Not to diminish any of her myriad accomplishments (and I will never, ever begrudge her creative partnership with David Fincher), but it seems inarguable that history will remember Madonna most vividly as a cultural vampire: a supernatural creature (who, if not verifiably immortal, then certainly in hard-earned denial about her age), she’s sustained herself by sucking the lifeblood other artists, images, trends, cultural movements. From the punkish red scrawl of the opening credits forward (Is dotted with white Xs), Madonna’s feature directorial debut Filth and Wisdom seems of a piece with her previous work, in that it’s in some way about Madonna herself hiding behind borrowed aesthetics.
Madonna has previously namechecked everyone from Godard to Pasolini as an inspiration, but while Filth and Wisdom has traces of the invention via ignorance seen in those auteurs’ early films, that’s where the comparisons end. The influence of Shane Meadows is definitely felt, both as a love letter to the youthful romance of punk rock in poverty in the pocket of a British city, and in the presence of co-star Vicky McClure, late of three Meadows films including This is England. But Madonna gets the bulk of her borrowed essence from her star, Eugene Hutz, lead of gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. The clumsy brilliance of Filth and Wisdom is the way it wraps material that’s clearly personal to Madonna in the irresistibly goofy trappings of Hutz’ Joe Strummer-of-the-Eastern Bloc persona and performance style. For fans of Hutz and his band, Filth has the makings of an instant music-movie classic. Fortunately for Madonna, whose major misstep as a filmmaker is the compulsion to divide her own personality traits and obsessions equally among her characters, Hutz is so likeable that he attracts a lot of fans at first sight.
Yes, that Madonna. The one who essentially hammered the final nail into the coffin of her acting career by convincing husband Guy Ritchie to cast her in a remake of Swept Away, whose influence then led said husband to further imperil his own filmmaking career by making Revolver, which apparently amounted to “one long advertisement for Kabbalah” in Ritchie’s patented Brit-gangster clothing. Now seemingly adhering to the adage that if one wants such a thing done right, she’s got to do it herself, Madonna has directed a long short/short feature called Filth and Wisdom. According to Variety, it’ll premiere on the Panorama sidebar at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.
This story back in May described Filth as “a comedy based on the star’s own experiences,” about an “Indian chemist owner, a Jewish businessman, and a failed ballet dancer who becomes a pole dancer.” The same story said the film would likely come in at 30 minutes; according to IMDb, the current cut (which is apparently in English AND Russian) is more like 45. IMDb also informs us that the film stars Richard E. Grant and Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello, who apparently appear in the band’s entirety as themselves.
I don’t have anything else to say about this. I would rather watch the video above and just sort of guiltily sink into deep nostalgia for 1990.
