The Saddest Music in the World

Friday, October 11 - Thursday, October 17, 2024

It’s 1933 in Winnipeg and the Great Depression is in full bloom. Beer Baroness Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini) announces a global competition to determine the saddest music in the world, and musicians from across the globepour into town to vie for the whopping $25,000 prize. Sobbing Mexican Mariachis, dour Scottish Bagpipers, woeful West African drummers and numerous other grief-stricken ensembles give it their all. Down-on-his-luck Broadway producer Chester Kent (Mark McKinney) and his amnesiac girlfriend Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros) return home to his native Winnipeg as the United States entry in the contest. He soon finds himself embroiled in a family reunion as treacherous and twisted as the competition itself.

Part musical melodrama, part tongue-incheek social satire, Guy Madden’s expressionistic film achieves a level of lunacy rarely seen since the Marx Brothers.

See more and save! Get a Forbidden Rooms Pack (3-ticket pack: $30 for IFC Center members and $45 for non-members). Ticket packs are good for any three shows in the series lasting from October 11-17, 2024.

Part of our retrospective Forbidden Rooms: The Films of Guy Maddin

• Country Canada
• Language English, Spanish with English Subtitles
• Year 2003
• Running Time 100 minutes
• Format DCP
• Distributor IFC Films
• Director Guy Maddin
• Cast Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox, Ross McMillan
• Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.