Review by Marty Mapes

The Saddest Music in the World is a grainy, black-and-white movie that wishes it were a 1940's melodrama in some surreal alternate universe. The plot involves a Canadian beer baroness, Lady Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini), whose latest marketing scheme is a contest to find the saddest music in the world. Through her radio broadcasts across the border, she hopes to create a huge demand among prohibition-weary Americans. Three Canadian men from the same family vie for the title. Father is a proud nationalist who hopes to represent Canada by playing a Maple Leaf ballad at the piano, on his knees. The eldest son moved to Serbia and became a cellist. The youngest son is now a sleazy producer living in New York.

But there's more to the movie than the plot. There's also director Guy Maddin's style to contend with. For those looking for a point of reference, some of the more notable Maddinisms are a silent-era style of filmmaking, including iris shots, blurry corners, star filters, black-and-white film stock, and a grainy, dirty look; an appreciation of the art of melodrama; a claustrophobic screen; and in the case of The Saddest Music in the World, an absurdist sense of humor. The contest itself has some of the funniest surreal moments on film since Being John Malkovich.

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