Madonna reinvents herself as film director
Mark Brown in Berlin Thursday February 14, 2008 The Guardian
One of Europe's most prestigious film festivals welcomed a new director last night, a first-timer who counts Federico Fellini and Jean-Luc Godard as her inspirations.
Madonna, the queen of reinvention, has done it once more by arriving in Berlin as the director, co-writer and executive producer for the world premiere of an 80-minute film called Filth and Wisdom.
Everyone was expecting a turkey from the woman whose previous movie experience has included starring in Swept Away and Shanghai Surprise, and by general consent, it was. Despite her lofty ambitions, the first morning screening was greeted by a smattering of applause and a general sense of disbelief.
Madonna was giving no interviews but did face the press last night. She revealed that she was exploring the idea of releasing Filth and Wisdom, which was originally meant as a 20-minute short, on the internet. "It's quite exciting because it's a non-conventional way for a film to be seen and I like doing things in a non-conventional way."
She said the movie was about the duality of life. "It's also about the struggle with that duality. Filth and wisdom is the ultimate duality. You can learn and find enlightenment in either place."
The main character is played by Eugene Hutz, the lead singer of New York Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Asked whether she was attracted to the Gypsy lifestyle Madonna said: "I think, secretly, I want to be a Gypsy. I love the idea of travelling round and playing music and letting life unfold in a spontaneous way."
Asked how she related to her film's characters, Madonna got all profound. "In spite of what appears to be my material success, I still feel like I'm struggling with the contradictions of life, the duality of life. I'm still struggling to find my way to understand the difference between right and wrong. To see things for what they are, to not be tricked by illusions, and I think I vacillate between light and dark."
Madonna, composed and funny, also said she had just finished producing a documentary about Malawi, where she adopted her son, which would be shown at the Cannes film festival.
Filth and Wisdom is a morality tale whose message appears to be that in order to be good and wise, we all need a bit of filth in our lives. Hutz stars as a philosophising S&M escort, beating up grateful clients and spanking a schoolboy-outfitted Guardian reader. Other characters include a thieving chemist's shop worker and a ballet dancer forced to lap dance.
In her programme notes Madonna says: "When the film was finished I realised that they [the three main characters] were all aspects of me so the whole experience was both artistic and therapeutic.
"I have always been inspired by the films of Goddard [sic], Visconti, Passolini [sic] and Fellini and hope that I may one day make something that comes close to their genius."
For Madonna it represents another string to her already very large bow, albeit one she may come to regret. She is still the queen of pop, the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century, but also a record producer, fashion designer, children's book author, and British lady of the manor.
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Colin Brace
Amsterdam