Critics boo Madonna’s W.E.

VENICE: Madonna may be the "queen of pop," but her crown as movie director slipped this week after most early reviews of her second feature film "W.E." ranged from middling to poor.

The picture, which had its world premiere at the Venice film festival on Thursday, is loosely based on the life of American divorcee Wallis Simpson, whose affair with Kind Edward VIII led to his abdication.

Madonna said she had been fascinated by the story for some time, pondering why a man would make such a huge sacrifice for love.

Andrea Riseborough stars as Simpson and Abbie Cornish as a modern-day woman who becomes obsessed with the person who prompted a constitutional crisis in 1936.
Britain's Guardian newspaper did not spare Madonna's feelings with a one-out-of-five star review.

"Could it be that Madonna is in deadly earnest here?" wrote Xan Brooks.
"If so, her film is more risible than we had any right to expect; a primped and simpering folly, the turkey that dreamed it was a peacock."

Others were less damning, although the general tone was negative and one website quipped that it may be time for the 53-year-old singer to abdicate as a film maker.

Todd McCarthy of the Hollywood Reporter opined: "Madonna's second foray into directing is pleasing to the eyes and ears, but lacking anything for the soul."

And Mark Adams, chief critic for Screen Daily, wrote:
"Madonna aims high as she seeks to tackle love, celebrity, fame, abuse and disappointment, often hitting her targets -- and sometimes not -- but always offering up images that are beautifully shot and staged."

He singled out Riseborough's performance, which he described as "quite brilliant."
The Daily Telegraph gave W.E. three stars out of five, while Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail was generally complimentary.

"A lot of people will loathe it, simply because it's been made by Madonna," he wrote.
"But if they were to watch it with no knowledge of who directed, they would be pleasantly surprised. They might even find much of it enjoyable, although the odd moment may have them wondering if Madge has committed treason."

Some of Madonna's collaborators on the picture had wondered whether viewers' judgments might be colored by their opinion of the 53-year-old celebrity.

"When an iconic, global entity is involved it will be interesting to see how people react to that and whether people can judge the film without their own baggage or how they've felt about Madonna for 30 years," producer Kris Thykier told trade publication Variety.

The budget of W.E. is estimated to be around $15 million, and it hits movie theatres in North America in December. (Reuters)

Comic book on Madonna's life published

LOS ANGELES: A comic book covering the life and times of pop superstar Madonna has been published in the America. It is termed a birthday gift to lady singer.

Bluewater Productions Inc. has made her the latest edition to their 'Female Force' comic series. The 32-page book touches every aspect of her life, starting with her childhood.

The 'Female Force' series covers influential women who have shaped modern history and culture.

Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Palin have also been included in the series.

Madonna explains 'subconscious' attraction to Wallis Simpson

She became one of the best known, most photographed and then most vilified American women to ever live in England – Wallis Simpson, that is, the subject of Madonna's new movie W.E., which had its world premiere on the Venice Lido.

Directed by the singer, the film is a sympathetic portrait of star-cross'd lovers Edward and Mrs Simpson.

At a press conference following the film's screening at the world's longest running film festival, now in its 68th year, Madonna told journalists "there was obviously some kind of subconscious attraction" to Simpson.

She added: "I identify with her in that it's very common when people become celebrities or public figures or icons, we are often reduced to a soundbite and you are given a few attributes and then you're not allowed to have any more than that."

Madonna said she had spent three years researching and writing the script for W.E., fascinated by the question of why the king would give up the throne for a married woman.

"I think people try to diminish her as a human being because they didn't understand the choice he was making," she said. "It was important to me, not to make her a saint by any stretch of the imagination because I don't think she was, but to portray her as a human being."

In some ways it was brave of Madonna to bring her film to such a big festival. Three years ago she premiered her previous effort Filth and Wisdom at the Berlin film festival, to the incredulity of critics. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote at the time that festival goers were "in a state of clinical shock, deathly pale and mewing like maltreated kittens" after watching it.

W.E. is arguably a better film but there were signs of critics sharpening their pencils to damn it. It is certainly a slightly revisionist take on the story, with Edward coming across as a frustrated social reformer demanding better housing for the poor before supping another gin martini.

The film is told through the eyes of a modern New Yorker, Wally Winthrop, played by Abbie Cornish, who becomes fascinated by the story at a Sotheby's auction preview of the couple's effects. Madonna said she chose to tell parallel stories because she did not want to do a "straightforward biopic" and that truth was subjective.

