The Saddest Music in the World (2004)

Simply A Masterpiece

Beautiful, moving film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This was my first film from Guy Maddin, a Canadian director well-known for doing his own thing. Most of his films, I hear, recreate the look and feel of 1920s silent cinema and early talkies – 'The Saddest Music in the World (2003)' is no exception. Not only is the film set in Depression-era Winnipeg, but it actually looks as though it was shot around that time. Maddin shoots his film on washed-out and grainy Super 8 film blown up to 35mm, uses irises and other outdated storytelling techniques, badly-synchronised audio, and lots of Soviet-style montage. Several scenes are shot in colour – and they jar strikingly, like the dream sequence in 'Shock Corridor (1963)' – to imitate the aesthetic of early two-strip Technicolor. Even the use of Isabella Rossellini is a stroke of anachronistic genius: at times you're fooled into thinking that Ingrid Bergman is on screen.The story is bizarre to say the least. A Canadian beer company, under the instruction of baroness Lady Port-Huntley (Rossellini) (who lost her legs in unfortunate circumstances), holds a competition to discover the "saddest music in the world." Competitors arrive from every country to vie for the $25,000 prize, including a smug washed-up Broadway producer (Mark McKinney, of 'Kids in the Hall' fame); his cellist brother (Ross McMillan), a hypochondriac nursing a broken heart (quite literally); and their father (David Fox), an alcoholic war veteran who is in love with Lady Port-Huntley. Not bizarre enough, you say? Well, Lady Port-Huntley gets herself a new pair of legs, made entirely out of glass and beer. As you do. This film is perverse, surreal, and extremely wacky; you can't deny that Maddin's got a quirky sense of humour. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but I didn't mind it.

I have to say this at the outset: I tried to watch this film three times over the span of a few years (you can catch it periodically on the IFC Network) and did not finish it. Finally, after seeing Mr. Maddin's "My Winnipeg" and pretty much loving it, I gave it a try. This film is not for the conventional moviegoer. It is set during the depression in Winnipeg with the premise being a contest to entrants from all different countries to find the saddest music in the world, with the prize being a then princely $25,000. The film is mostly in grainy black and white (like "My Winnipeg") and it is pitch black comic. Mark Mckinney, formerly one of the "Kids In The Hall" is the star, along with the bewigged Isabella Rossellini. Both are very good in roles that are decidedly left of center. Mr. Maddin is a true original and I like the fact that Winnipeg is his muse. This is not for everyone (by a long shot), but its a well made film. If you want something uncompromising, look no further. If you like the bumper crop of big summer releases, you'll dislike this. That is pretty much it.

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.

Much like "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", this movie shows Depression-era people trying to make something of themselves by participating in a contest, even if they have to degrade themselves somewhat. In this case, beer baroness Lady Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) wants to find out who can play the saddest music possible - offering a $25,000 prize - so people from all over the world come to take part.Sound like a strange idea? I guess that it is, but they do a good job with it. The surreal nature of everything here is accentuated by the camera-work (hand-held and often blurred). "The Saddest Music in the World" is part indictment of capitalism, part look into peoples' desperate lives, but all very perceptive. Another good point for Canadian cinema, and for Isabella Rossellini.