If your a fan of the director than you have a head start than most viewers but for others this exercise in style seems to wear out pretty fast despite a unique approach to it's look and story. Story is suppose to take place during the Depression in 1933 where in Winnipeg a legless beer baroness named Lady Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) has created a contest where contestants from each country will try and win $25,000 by playing the saddest music in the world. America is represented by Chester Kent (Mark McKinney) who has his nymphomaniac girlfriend Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros) accompany him. Chester's father Fyodor (David Fox) is representing Canada and his brother Roderick (Ross McMillan) is representing Serbia.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
All of them have a history with Lady Huntley and years earlier they were involved in a car crash where a drunken Fyodor amputated the wrong leg and the end result was her having both legs cut off. Fyodor has been trying to get her to forgive him and he has built prosthetic legs made out of glass and filled with her own beer. The contest begins with two countries going at one time with one being eliminated and the other going on to the next round. During the contest Roderick discovers that his brothers girlfriend is actually his wife that has disappeared after their son died but she has amnesia and has forgotten it. The contest ends with brother against brother, Serbia versus America!
This film is directed by the incredibly imaginative Guy Maddin who makes films like you have never seen before and this is another visually interesting effort. This is filmed mostly in black and white in 8mm and video and has a look that seems truly inspired by F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. Both "Metropolis" and "Sunrise" came to mind as I watched this and this may be Maddin's homage to those filmmakers. Rossellini seems perfectly cast in her role and her strongest moments come as she wears her glass legs filled with beer but her performance seems overshadowed by the overall style of the film. While I appreciate what Maddin was trying to do I do think that the style grows quickly tiresome and the whole effort becomes a very tedious viewing. This is interesting for the first 20 minutes or so but to sustain the visualizations for an entire length of a film seems a tad much to ask of viewers.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
All of them have a history with Lady Huntley and years earlier they were involved in a car crash where a drunken Fyodor amputated the wrong leg and the end result was her having both legs cut off. Fyodor has been trying to get her to forgive him and he has built prosthetic legs made out of glass and filled with her own beer. The contest begins with two countries going at one time with one being eliminated and the other going on to the next round. During the contest Roderick discovers that his brothers girlfriend is actually his wife that has disappeared after their son died but she has amnesia and has forgotten it. The contest ends with brother against brother, Serbia versus America!
This film is directed by the incredibly imaginative Guy Maddin who makes films like you have never seen before and this is another visually interesting effort. This is filmed mostly in black and white in 8mm and video and has a look that seems truly inspired by F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. Both "Metropolis" and "Sunrise" came to mind as I watched this and this may be Maddin's homage to those filmmakers. Rossellini seems perfectly cast in her role and her strongest moments come as she wears her glass legs filled with beer but her performance seems overshadowed by the overall style of the film. While I appreciate what Maddin was trying to do I do think that the style grows quickly tiresome and the whole effort becomes a very tedious viewing. This is interesting for the first 20 minutes or so but to sustain the visualizations for an entire length of a film seems a tad much to ask of viewers.