Many people did not understand the choice the King made, she said, a choice that "changed English history, changed the history of the world in many ways."

Madonna has been married to two film directors. When questioned about this she said: "I am and was attracted to very creative people which is why I married Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, very talented directors, and they both encouraged me as a director to do what I did. They were both very supportive."

Madonna has a patchy record when it comes to film. Aside from Filth and Widsom, she has also acted in a couple of stinkers – not least Swept Away and Body of Evidence.

But this is Madonna, obviously, and she remains undaunted. "I've always loved film, all my life," she said. "As a child I was always inspired by movies and I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to make one."

Asked where her spirituality came into the equation, Madonna replied: "Making films is really hard in the first place. You have to believe in your subject matter and be passionate about it because there will be challenges along the way. You have to be prepared like the captain of a ship, no matter what happens you have got to keep going. So your spiritual foundation has to be strong."

Stories abound of how tricky and controlling Madonna can be to work with, but the film's actors could not praise her enough . Andrea Riseborough – who memorably portrayed the young Margaret Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley – stars as Wallis Simpson, while James D'Arcy is Edward VIII.

D'Arcy said: "She had very strong vision, was a very clear communicator and a really good laugh." Natalie Dormer, who plays a young Queen Mother, said Madonna encapsulated what it is to be "a strong woman with a vision" adding that she had an incredibly nurturing spirit.

"Considering the epic requirements needed to write and direct a movie, no question was too small or too stupid," she said.

W.E. was showing out of competition at Venice. In competition, meanwhile, was Roman Polanski's Carnage, a movie version of Yasmina Reza's hit play The God of Carnage starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C Reilly and Christoph Waltz, which drew whoops among the applause. Source:

Madonna’s school: A barren field of failed dreams

CHINKOTA:The abandoned site looks more like a quarried mine than a pop superstar’s multi-million-dollar dream to groom girls into Malawi’s next leaders and doctors. But the bleak, levelled terraces of gravelly sand near Malawi’s capital are the only evidence of Madonna’s $15 million academy which was ditched in a cloud over misused funds and disgruntled locals.

“This has just become a football ground now,” said local chief Binson Kalenga. The bulldozers are long silent where Madonna — who adopted two children from Malawi — laid a foundation stone engraved ‘dare to dream’ in April 2010, in a village in a desperately poor African country that many could not find on a map. A year later the school had been called off.

The star is being sued by former employees, her charity is tied up in a US tax investigation and the Malawi government is investigating how the land was paid for. “Initially although I welcomed it, personally I was very sceptical about the whole thing,” said Lilongwe district commissioner Paul Kalilombe. In January 2011, she said the academy project was off in favour of helping existing schools across the country. The New York Times reported on an audit, ordered by Madonna, and found $3.8 million squandered on the discarded academy.

In Chinkhota, unhappiness began with payments to villagers for the land which Madonna’s charity Raising Malawi, paid through the government. An explanation is yet to reach villagers, who have to swallow a doubly bitter pill with their former fields ruined and not a classroom in sight. “People were surprised that there is no activity,” said Tsiyent Foroyati. As the biggest landowner around the school’s site, she was paid 39,000 kwacha ($258) in compensation.

For the school, Madonna should have worked with an existing organisation that knows “what is actually happening on the ground”, said Kalilombe who believes an orphanage is planned for the academy site.
“She had good intentions, but implementing the project on the ground brought a lot of complications.”
Chief Kalenga said he wants to ask Madonna why the project failed. “We welcomed her as a fellow Malawian,” he said. “We are heartbroken because of the rumours we still hear about this project being stopped. Madonna should come and tell us what has happened.”

Published in The Express Tribune, Pakistan

Pop star Madonna's directorial venture "W.E." will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival

The film is about the life of Britain's King Edward VIII and his American wife Wallis Simpson and a modern-day woman called Wally. It will be screened out-of-competition at the Aug 31-Sep 10 event.

"'W.E.' is about the nature of true love, and the sacrifices and compromises that are often made. I've wanted to tell this story for a very long time, and bringing it to life has been a great adventure for me," Madonna said about her film.

Films included in the competition line-up are "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and Andrea Arnold's new adaptation of classic tale "Wuthering Heights".

"Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky will chair the competition jury that will pick the winner of the Golden Lion Award.