The Saddest Music in The World

– In Depression-era Winnipeg, a legless beer baroness hosts a contest for the saddest music in the wor..

Type:
Movie
Rating:
7.20 / 10
Duration:
One Hour and 40 Minutes
Release Year:
2003
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

In Depression-era Winnipeg, a legless beer baroness hosts a contest for the saddest music in the world, offering a grand prize of $25,000. Contestants flock in from around the globe. Representing America is Chester Kent, a theatre producer who thinks he's an American despite being Canadian; representing Serbia is his brother, Gavrilo the Great, who is succumbing to madness over the death of his son; and representing Canada is their father, a pathetic drunkard. As the competition builds toward its climax, these estranged characters are brought together to express their deep feelings of pain and ultimately give in to treachery.

Story Timeline:
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Editor's Pick for:

The Saddest Music in the World (2003) - Trailer

Release Date:

12 May 2005

Language:

English, Spanish

MPAA Content-Rating:
R – Restricted

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.

Director:

Guy Maddin

Writer:

Kazuo Ishiguro (original screenplay), George Toles, Guy Maddin

Main Actors:

Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox

Plot:

It's the winter of 1933 in Winnipeg. In honor of Winnipeg being named the sorrow capital of the world for the Depression era for the fourth year running by the London Times, Lady Helen Port-Huntley, the legless owner of Winnipeg's Port-Huntley Beer, is hosting and judging a contest to see which nation has the saddest music in the world, the winner to take home a $25,000 prize. Seeing as to the current Prohibition in the United States, Lady Port-Huntley has ulterior motives for the contest. Father and son, streetcar conductor Fyodor Kent and New York based musical producer Chester Kent, who both have a past connection to Lady Port-Huntley (Fyodor, a WWI veteran and former doctor, has fashioned for her an unusual pair of artificial legs apropos to her business), want to represent Canada and the United States respectively in the contest. Despite Lady Port-Huntley's hatred for the Kent's, she does allow them to do so if only to advance her own priorities. As the contest takes place, the Kents, who also include Fyodor's other son/Chester's brother, Roderick Kent (who wants to represent Serbia in the contest, as his missing wife is Serbian), deal with their collective sorrow and family dysfunction, the latter issue which involves Chester's current girlfriend, an amnesiac named Narcissa.

Awards:

6 wins & 7 nominations.

Gross profit:

$559,351

Production:

IFC Films

Ratings:
Internet Movie Database:
7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
79%
Metacritic:
78%