Tears, Beer and Isabella.

MADDIN, Guy; SADDEST Music in the World, The (Film); MOTION pictures; ROSSELLINI, Isabella, 1952-; MOTION picture industry

This article discusses the film The Saddest Music in the World by director Guy Madden. There's been a lot of debate about what kind of movies Canadians should be making, especially now that Telefilm Canada has hired the Hollywood mega-agency Creative Artists Agency to recruit expatriate Canadians into productions back home. And with the glorious folly of his sixth feature, The Saddest Music in the World, he's taking the boldest leap of his career. As contestants flock to Winnipeg from around the globe, Chester vies for the prize, along with his streetcar-driving dad (David Fox), who plays The Red Maple Leaves on an overturned piano, and his mock Serbian brother (Ross McMillan), a morose cellist who keeps his son's heart in a jar, preserved in tears. As Mexico faces off against Siam, and Canada against Africa, the contest unfolds as a carnival of antique ethnic stereotypes. Shooting in black and white, with occasional bursts of colour, Maddin draws on a palette of distressed styles, from the grit of Dust Bowl realism to the flickering lustre of silent film. Saddest Music is Maddin's most ambitious film, with (for him) a relatively plush budget of$ 3.5 million.