5/5 Utterly brilliant.
  by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin, 2003)

Guy Maddin has been making films for over two decades now, quietly becoming one of Canada's most respected directors in the critical community; very fewoutside it seem aware of him, at least in America. Those few who do know of his work know it through this movie, which during its widest American release, played on twenty-five screens. There's something horrendously wrong with that. The weekend of May 30, 2004, The Saddest Music in the World cleared just over eighty-nine grand in the theaters. The same weekend, The Day After Tomorrow, one of the worst movies of 2004, made eighty-five million. It's enough to make a movie fan cry.

Set on the outskirts of Winnipeg (for the geographically challenged, Winnipeg is in the southern part of Manitoba, due north of the border between Minnesota and North Dakota) during the Great Depression, The Saddest Music in the World stars Isabella Rosselini (Blue Velvet) as Lady Helen Port-Huntley, the proprietress of a beer hall. In general, beer halls are one of the businesses that prosper during a depression, but in order to drum up business both for herself and the rest of Winnipeg, Port-Huntley comes up with a brilliant idea: offer a $25,000 prize to any artist who can come up with the saddest music in the world, in honor of the depression. Canada's own entry comes from a family very close to Port-Huntley, whose dynamic is, shall we say, a bit on the dysfunctional side. They have to be experienced to be believed.

Maddin is a connoisseur of the absurd (check out his short "Sissy Boy Slap Party" for all the evidence you could possibly need), but here he takes the absurdity to the next level by having everything in this movie that just looks like it's nuts having a solid reason for being there. (Wait'll you see what he does with the glass legs.) Maddin takes a screenplay from the great Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day) and turns it into a stylized, witty, brilliant film I just can't get enough of. If you haven't yet discovered Guy Maddin, this is a great place to start. **** ½


5/5 Great!
  by Thomas G. Hubbell (FL)
I will not bother with the usual cinematic twatter, but I will simply say that I loved this film.

4/5 If you are sad and you like beer, then I'm your movie
  by C. CRADDOCK (Bakersfield)
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Chester Kent: Idealism and business rarely mix.
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I bought this DVD at Big Lots for $3. The film was made on a budget of $3,500,000. I think it was a great deal, but some people may have been disappointed. They see the title, The Saddest Music in the World, starring Isabella Rossellini, who is a classy broad, and they see that it is about a contest to find the saddest music in the world. They envision a serious endeavor to seek out the truly saddest music in the world, and examine why it is that the saddest song can be the best song. What about that song, Gloomy Sunday that Billie Holiday sang? I hear that song was blamed for several suicides. How about Joy Division? The Smiths? Maybe find the best Emo Shoe Gazer band, from a depressing place like Manchester, or how about Winnipeg? The coldest and saddest city in the world?

That sounds like a great movie, but it is not the movie they will get if they watch this film. Instead they will get a comedy about sadness. Kind of a dark comedy, but they will not get the jokes. I loved this movie, and if that makes me weird, then so be it.

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Chester Kent: Why bother with shame at all is my philosophy.
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Filmed in the far Northern Canadian city of Winnipeg, one of the bleakest, coldest, cities in the entire world, it was filmed in black & white, and is kind of a parody of silent films, or at least the really early films, the talkies, that had just incorporated sound technology into the mix. The kind of film Lon Chaney made--especially the ones where he would play an armless beggar or some such, requiring him to contort himself into impossible postures. Isabella plays Lady Helen Port-Huntley, and though she is making a mint as the baroness of beer--especially since she is right over the border from the U.S. where Prohibition and The Great Depression are in order, she still has plenty to be sad about.

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Lady Port-Huntley: If you are sad and like beer, I'm your lady.
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She is missing both legs due to a freakish accident. Though Fyodor Kent (David Fox) is hopelessly smitten with her, she is carrying on a torrid affair with his son, Chester Kent (Mark McKinney). Chester is at the wheel, and so distracted by her carrying on he doesn't see his father trying to flag them down. Chester swerves, and then skids in the snow. The grotesque accident would really be tragic were it not so over the top that it seems like it is really just a big put on. You expect to see Ashton Kutcher emerge from behind a snowman to tell you that you've been punked. I started to warm up to this off beat comedy, and by the time they got to Fyodor's "beer legs" it had me.

There is a contest to find the saddest music in this film, and there is some very interesting music from all over the world. There is a quite sad arrangement of "The Song is You," for cello, played by Chester's brother Roderick Kent, alias Gravillo the Great. "The Song is You" by Jerome Kern was a favorite of Frank Sinatra, and also musicians love it because the bridge, through a series of subterfuges manages to modulate a half step below the original key, and then when the main theme is reprised, it is like you are rising up, but you are really right back where you started. It is kind of an audio illusion, similar to the picture of the monks climbing the endless stairs at the top of the tower in that wood block print by M.C. Escher. But I digress.

The two brothers, Chester and Roderick Kent, are quite different. While Chester is a brash impresario who exemplifies the crass American approach to show biz, Roderick is an extremely sensitive soul. How sensitive is something I can't even begin to describe--you really have to see the film. The performances of Mark McKinney and Ross McMillan as Chester and Roderick, respectively, are really superb. They both hit the perfect tones--and though those tones are completely opposite, they somehow manage to magically harmonize. David Fox, as Fyodor, their father, is also worthy of mention. And don't let me forget Teddy (Darcy Fehr), Lady Helen Port-Huntley's ever accommodating manservant, or Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros), the oblivious object of Roderick's tortured desire.

