The Saddest Music in the World

In classic Film Noir style, Guy Maddin directs The Saddest Music in the World, set in Winnipeg, Manitoba, (1933) during the depths of the Great Depression. Maddin, in collaboration with George Toles, sets the mood with an astute level of cinematography, employing old-fashioned iris lens techniques to create the antique, distressed look of a Golden-age movie-screen, using grainy blues and silvers to invoke moods of emotional intensity. He skillfully manipulates stark camera angles and chiaroscuro to accent light and shadowy effects, while highlighting exuberance and humor with unconventional mu

I tend to love any non-Hollywood type movie if for no other reason than I like to actually be surprised. I love movies without all the Hollywood cliches. I like Isabella Rossellini, and I adore Maria de Medeiros. So why did I hate this movie? It was like some kind of disjointed surrealistic LSD trip. It barely made any sense at all. I found a few of the early campy overacted scenes a little entertaining but you can't carry a whole movie on that and it gets old quickly. I don't know how to enjoy a movie with no sense of reality at all. Also, I don't mind the B&W. I don't mind sepia. When it's s

Guy Maddin's most accessible movie is still my favorite. It's funny, surreal, and enjoyable start to finish. The cast is great and the look is classic Maddin with all the right flourishes. If you like Guy Maddin then you will love it, if you don't or never heard of him then this might be a good place to start as it's more straightforward than a lot of his others. The making of featurettes are good too. It was a pleasure watching this bizarre musical comedy again and sharing it with people who had never seen it and had no idea what they were getting into.

I rented this film on a whim, that is the title and the cover of Isabella Roselini in a bleach blond wig smothered in a world of blue. Why not? I walk through Blockbuster wondering if there is ever anything worth seeing that I haven't already. The vast majority of Hollywood comedies are unfunny to me. What a discovery! I have been watching films for over 45 years and never have seen such a hilarious tongue-in-cheek presentation of a film about sadness. Three of the five most important characters are wallowing in their own self-pity to such extremes I couldn't believe it or stop laughing. Germa

This movie has very little to offer to the viewer other than an odd, unsatisfying experience. It is strange and unique in its quirkiness. But the production qualities are really very poor, especially in the acting, story and music. The grainy focus and limited views were obviously chosen to give the film a particular look, but quickly became annoying. The primarily silly (and only rarely funny) story failed to provide any real entertainment. The satire, where it existed, was obvious and simplistic. The lack of consistently good quality music of various styles was surprising. If you like quirky

Guy Maddin is a filmmaker I've heard alot of. Not good, not bad, but weird. So, it is no surprise that his hundred minute long 2004 film The Saddest Music In The World is not good, not bad, simply weird. Visually, however, it's a truly brilliant work, with color freely mixing with black and white, on contrived sets that evoke German Expressionism from the 1920s, and with Vaseline smeared on the lenses to give it a softer look. It also has a grainier feel in some sections, and reputedly was shot on 8mm film, then blown up to make it even grainier looking, as if it was just uncovered from some o

---------------------------Chester Kent: Idealism and business rarely mix.========================================I bought this DVD at Big Lots for $3. The film was made on a budget of $3,500,000. I think it was a great deal, but some people may have been disappointed. They see the title, The Saddest Music in the World, starring Isabella Rossellini, who is a classy broad, and they see that it is about a contest to find the saddest music in the world. They envision a serious endeavor to seek out the truly saddest music in the world, and examine why it is that the saddest song can be the best so

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen and probably my new favorite movie. With expert use of both black and whote and color, beautifully stylized sets, and a complex and intriguing family drama, Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World is the perfect tribute to the early days of cinema as well as a much watch for any film buff!