The Saddest Music in the World ★★½ 2003 Arty but amusing take on the classic musicals and screwball comedies of the 1930s set in Depressionera Winnipeg, Canada. Eccentric plot has legless beer baroness Lady Helen Port-Huntly (Rossellini) proclaiming she will offer a prize of $25,000 and a crown of frozen tears to any nation that comes up with the world's saddest music. Americans Chester Kent (McKinney), a failed Broadway producer and Canadian ex-pat, and Narcissa (de Medeiros), his amnesiac, nymphomanic muse, decide to take a crack at it. Truly stylish, madcap and clever, zaniness nonetheless wears thin by the conclusion. Appropriately eclectic soundtrack. Based on an original screenplay by Kazuo Ishigura. 99m/B DVD. CA Isabella Rossellini, Mark McKinney, Maria De Medeiros, Ross McMillan, David Fox, Claude Dorge, Darcy Fehr;
Director:
Guy Maddin;
Writer:
Guy Maddin, George Toles, Kazuo Ishiguro;
Writer:
Luc Montpellier;
Cameo:
Christopher Dedrick.
