AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

OldAle1 "In my pocket is a jar. In the jar, preserved in my own tears, is my son's heart." If those quotes simultaneously give you a chuckle, puzzle you, disturb you, and perhaps promote the tiniest tinge of wistfulness or longing, then Guy Maddin's hilarious, surreal, frenetic, and even slightly sad tribute to Busby Berkeley musicals, beer and international relations circa 1933 just might be the thing for you.This is as crazy and inventive as anything Maddin has ever done, and contains most of the themes and tropes for which he has become famous (well, famous amongst connoisseurs of weird): a film language that has for the most part skipped the past 75 years of history, instead relying on silent, early sound and 2-strip Technicolor devices for its bizarre and beautiful style; dysfunctional families and equally dysfunctional sexual situations, with a father and son both smitten with the same woman and both partially to blame for the loss of her legs, and the son and his brother also smitten with another woman who happens to have amnesia. Add to this Maddin's typical self-deprecating love of his country (Canada) and city (Winnipeg) and a plot involving a contest to find "the saddest music in the world" and you've got the makings of something that only this demented director could dare to dream.The mutilated woman happens to be beer baroness Lady Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini, channeling Jean Harlow and perhaps a bit of Marlene Dietrich), and her would-be-lovers are Canadian WWI veteran Fyodor Kent (David Fox) and his estranged son Chester Kent (Mark McKinney) whose name is taken from the character played by James Cagney in the 1933 Berkeley-choreographed Footlight Parade and who also has dreams of Broadway grandeur. The two Kents had competed for Helen's hand years before and both played a part in her disfigurement; now, the legless lady of lager holds a contest in the middle of worldwide Depression, asking: which country produces the saddest music? Not only do father and son both compete for the prize of $25,000, representing Canada and America, but another son, now representing Serbia, returns to compete as well. This is Roderick, aka Gravillo the Great (Ross McMillan), cellist extraordinaire, who has lost his wife and son (prompting the quote about tears and heart above) and who now wishes to compete for the prize and atone for Serbia's role in starting WWI. Unbeknownst to him, though, his wife Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros) has not merely run off, but through amnesia and typically outrageous Maddinian coincidence is now the girlfriend of his brother.The musical sequences are generally quite amusing, and not only offer elements of the backstage Hollywood style but also a game-show format reminiscent of cheesy TV programs like The Gong Show - presided over by the thumbs up/down of the beer baroness, and announced for the radio by a pair of effusive sportscaster types - most of the real poignancy that is actually apparent in some of the performances is undercut by all of this lunacy, as well as regular scenes of audience members enjoying the sponsor's beverage in large quantities - and regular dunkings of the winners in each one-on-one elimination contest in a huge vat of suds.I could go on at length about the absurdities of the plot, but I think you get the drift; what's fascinating to me is how the sexual intrigues and the whole baroque strangeness of the basic situation - worldwide musical competition during the Depression, set in Winnipeg in the winter - seems to refract the Canadian sense of provincialism and dependency on America. Of course such an event could never, would never have happened, not in Winnipeg of all places - but of course when Maddin invents it, and offers it as a lens through which to filter the American fantasy-world of the backstage musical of the era, it all seems to make some kind of crazy sense; and though the film is for the most part quite funny and absurd it gains a strange kind of power as it builds towards an apocalyptic climax, and I for one found myself thinking a few sad thoughts to go with the smiles of gratitude at the masterpiece Guy Maddin had made for me.Presented on the excellent MGM DVD with two making-of documentaries that are both solid, and three shorts, "A Trip to the Orphanage", "Sombra Dolorosa", and "Sissy Boy Slap Party".

barnesgene What makes this movie such a wretched experience to sit through is that the director obviously hates music, or at least hates the musicians and music lovers who people the profession. Why else would he keep interrupting perfectly good musical performances with buzzers, inane, insipid voiceovers, and stupid visuals -- and a plot that moves, well, nowhere? If you happen to like music, as I do, and not just think of it as a background part of your life, you're sure to be thoroughly annoyed by this idiotic outing. There ARE good Canadian movies out there, but this isn't one of them. One of the two stars I've given it is for the interesting use of faux disintegrating film black-and-white images throughout (if it were furniture, we'd called it stressed), but that by no means could save this dud.

david-1976 Like one of the Canadian commentators who wrote about this film, I think it presents a valid argument for a "0" (where "0" equals caca) rating. I don't need to restate the "plot" here and I can't put in any spoilers because the whole thing is spoiled.Maddin thinks that putting Vaseline on a camera lens makes things look retro. Bob Guccione thinks that Vaseline on a camera lens makes naked girls in white stockings look sexy. Maddin thinks that set designs that include a lot of "M" based shapes will make people think of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis." People writing about this film applaud its bow to expressionism. Well, expressionism was better done by the expressionists; the same director who made "Metropolis" spent most of his career making stinkers like "Rancho Notorious," and imitating early cinema "looks" is only interesting for so long. One could only wish it was actually shot on the old nitrate stock so that it could be badly stored.The actors do what passes as acting, in a sort of an imitation of an imitation of grand guignol. The two female leads have interesting faces, but do nothing that resembles acting. Isabella Rossellini demonstrates one thing: she actually looks sort of like her better-looking mom, and that she chooses vehicles like the tiresome movies made by her dad, which today I find painful to watch.The DVD contains three shorts that are much more amusing than the film they accompany (especially "Sissy Boy Slap Fest"), and the two "about the film" features have a "look-at-me-I'm-wonderful" air about them, narrated by some idiot who obviously would like to do a one-man "evening with Vincent Price" show in a bathhouse.Gee: did I like this movie? I was prepared to; I thought the premise was interesting and the thought of Rossellini as a concupiscent double amputee might be funny, but the product ends up looking like something made up by stoned frat boys who think they're really, really, really witty.Yeah: if you like this movie you probably also think Baz Lurhman is a genius, too. Pass the sedatives, please.

ludovic391 I've just seen the movie at the "festival international du film de la Rochelle" in France, and I must say that this was a marvelous moment, this was the most surprising and exciting film I've seen during all the festival, though I had seen wonderful films as Blood and bones, Free Zone or My summer of love. I ain't gonna talk about the perfect work with the image, the shining white and black, or the technical performance. What is excellent is that all serves the unbelievable atmosphere of a dark and ironic fairy tale about alcoholism and human sadness. You enter into this strange world, there could be a strong and serious topic, but you only laugh but also feel more concerned, because as it's said in the film, sadness is often a fake so you understand better the feelings of the characters by laughing at their sadness. As the noisy ring that cut off the musicians performance, your laugh prevent you from being solemn, to join this soon mythic beer party. And you're still boozed after this film....