The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe (1991)

Set in a small town in 1930s Georgia that is dominated by the androgynous and mysterious Miss Amelia (Vanessa Redgrave). She controls the locals through the careful distribution of her own secretly brewed moonshine. But her eccentric existence is threatened by the arrival of a hunchbacked dwarf (Cork Hubbert) and later, the reappearance of the husband (Keith Carradine) she rejected on their wedding night. Based on the novel by Carson McCullers (MEMBER OF THE WEDDING) by way of the stage adaptation by Edward Albee (A DELICATE BALANCE) and directed by actor (A ROOM WITH A VIEW) turned director Simon Callow. Taking the play as the film's inspiration rather than McCullers' source material, director Callow loses the lyricism of McCullers' writing and instead, we get a straightforward telling of McCullers' bizarre tale of the hopelessness of love. Unable to find a cinematic equivalent of McCullers' prose, the focus of the film is on the great Vanessa Redgrave's performance. Fully committed to the part, she's sensational. With Rod Steiger, Austin Pendleton and Annie Pitoniak.