The Saddest Music in the World

R

Released Apr 30, 2003

1 hr. 39 min.

Musical

Comedy

Drama

List

80%

103 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this experimental musical set in 1930s Winnipeg, Canada, amputee baroness Lady Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) organizes a competition offering $25,000 to the person who can compose the saddest music in the world. Musicians -- including a depressed Broadway producer (Mark McKinney), his guilt-stricken father (David Fox) and a Serbian cellist (Ross McMillan) -- flock to Winnipeg with the hope that they will be the best at conveying tragedy and grief in their music.

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Critics Consensus

Guy Maddin perfectly recreates the look and feel of a 1930s in this bizarre picture.

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Mark A

Bizarre, surreal and quietly funny. This is a clever film for clever viewers. The highly stylized cinematography creates the ideal mood and setting for what, at its core, is a simple story involving complex characters. Those able to assimilate the story without being distracted by the unorthodox presentation will find themselves enjoying a deceptively droll film with some genuine laughs thrown in. I judge critics by their ability to grasp and dissect this film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/06/23

Full Review

joe m

A fascinatingly bizarre, coherently muddled film, "The Saddest Music in the World" makes no sense and may seem to be a pastiche of scenes, yet it some how all comes together. Isabella Rossellini is absolutely stunning with her performance as Lady Helen Port-Huntley, the legless beer baroness. She decides to hold an international contest for, yes, the saddest music in the world. And this is in, of all places, Depression era Winnipeg of all places! Three of the other main characters - Maria de Medeiros as Narcissa, David Fox as Fyodor Kent and Ross McMillan as Roderick Kent / Gravillo the Great - all give stand out performances. The one actor not quite up to par, yet some what intentionally given his role as the ever over confident American impresario is Mark McKinney as Chester Kent, who is just slightly off. The cinematography and scenes are spectacular, reminiscent of 1920's German avant grade film making. "TSMITW" is a movie to see at least once so the viewer can come to their own conclusion. You may hate it, but you'll never forget it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Enigmatic inebriation.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ten years after its (very) limited theatrical release, this remains as one of the most purely imaginative and intriguingly bizarre cinematic experiences I have EVER watched and/or witnessed. 'The Saddest Music in the World' is set in 1933 and stars Isabella Rossellini (Death Becomes Her) as the legless beer baroness, Lady Helen Port-Huntley, whose sad-ish life in the lonely and (Great) Depression-ravaged city of Winnipeg, Canada, announces a singing competition to be hosted in her city to find "The Saddest Music in the World". Contestants from the far-reaches of the globe pour into Winnipeg and sing/perform one sad song after another. Port-Huntley is unaware that some of the entrants have past (tragic) connections to her from years earlier but she does make the connection with the singer representing the Land of the Maple Leaf, Fyodor Kent (David Fox - Mama) -- who gifts Lady Port-Huntley two glass legs filled to the brim with liquid gold (beer). Fyodor has two sons also competing for the top prize (representing the US and Serbia) -- which becomes something other than the $25K -- when more of the past is remembered and tears begin to flow freely. Director Guy Maddin has created an unusual experience here with heavy use of authentic-looking grainy, black-and-white images -- with bits of color toyed around with onscreen from time to time. The film and storyline are both absurd but it is all about spectacle ... Lady Port-Huntley walks around in glass, beer-filled legs while people sing sad songs. We are supposed to enjoy the absurdity here ... and I did.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I always think of Maddin's films as answering a "what if" question ... What if the technology of movie making had never advanced even though our sensibilities did? His stylistic homages to silent film steel feel strikingly modern. While not his best film (an honour I'd probably give to "Careful"), this is probably the nest entry point to his filmography. Very familiar actors ... Isabella Rosselini, Mark McKinney, Maria de Madeiros ... share the screen with Maddin regulars like Ross McMillan. Kazuo Ishiguro's screenplay is a much more conventional narrative than earlier Maddin films.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Frances H

Totally absurd story meets The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari brand black and white expressionism. Interesting, but bizarre.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/13

Full Review

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Guy Maddin

Director

Mark McKinney

Chester

Isabella Rossellini

Lady Port-Huntley

Maria de Medeiros

Narcissa

David Fox

Fyodor

Ross McMillan

Roderick

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Joshua Rothkopf

In These Times

...even Guy Maddin, Canada's homegrown David Lynch, stumbled with his gorgeous but inconsequential comedy, The Saddest Music In The World.

Mar 16, 2020

Full Review

David Ansen

Newsweek

Hilariously odd and prodigiously inventive, it springs from the eccentric mind of Guy Maddin, whose delirious visions have earned this singular Canadian filmmaker an international cult following.

Mar 13, 2018

Full Review

Joshua Vasquez

Slant Magazine

Guy Maddin's snow globe cinema, hermetically sealed in ghostly adoration of silent cinema, is well matched to this darkly comic fable.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 4, 2004

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…the gallery of bizarre characters involved in the competition make Maddin’s film compulsive viewing…

Rated: 4/5

May 24, 2023

Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

The film's expressionist style and lighting design provide it with an immaculate richness of visual textures.

Rated: B+

Jun 10, 2009

Full Review

Brian Gibson

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta)

Here is magic-realism filtered through an oddball sensibility, chilled in the snowdrifts of Winnipeg and bottled in amber-hued frames of celluloid.

Jul 2, 2007

Full Review

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Synopsis

In this experimental musical set in 1930s Winnipeg, Canada, amputee baroness Lady Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) organizes a competition offering $25,000 to the person who can compose the saddest music in the world. Musicians -- including a depressed Broadway producer (Mark McKinney), his guilt-stricken father (David Fox) and a Serbian cellist (Ross McMillan) -- flock to Winnipeg with the hope that they will be the best at conveying tragedy and grief in their music.

Director: Guy Maddin
Executive Producer: Atom Egoyan
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Buffalo Gal Pictures, Rhombus Media Inc., TVA International
Rating: R (Violent Images|Some Sexuality)
Genre: Musical, Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 30, 2003, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 10, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $669.1K
Sound Mix: Surround

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