The Saddest Music in the World
The Saddest Music in the World Image
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Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, Mark McKinney
  • Summary: It's 1933 in Winnipeg and the Great Depression is in full bloom. Beer Baroness Lady Port-Huntly (Rossellini) announces a global competition to determine the saddest music in the world, and musicians from across the globe pour into town to vie for the whopping $25,000 prize. Part musical melodrama, part tongue-in-cheek social satire, Guy Maddin's expressionistic film achieves a level of lunacy rarely seen since the Marx Brothers. (IFC Films)… Expand
  • Director: Guy Maddin
  • Genre(s): Drama, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Music, Musical
  • Rating: R
  • Runtime: 100 min
  • More Details and Credits »

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    A deliciously weirded-out picture by Guy Maddin, a deliciously weirded-out Canadian filmmaker.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    100
    The concept is high, the humor lowbrow and the joy of experimentation evident in every frame of this wonderful picture.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    Because everything is funny and nothing provides a punchline, audiences may be too shell-shocked to laugh--you know you're in Maddinville when individual cackles detonate at unexpected intervals.
  4. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    60
    Insanely inventive and brimming with exceptional performances, The Saddest Music in the World is as audacious as it is entertaining.

See all 33 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 4 out of 13
  1. ChadS.
    9
    "The Saddest Music in the World" just might be the most quotable comedy since "This is Spinal Tap". You won't get any spoilers from me. See this film and enjoy them firsthand. Director Guy Maddin is a visual genius, but then again, maybe he just seems so because there's nobody else replicating the thirties-era films we ignore on Turner Classic Movies to compare him with. Serbia, in a modern context, isn't a funny country to poke fun at, but this film is set in the early-thirties, so the sight of the entire world collaborating with America against a sad cello-playing Serb is hillarious because he's so deliciously pathetic in his black mourning clothes. Because the film is absurdist, it's okay to laugh at his pickled dead son's heart in a jar of self-shedded tears, and yet it still manages a level of poignancy. That same aggregate of comedy and tragedy also applies to the relationship between Lady Port-Hurtly(Isabella Rossellini) and Chester's father, whose invention is so boombastic, it would make a pimp want to cut off his own legs. "The Saddest Music in the World" will take your breath away. Maddin makes Tarrantino seem conventional.… Expand
  2. SpongeeeK.
    9
    Unique film to say the least. Cinematography was crafty and the dark comedy and social satire were just right. I think you either get this film or you dont. Sorry for those who didnt get it...youre missing out on a classic.… Expand

See all 13 User Reviews

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