The Saddest Music in the World (2004)

Simply A Masterpiece

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

"In my pocket is a jar. In the jar, preserved in my own tears, is my son's heart." If those quotes simultaneously give you a chuckle, puzzle you, disturb you, and perhaps promote the tiniest tinge of wistfulness or longing, then Guy Maddin's hilarious, surreal, frenetic, and even slightly sad tribute to Busby Berkeley musicals, beer and international relations circa 1933 just might be the thing for you.This is as crazy and inventive as anything Maddin has ever done, and contains most of the themes and tropes for which he has become famous (well, famous amongst connoisseurs of weird): a film language that has for the most part skipped the past 75 years of history, instead relying on silent, early sound and 2-strip Technicolor devices for its bizarre and beautiful style; dysfunctional families and equally dysfunctional sexual situations, with a father and son both smitten with the same woman and both partially to blame for the loss of her legs, and the son and his brother also smitten with another woman who happens to have amnesia. Add to this Maddin's typical self-deprecating love of his country (Canada) and city (Winnipeg) and a plot involving a contest to find "the saddest music in the world" and you've got the makings of something that only this demented director could dare to dream.The mutilated woman happens to be beer baroness Lady Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini, channeling Jean Harlow and perhaps a bit of Marlene Dietrich), and her would-be-lovers are Canadian WWI veteran Fyodor Kent (David Fox) and his estranged son Chester Kent (Mark McKinney) whose name is taken from the character played by James Cagney in the 1933 Berkeley-choreographed Footlight Parade and who also has dreams of Broadway grandeur. The two Kents had competed for Helen's hand years before and both played a part in her disfigurement; now, the legless lady of lager holds a contest in the middle of worldwide Depression, asking: which country produces the saddest music? Not only do father and son both compete for the prize of $25,000, representing Canada and America, but another son, now representing Serbia, returns to compete as well. This is Roderick, aka Gravillo the Great (Ross McMillan), cellist extraordinaire, who has lost his wife and son (prompting the quote about tears and heart above) and who now wishes to compete for the prize and atone for Serbia's role in starting WWI. Unbeknownst to him, though, his wife Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros) has not merely run off, but through amnesia and typically outrageous Maddinian coincidence is now the girlfriend of his brother.The musical sequences are generally quite amusing, and not only offer elements of the backstage Hollywood style but also a game-show format reminiscent of cheesy TV programs like The Gong Show - presided over by the thumbs up/down of the beer baroness, and announced for the radio by a pair of effusive sportscaster types - most of the real poignancy that is actually apparent in some of the performances is undercut by all of this lunacy, as well as regular scenes of audience members enjoying the sponsor's beverage in large quantities - and regular dunkings of the winners in each one-on-one elimination contest in a huge vat of suds.I could go on at length about the absurdities of the plot, but I think you get the drift; what's fascinating to me is how the sexual intrigues and the whole baroque strangeness of the basic situation - worldwide musical competition during the Depression, set in Winnipeg in the winter - seems to refract the Canadian sense of provincialism and dependency on America. Of course such an event could never, would never have happened, not in Winnipeg of all places - but of course when Maddin invents it, and offers it as a lens through which to filter the American fantasy-world of the backstage musical of the era, it all seems to make some kind of crazy sense; and though the film is for the most part quite funny and absurd it gains a strange kind of power as it builds towards an apocalyptic climax, and I for one found myself thinking a few sad thoughts to go with the smiles of gratitude at the masterpiece Guy Maddin had made for me.Presented on the excellent MGM DVD with two making-of documentaries that are both solid, and three shorts, "A Trip to the Orphanage", "Sombra Dolorosa", and "Sissy Boy Slap Party".

What makes this movie such a wretched experience to sit through is that the director obviously hates music, or at least hates the musicians and music lovers who people the profession. Why else would he keep interrupting perfectly good musical performances with buzzers, inane, insipid voiceovers, and stupid visuals -- and a plot that moves, well, nowhere? If you happen to like music, as I do, and not just think of it as a background part of your life, you're sure to be thoroughly annoyed by this idiotic outing. There ARE good Canadian movies out there, but this isn't one of them. One of the two stars I've given it is for the interesting use of faux disintegrating film black-and-white images throughout (if it were furniture, we'd called it stressed), but that by no means could save this dud.

In 1933, in Winnipeg during the American Great Depression, the legless baroness of beer industry, Lady Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini), promotes a contest to choose the saddest music in the world and find where the real drinkers are. People come from all parts of the world, including her former lover Chester Kent (Marc McKinney) representing USA with the nymphomaniac amnesic Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros); his brother, who misses his dead son and his vanishing wife, Roderick Kent / Gravillo the Great (Ross McMillan), representing Serbia; and his father and the man who sever her legs in a car accident, Fyodor Kent (David Fox). During the competition, Roderick finds his missing wife."The Saddest Music in the World" is certainly one, if not the most, of the weirdest movie I have ever seen. This is the first work of the Canadian director Guy Maddin that I have watched and I found this flick really bizarre. In an atmosphere of nightmare, the surreal story uses the approach of the dramatic "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" but like a dark comedy instead. The cast and the cinematography are excellent, but I did not like this very unconventional and grotesque story. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): Not Available

I think that it is one of my favorite films. The only reason why I even considered the idea of not giving maximum points for the movie was the fact that the movie contained alcohol propaganda :D I had no idea what the movie is about so at the beginning I was stunned and wondered if I entered the right room - the old-school style sure was surprising. As I had dug myself into the movie I was enchanted... It gently delt emotional and brutal violence. The action froze me - during the whole movie I felt this buzz in my head and incapability to decide if i should laugh or cry. I would say that in the center of the whole story is not the competition but the desperate need to feel sadness - all the main characters had experienced something traumatic that made them feel detached of the world and realistic valuation on emotions. I definitely recommend it to everybody who appreciates movies that are more than just plain amusement!