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2005-06-18 - 1:13 p.m.

Merchant-Ivory productions tend to be genteel happenings, all high-collared shirtwaist dresses and spinsters with clenched jaws and ropy neck tendons...but I watched one last night that really bucked their usual formula--most likely because it was directed not by James Ivory but Simon Callow, who looks familiar from his roles in other M-I prods.

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a weird-ass little movie, the film version of the Edward Albee play, based on the Carson McCullers story. It is a darkly-lit, darkly-rendered story set in the Depression-era South, grotesque and gothic and tense, and completely captivating. And although it features lots of non-Southerners (Vanessa Redgrave!) with not-great Southern accents, I can recommend it highly.

Also, I think Keith Carradine should be in every movie.


Listening to the Lazy Line Painter Jane e.p. from B&S today. I love this record. "You Made Me Forget My Dreams" could be a lost Marianne Faithfull track (that's swingin' 60s-era MF, not the post-punk version).

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