Louisville88
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a great film. I guess everyone who couldn't stand it saw it, because I just saw it (5-23-06) and thought it was a good movie. I might also add that I was very sleepy, and I always fall asleep while watching a film. I've slept through The African Queen, The Lion in Winter and other great classics that are praised by critics alike. This gives the film that added bonus that I can stay awake while watching it. Vanessa Redgrave is wonderful, as usual, and delivers a great performance. The other actors I have a question about, their names, but the actor who played Cousin Lyman was good. I couldn't stand him at all for what he was doing to Amelie. The ending scene is very good and heartbreaking. I mean, I'd watch this 10 times in a row to see Vanessa box with some punk husband who she never truly loved and never thought of their marriage as a give and take, but more of a contract. This is a great film!
Saman Perera
I just purchased this through the Merchant & Ivory DVD collection. I must admit I was unaware of who Carson McCullers was until I realized that she also wrote "A Heart is a Lonely Hunter". True to her style, this is a dark tale with the edge of by-sexuality in the main character (as McCullers was also). The movie it self is less than imaginative with some scenic wonders and yet with placid and flat acting. Simon Callow is not a good director and I definitely love the man as an actor more. Some scenes are memorable and the color red is used beautifully as a dress and a shirt - when you see it you will know how and why. Definitely put in the rent category for a somber afternoon.
jeffreymccray
Very good adaptation of Carson McCullers' incredible novella. The highly versatile Vanessa Redgrave is superb, as usual. I did not really know what to expect from Keith Carradine in his role, but was not disappointed. I was very happy to see that the filmmakers stayed very close to Edward Albee's stage adaptation; it was nice to see filmmakers not screw around and ruin something that works just fine in its original form. Fans of Southern literature will enjoy how true this film is to what McCullers' actually wrote, unlike most film adaptations of great literature. And the actors' performances are very strong, not pretentious like so many mediocre actors who know that the content is greater than they are. Redgrave and Carradine are honest and magnificent in their roles, especially as the intensity builds to the culminating fight at the end.
Josier
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.
AD
