De-Lovely, De-Lightful, De-Pressing
Two New Musicals Out Now on Video

If there’s one thing to point to as why DVDs are superior to VHS tapes, it is the accurate portrayal of music. No longer are our ears held hostage by tapes that drag and soft musical passages full of hiss. It is one reason why you might want to revisit musicals such as West Side Story on DVD or rent one of the new movies where music plays an integral part of the story. Here are two new ones that take advantage of DVD’s superior sound:

De-Lovely

The new video release of the Cole Porter musical biography, De-Lovely, is one of the most frustrating pictures of the year. On one hand, it features some of the best work of Kevin Kline’s career and a standout performance by Ashley Judd as Porter’s wife-in-name-only Linda. The music is great, the sets transport the viewers back to the 1930s, and there are some interesting cameos. The movie, however, gets bogged down with what must have been the most depressing aspects of the great composer’s life.

Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline shine in the new Cole Porter biography De-Lovely.

For those unfamiliar with Porter’s story, he was—along with Irving Berlin—America’s most successful musical composer of the first half of the 20th century. Unapologetically homosexual, Porter married Linda because of their close platonic relationship and for the convenience of having a woman on his arm at the endless parade of social functions he attended.

De-Lovely uses a contrived frame narrative technique where Cole, near death, views his entire life as it played out on a Broadway stage. His constant interrupting of the storyline from the audience is supposed to have a contemplative effect when all it really does is break the flow of the story.

While Kline and Judd give outstanding performances, none of the other characters in the film are developed beyond mere faces. De-Lovely does, however, have some entertaining cameos during the musical numbers with appearances by Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette. And you just can’t find fault with Porter’s music as the movie presents solid versions of his songs “In the Still of the Night,” “Let’s Misbehave,” “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” “Just One of Those Things” and other classics.

Although the first half of the movie tells the story of Porter’s life in an entertaining manner, the second half is one continual bummer. Linda becomes increasingly agitated with Porter’s romantic liaisons, Porter falls from a horse and becomes a near cripple, and eventually Linda succumbs to lung cancer. All of these things are true elements of the composer’s life but director Irwin Winkler focuses on the negative so intently that it’s a relief when the credits start to role. Even Porter’s musical success (most of which came later in his life), is treated as a burden as his increasingly lavish lifestyle.

De-Lovely is worth viewing for the fine performances of Judd and Kline but is not exactly an uplifting look at Cole Porter’s life. The movie is rated PG-13 for sexual content and is available on VHS and DVD formats.

The Saddest Music in the World

The BBC comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus used to use the refrain, “And now for something completely different,” in between its hilarious sketches. That phrase kept coming to mind while I was watching the darkly funny musical The Saddest Music in the World.

Directed by Canadian Guy Maddin, The Saddest Music in the World almost defies description. Filmed mostly in grainy black and white, the film stars Mark McKinney (of Kids in the Hall fame) as conniving Depression-era Broadway producer Chester Kent and Maria De Medeiros as his amnesiac girlfriend Narcissa. The two travel to the outskirts of Chester’s hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, just as legless Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini), owner of Canada’s Muskeg Brewery and the so-called “Beer Queen of the Prairie,” announces her latest contest: a world-wide attempt to find the saddest music in the world.

The winner will collect $25,000 and win the admiration of millions of radio listeners.

Chester decides to represent the USA, much to his father’s dismay, and Chester’s emotionally tortured brother, Roderick, returns to Winnipeg after spending the past decade in Serbia to also take part in the musical challenge. The resulting contest is aired live on the radio and world becomes caught up in the excitement as countries such as Spain and Scotland are summarily eliminated by Lady Port-Huntly’s imperial thumbs-down.

Isabella Rossellini stars as beer baroness Lady Port-Huntly in the dark comedy The Saddest Music in the World.

Ever the scheming impresario, Chester keeps recruiting musicians from losing countries for his increasingly elaborate sad music productions. His Broadway numbers “Abolition Blues” and “San Francisco Earthquake, ‘06” have a wonderful old movie production quality to them even as they approach surrealism.

Chester’s opponent in the contest’s finale is none other than Roderick who plays an impossibly sad melody on solo cello.

What can you say about a movie that romantically pairs Rossellini and McKinney while exploring the themes of madness, love, sad music and beer? This movie combines 1930s European Dadaism with modern Canadian absurdist humor and pulls it off with an avalanche of old movie dialogue clichés. Even the creepiest of scenes will emit peals of uncomfortable laughter.

The Saddest Music in the World is not rated but has some disturbing images of an emergency roadside amputation. It is available on VHS and DVD formats.