THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE
US, 1991, 101 minutes, Colour.
Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine, Rod Steiger.
Directed by Simon Callow.
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is based on Carson Mc Culler's novella. Her writing has been adapted for the screen in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Member of the Wedding, Reflections in a Golden Eye.
Director Simon Callow (stage actor and performer as well as writer) comments on the novella: "The story has a unique tone: epic, sublime, mythic, and sometimes broadly funny. It's as if the writer were an anthropologist who had discovered a tale told by a tribe forgotten by the 20th century, a story of giants and dwarfs, of good and evil, a story, above all, of the cruel games that love plays, descending without warning or reason, creating havoc in the lives of men and women. The film attempts to transform the mythic themes of the novella via Edward Albee's stage adaptation for the screen. Simon Callow directs for the first time under the auspices of the Merchant Ivory company (Howard's End, Room with a View).
The strength of the film is in Vanessa Redgrave's performance as Miss Amelia. An androgynous figure, tall, a woman of the depressed South in Georgia, she is a creature of cruelty, whim, maternal instinct. Keith Carradine has a more conventional role as the town ne'er do well who marries Miss Amelia and is instantly spurned by her. Cork Hubbert plays Cousin Lymon, a hunchback with charm but also a man of malice who nevertheless transforms the town and the community. Rod Steiger is quite subdued as the Reverend Willin - who has a speech about love and relationships which offers the interpretation of the film.
The audience enters the town from a car window, a subjective look at the fields and the chain gang surrounding the town and the atmosphere of the Depression.
1.Carson McCuller's novellas, transferred to the screen? Edward Albee's play? The background of Simon Callow? The contribution of the cast?
2.A British perspective in the direction, the writing by Michael Hirst? Vanessa Redgrave? The US and the South?
3.The background of fairytales, myths, ballads? Realism and stylised presentation of themes and characters? The speech of Reverend Willin?
4.The audience entering the town, the fields and the chain gang, seeing Miss Amelia, the mill and its grime, the poor homes, the dusty streets, the hillside, the grubby clothes and overalls, the cafe - and the extraordinary transformation? The musical score?
5.The atmosphere of the Depression, poverty, work, psychological depression in individuals, a community, the possibility of change?
6.The focus on the community, the small town, the focus on the mill, Miss Amelia and her control of stores and supplies, of liquor, the cafe? The poor families? Miss Amelia helping and victimising them? The picnic, the religious atmosphere, church? The kind of Christianity guiding these people? The cafe, a place to eat and drink, music, dancing, the transformation of the people, self-esteem, joy? The place of the fight? The combination of love and hate?
7.Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Amelia, the initial glimpse and the flashback? Her appearance, androgynous, clothes? Out at work in the fields, riding? Her capacity for supervision? Relationship with the workers, black and white? Her herbal medicine and helping people? Yet taking back the sewing machine? Wading through the water to the still, the liquor, the bottles, selling it to the millhands, their sitting and talking and her listening? Watching her treasures in the box? Gifts, the memory of her father? Her singing "Jimmy Crack Corn"? Her place in the town?
8.The flashback in her memory, the return of Marvin Macey? Marvin and Keith Carradine's style, the town ne'er do well? Infatuated with Miss Amelia, his discussions with the Reverend Willin and his sprucing himself? The proposal, the gift of land? The ceremony and his joy, the rings? The aftermath, the meal, Amelia and her toughness, reading the newspaper, ignoring him, going upstairs, literally kicking him down and out, in the barn, his pleading, his angers, treated harshly? His bitterness?
9.The arrival of Cousin Lymon, the spotlight on him walking along the street, the hunchback, announcing who he was, the photo, ingratiating himself with Miss Amelia? His ensconcing himself in the hotel, Amelia waiting on him? Going to town with her - and watching the movies (the newsreel with Roosevelt, the gangster film with Norma Talmadge)? His love of gangsters? Miss Amelia and her writing her story - and his reading it? The idea of bringing the piano in, the tables, the transformation of the cafe, the meals, Miss Amelia's red dress, her being hostess? The people coming in curiously and then with joy? Yet Lymon's curiosity, prying in Miss Amelia's treasures, not going to town, learning about Marvin Macey, transferring his interest to him?
10.The town, curious about Lymon, thinking that Amelia had murdered him? Amazed at her waiting on Lymon? Their talk? The range of characters in the town, the workers, sitting out on the porch and drinking and talking, quiet desperation? Marvin Macey's brother, leadership, concern, support of Miss Amelia?
11.Marvin's return, the story of his robbing gas stations, in jail, the chain gang? His red shirt (and Amelia's red dress)? His bitterness towards Lymon, mocking him, physically abusing him? The house, his brother, the meal? Wandering the town, playing his music, the clashes with Amelia, the confrontations and the memories? Lymon and his adulation, Lymon and the thrill of a local gangster? The build-up of the antagonism? The poison - and Miss Amelia being affected after collecting the mushrooms and toadstools? The build-up to the fight?
12.The fight, Amelia training? The whole town coming, the length of the fight, the brutality, people's reactions? Amelia dominating Marvin, Lymon diving to help Marvin from Amelia choking him? The effect? Lymon and Marvin and the mad spree of destruction of the cafe, the burning of the still? Their mad dancing? The apocalyptic touch?
13.Amelia destroyed, embittered, gazing out the window? The pessimism of the end of the film?
14.Perceptions on the American South, the Depression, relationships between men and women, danger, anger, loving relationships, being spurned, bitterness?