Getting back to the contest, there is some great music, but it is all undercut by the competitive contest atmosphere. A loud and annoying buzzer goes off repeatedly whenever the judges start to get bored--which is often. Two announcers--Duncan Elksworth (Claude Dorge) and Mary (Talia Pura)--talk over the music, making inane comments, like sportscasters. It is really a great parody of the whole notion of American Idol style singing contests.

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Mary: No one can beat the Siamese when it comes to dignity, cats, or twins.
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So, I hope I have been "helpful" with this review, and though I really loved this film, it is not for everyone, and those Philistines who wouldn't appreciate this sort of billingsgate, and you know who you are--should avoid it like the plague.

Mark McKinney ... Chester Kent
A Night at the Roxbury (1998) .... Father Williams
Dog Park (1998) .... Dr. Cavan, Dog Psychologist
... aka Réservé aux chiens (Canada: French title)
The Last Days of Disco (1998) .... Rex
Spice World (1997) .... Graydon

Isabella Rossellini ... Lady Helen Port-Huntley
Wild At Heart (1990) .... Perdita Durango
Cousins (1989) .... Maria Hardy
... aka A Touch of Infidelity (Europe: English title)
Siesta (1987) .... Marie
Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987) .... Madeleine Regency
Blue Velvet (1986) .... Dorothy Vallens

Maria de Medeiros ... Narcissa
Monógamo sucesivo (2005)
Stranded: Náufragos (2002) .... Jenny Johnson
Sudor de los ruiseñores, El (1998) .... Goyita
Pulp Fiction (1994) .... Fabienne
Henry & June (1990) .... Anaïs Nin

Darcy Fehr ... Teddy
Walk All Over Me (2007) .... Scarred Man
Juliana and the Medicine Fish (2007) .... Real Estate Investor
Blue State (2007) .... US Border Guard
Odin's Shield Maiden (2007)
The Good Life (2007) .... Friend #2
Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life & Music of Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté (2006) .... Walter Gramatté
Mr. Soul (2006) .... Officer Pearce
Category 7: The End of the World (2005) (TV) .... Black Mask Leader
Cannibalism: A New Taste in Style (2004) .... Bill Dude/Freddie Finklepuss
On Thin Ice (2003) (TV) .... Spider
Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands (2003) .... Guy Maddin
Inside the Osmonds (2001) (TV) .... Engineer #1
The Law of Enclosures (2000) .... Young Miller
Desire (2000) .... Mr. Fergus
... aka Begierde (Germany: TV title)
... aka Fatale Sehnsucht (Germany)
Milgaard (1999) (TV) .... Chris Milgaard
... aka Erreur judiciaire: l'histoire de David Milgaard (Canada: French title)
Hospital Fragment (1999) .... Male Lead
The Cock Crew (1998) .... Ari



5/5 THE ART OF SADNESS
  by Geary A., Jones
THE SADDEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD is a zany piece of fractured surrealism; an ecstatic parody of Freudian fluff. Director, Guy Madden presents pain ( both physical, and spiritual ) as a source of humor, and serves up an eccentrically, twisted group of characters that manage to give the word 'dysfunctional' new meaning.

The story goes like this: a rich, sadistic beer baroness, Lady Port-Huntly ( wonderfully played by Isabella Rosellini ) creates an international music contest for 'The Saddest Music In The World,' during the middle of the Great Depression to be held in Winnepeg, Canada, with a prize of $25,000.00 ( a lot of bread in those days ). Two of her former lovers ( both of whom, she holds responsible for the loss of her legs ) enter. Dr. Fyodor Kent represents Canada, and Chester ( Mark McKinney ), his son ( who cuckolded Fyodor with the baroness years before ) represents the U.S. with his present girlfriend, Narcissa, an amnesiac, and nymphomaniac ( Maria de Madeiros ). Serbia is represented by Chester's estranged brother, Roderick ( Ross McMillan ) whose long-lost wife just happens to be Narcissa.

This film is wonderfully shot with mostly handheld cameras, and filters. A good portion of it is black, and white. The sets are stark, dark, and gloomy, but the overall feel is magically delicious.

5/5 A Touch of the Absurd in Kafkaesque Brilliance
  by Carolyn Smagalski (Philadelphia, PA USA)
In classic Film Noir style, Guy Maddin directs The Saddest Music in the World, set in Winnipeg, Manitoba, (1933) during the depths of the Great Depression. Maddin, in collaboration with George Toles, sets the mood with an astute level of cinematography, employing old-fashioned iris lens techniques to create the antique, distressed look of a Golden-age movie-screen, using grainy blues and silvers to invoke moods of emotional intensity. He skillfully manipulates stark camera angles and chiaroscuro to accent light and shadowy effects, while highlighting exuberance and humor with unconventional music and dialogue.

Isabella Rossellini plays the role of the clever and tragic Lady Helen Port-Hunsley, a wealthy Canadian beer baroness who launches a world competition seeking the most melancholy music on the globe, as she endeavors to dramatically increase beer sales at the tail end of America's failed experiment of Prohibition. The purse is a huge twenty-five-thousand-dollar award that brings forth competitors from as far away as Scotland, Serbia and Siam. The main protagonist in the film emerges as the cynical Chester Kent (Mark McKinney), in contention with his brother, Roderick as Gavrillo the Great, and others in this great rivalry, where winners in each round slide into a giant vat of beer.

Twists and turns of emotion fill the plot, pulling you from humor to tragedy within a framework of grandeur and the absurd. As bygone secrets unravel, Fyodor, father of Chester and Roderick, attempts to exonerate his past guilt by fashioning glass legs filled with beer for Helen, his former lover, and the victim of an accidental amputation.

For those who appreciate imagination and avant-garde expressionism, Saddest Music is nourishment for the senses.