard to make sense of the motivations on one of the major characters; and his acting was laughable. Ridiculous movie.

5 months ago

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For once Miss Redgraves performance is made even better by a first rate supporting cast. That in turn makes her performance even better than usual. Keith Carradine gives a good take on Marvin Macy, but in my opinion the performance of Cork Hubbert as the "Broke-Back" cousin Lymon matches Redgraves, scene for scene. We can actually see Lymons true intentions slowly emerge into the open, even as he tries to keep them hidden. The film also contains the most graphically brutal fight sequence in movie history. That, and the brilliant performances of both Redgrave and Hubbert make this film extraordinary.

7 months ago

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This was a good movie, full of complex human emotion. I espescially liked the comic relief of the pastor explaining love and desire. Too much violence at the very end for me, but otherwise, very good movie.

7 months ago

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Strange movie, I really have no idea, what the meaning was suppose to be about...It was brutal, I was thinking maybe, it was a sort-of-a modern day movie of the taming of the Shrew. Instead, it was pointless, and unrealistic towards the ending!...

10 months ago

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I don't even know how to rate this bizarre movie. But I definitely advise you to skip it.