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Original Essays | November 9, 2009

Jesse Bullington: IMG Abash'd the Devil Stood

0 comments By Jesse Bullington

I don't believe in evil. It's a word I use, certainly, because words are shortcuts and we all take the short way round from time to time, but that's... Continue »
  1. $10.49 Sale Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

    Jesse Bullington
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Saddest Music in the World

Saddest Music in the World Cover

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

When a legless beer baroness in Winnipeg announces a contest to find the world's saddest tune, a pint of trouble brews among a fractured family competing for the $25,000 prize. As the disturbing depths of the links between themselves, the baroness and an amnesiac nymphomaniac are exposed, one thing becomes clear: It will take more than a pool of alcohol to drown their sorrows.

Review:

"The Saddest Music in the World doesn't just re-create 1933 through costumes; it actually looks like a 1933 picture." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"To see this film, to enter the world of Guy Maddin, is to understand how a film can be created entirely by its style, and how its style can create a world that never existed before, and lure us, at first bemused and then astonished, into it." Roger Ebert

Review:

"Any film where a beer baroness's glass leg (filled with beer) shatters when a high note is struck is okay by me." Washington Post

Review:

"The concept is high, the humor lowbrow and the joy of experimentation evident in every frame of this wonderful picture." San Francisco Chronicle

Special Features:

Short Films
"Teardrops in the Snow: The making of The Saddest Music in the World" Featurette
"The Saddest Characters in the World: The Cast of The Saddest Music in the World" Featurette
Teasers
Original Theatrical Trailer
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What Our Viewers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Miss Gretchen, November 17, 2007 (view all comments by Miss Gretchen)
Lukas, in his review, says it best in regards to this film. I was late to the party in the Guy Maddin appreciation society, and was worried he'd be some kind of pale David Lynch. Although broadly speaking you can compare the two, still, Maddin is "one to a box" as my grandmother used to say. I started my Maddin obsession with his direction of the ballet version of "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, which was definitive. I've been blazing my way through the canon ever since. I also highly recommend The Guy Maddin Collection of short films; "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" is a David LaChapelle-ish color-saturated extravaganza starring our favorite Borg Queen, Alice Krige; and "The Heart of the World" is a primer of Soviet-style montage packed into six delirious minutes. Many people consider it one of the best avant-garde films ever made.
(Look around for the documentary about him, "Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight," it is also superb.)
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lukas, November 8, 2007 (view all comments by lukas)
If you haven't seen any films by madcap Candian director Guy Maddin, start here. Maddin's loopy, loony tale of lust, treachery, and beer is set against the backdrop of the depression. A legless beer baroness (a lovely Isabella Rossellini) holds a contest to find the world's saddest song. A slick American (Mark McKinney) competes against his grieving, moody cellist brother. Passions flare and beer flows! Maddin shoots as if the last 70 years hadn't happened, favoring b&w, tinted lenses, highly stylized sets, and vasoline smeared camera lenses. Wacky in a good way.
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Product Details

UPC:
00027616911704
Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc
Location:
N
Credits:
Maddin, Guy
Credits:
McKinney, Mark
Binding:
DVD
Rating:
R
Region:
US and Canada
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