.jeri.

The Saddest Music in the World

If only this movie were truly about finding the saddest music in the world! Imagine immersing an audience into a wide variety of sad music, from all parts of the world, telling the stories behind each type of music. I think that would make an interesting movie.

Instead, the actual contest in this movie puts one type of music vs. another in practically a gong-show like atmosphere, where the winner of each round slides down into a giant swimming pool of beer. The announcers explain the music, in exaggerated tones that must exist to make the movie audience laugh. But why? Why does the music have to be taken jokingly? I guess because the movie is actually a comedy - something I had to look up online to confirm for myself after having seen it.

The "saddest music" contest, started by Lady Port-Huntley in Winnepeg, 1933, is not truly a contest, but rather a backdrop to the story of the Lady's amputated legs, her canniving lover, his nymphomaniac lover who is actually the missing wife of his grieved brother, and a drunken father whose purpose in the story is mainly to provide a pair of glass legs to the Lady.

The story of the characters is random, exaggerated, and uninvolving for the audience. I didn't feel for any of the characters (not sure if I was really supposed to or not), not just because of who they were, but also because I could hardly ever tell which parts of the movie I was actually supposed to take seriously (if there were any). It may have looked neat with the differently sized film and the transitions here and there from black and white to color, but the visual stimulation can't make a ridiculous story any less ridiculous - at least in this case.

I spent the first half of The Saddest Music in the World trying to decide whether I thought it was imaginative or lame. Once I reached the halfway mark, I was ready to go, but somehow compelled to stay. By the end, I realized it was both imaginative AND lame.

But it may click with other people out there. I guess since I went in not really knowing what to expect at all, it really confused me when it turned out to be a comedy - and the type of comedy it was just didn't make me laugh.

Posted by wendytime at June 1, 2004 12:33 PM | TrackBack