A sort-of musical set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression, where a beer baroness organizes a contest to find the saddest music in the world. Musicians from around the world descend on the city to try and win first place – a $25,000 prize.
Guy Maddin has reached a new expressive plateau with The Saddest Music in the World. It reprises the key elements of his previous work — the look and feel of scratchy late silents and early talkies (mainly black and white, with a few lush interludes in two-strip Technicolor) and themes involving Canada, amnesia and other forms of repression, war and wartime loss, oedipal conflict, mutilation, and unabated romantic despair — all touched with deadpan comedy and melodramatic excess.
As a huge fan of 30s cinema, especially of the French Impressionist movement, I can't say I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Surprisingly, it also turned out to be a wonderful black comedy with a cast comprised almost entirely of assholes. The visual ideas, though too much at times, were a joy along with it's observations on how the world seems to turn around the USA despite the story taking place in Canada.
What an incredible work of art. The more I see from Maddin the I become impressed and enthralled with his artistic vision. The set design, the acting, the story, the cinematography, the editing were all wonderful and played off each other beautifully. Loved every waking moment of it, never a dull scene.
More like The Most Boring Music in the World. Hyuck hyuck. But seriously, this did not enthrall me the way My Winnipeg did. There were some moments, but Guy Maddin's artistic sensibilities really don't adapt themselves well to a traditional narrative. By the end all hell breaks loose and I'm not exactly sure which hell. I really wanted to like this one. Brand Upon the Brain and Archangels seem like more my cup a tea.
You can tell Maddin has complete control of his projects, creating the perfect evocation of his character's and his own consciousness. Brilliant film, criterion would be wise to pick this one up.
EASILY my favorite canadian film ever made. I bow in the presence of Guy Maddin's colossal imagination!!
probably the best comedy i've seen in a long time, this is strange, absurd, original, hilarious, interesting, intoxicating, and on top of that it's delightfully delicious !