The Saddest Music in the World

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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 expat, 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; D: Guy Maddin; W: Guy Maddin, George Toles, Kazuo Ishiguro; C: Luc Montpellier; M: Christopher Dedrick.