Despite that ponderous title, The Saddest Music in the World has an eccentric playful air about it - not something that you'd immediately associate with a screenplay which has it origins with Kazoo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day). Still looking every inch the movie star goddess, Isabella Rossellini plays Lady Port-Huntly, a legless (literally) beer baroness, who decides to host a competition to find some of the saddest music in the world (hence the title, folks). The prize is $25,000 depression era dollars and since prohibition is in full swing, Port-Huntly reckons that the publicity will be invaluable when it comes to shifting her booze in the market place. Pretty soon all manner of lunatics have descended on her Winnipeg brewery, determined to make a career for themselves on the contest which is being broadcast live across Canada and America. And what's more, most of the competitors manage to make the sponsor look positively sane in comparison...
Quirkier than a gang of belly dancing dwarves with a sideline in taxidermy, The Saddest Music in the World wears its eccentricities like a badge of honour. Famous for his own idiosyncrasies, director Guy Maddin has fashioned a bizarre offering in this film which never manages to border on anything even remotely predictable. Filmed in a grainy black and white which almost seems to rejoice in its own lack of technical finesse, The Saddest Music in the World follows the path of melodrama, never being remotely concerned with the subject of realism or subtlety. It is, however, quite an outlandish spectacle and there are undeniable joys to be attained from the sheer ambition of this perplexing but intriguing affair.
