I Met Madonna. And Other "W.E." Stories
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 1:42PM 
As some of you may recall from a couple of breathless tweets, I met Madonna two months ago at a W.E. press event though we weren't allowed to publish the pieces until this week. I was invited by way of my columnist gig at Towleroad so I wrote that up now that W.E. in in theaters, well past its Oscar-qualifying run (which netted it a nomination for Most Costumes). Here's a snippet:
She repeats all of our names back to us. Madonna saying your name back to you is a strangely surreal experience, both utterly mundane and impossible.
She has entered 'The (Mostly) Gay Room' as its been dubbed to discuss her new film W.E., since most of the journalists are with gay publications. "Cool." is her monosyllabic response. She's promised we'll put her in a good mood for the rest of the day. "Let's start with levity," she says though it sounds more hopeful than bossy. We're all squished round a table with recorders on.
[read the full article]
In regards to those recording devices. If you had yours on before Madonna entered the room, you could hypothetically listen to Madonna saying your name over and over again on loop once you got home. HYPOTHETICALLY. I mean, who would do that? [ahem]
More including W.E. thoughts and Madge's new video...
I won't be reviewing W.E. I don't think, because there's this piece at Towleroad and I have two more interviews coming regarding this movie so that'd be Too Much. Let's just say that I admired parts of it -- particularly Andrea Riseborough's work -- but it's messy and filled with flourishes that practically write their own bad reviews like an absolutely bizarre moment when Abbie Cornish is slapped and Madonna chooses to film it from multiple camera angles (in slo-mo no less!) which makes it feel bad movie parodic rather than dramatic. While it's beautiful to look at, Madonna swiped key members of Tom Ford's A Single Man team, it's uneven. See also: Julie & Julia, another film with an identical structure of a contemporary woman obsessing over the life of a famous woman from the past, two movies for the price of one but only one of them is good.
Anyway. I'm on a Madonna binge at the moment -- mentally preparing for my first Superbowl experience (yes, it's true. I've never watched) given her halftime show -- watching her new video GIMME ALL YOUR LUVIN over and over and over again.
An easy A as music videos go: cheeky, sassy, stylish, funny, rewatchable, exuberant. The part I laughed hardest at was the football players as bodyguards with the machine gun. Such a clever wink that she knows people hate her but is too fabulous to worry over it. The online vitriol that surfaces every time she so much as breathes obviously backs this up.
I'm so happy she made such an effort again because the queen had been getting lazy about the artform she had always ruled, what with all the videos that amounted to just her dancing in front of a greenscreen.
Here are two Madge quotes I didn't use in the Towleroad piece.
On women and romantic ideals
I think that the Duchess [Andrea Riseborough] is really Wally's [Abbie Cornish] spiritual guide so to speak and even though she came from a different era where women didn't have the same kind of choices and opportunities. Still we as women -- we're all raised with fairtytale idea. No matter how many opportunities we have education wise or job wise we are still raised to believe that our knight in shining armor is going to arrive on his beautiful white stallion. He's going to sweep you off your feet and take you off into the twilight and you're going to live happily ever after. And you will be saved by someone. This is something that I think we all have to deal with when we grow up that one person is not going to be all of those things to us. Ultimately we have to make our own happiness. When we can own that and take responsibility for our own happiness, then we can find a mate for ourselves or a companion or significant other or whatever you want to call it.
That's certainly what the Duchess imparts to Wally and i hope that i can inspire other young women to think that way with my own life and my behavior."
Abbie Cornish (modern) and Andrea Riseborough (period). W.E. tells two stories at once.On why she didn't make a traditional biopic
I don't think it's possible to tell the story of one person from beginning to end in two hours. I think it's an unfair challenge to give oneself. And also because I think truth is so subjective. Each of us could read the same five books about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and we would walk away with a different interpretation. It would mean something different to us. It would impact us in a different way.
So it was important for me to establish that as much as I did all the research and as close as I tried to say to the truth and as authentic as i wanted to be, it was important that I be clear that it is a point of view. I never intended to just tell the story of Wallis Simpson."
Andrea Riseborough, Madonna, W.E., gender politics, music videos, sports
Reader Comments (13)
MADONNA!!!!!! I feel like a fan born anew.
The video is great! I love when she throws the baby doll, but the song is not her best at all. I even prefer "Masterpiece"!
About the movie, it's quite interesting this whole new trend of not embracing linearity on biopics, although I think it has more to do with hiding a certain lack of talent than with a true artistic point of view. I'm thinking about "The Iron Lady" too.
PS OMG you met Madonna!
Of course the other thing that happens online every time she so much as breathes is a class-5 hurricane of free passes and breathless excitement from Her Gays. So, I think it all shakes out in the end.
(It's super exciting that you met her, especially so shortly after Juli and the Pfeiff. You're where you always wanted to be!)
Nick.
LOL. True.As for the parenthetical follow up. Let's not get carried away! Still fighting an uphill battle in the writing trenches.
Michael -- right? Join me in the class 5 hurricane.
Peggy Sue -- you prefer Masterpiece? Give me a few hours/days. This will be hard to process ;)
Hurricane - gurl (with head role) I am picking up a house and dropping it on a witch i am so excited.
I don't understand Taantino put in his movies hundreds of other films and he'a a genius, Madonna ispires with other movies (ok A single Man and Julie & Julia, but first The Hours and Wong Kar Wai's films too) and she wrong...why??? For me W.E. is really brilliant, a very good film...and hope she continues to direct another and another films:
Andrea -- i'm not trying to say she doesn't have talent. It's just that her "eye" hasn't made the jump to storytelling. There are many beautiful images but she hasn't learned to use the visuals to tell the story rather than just as beautiful images. I wasn't knocking her for using the Julie & Julia structure. I was just pointing out that that is a type of structure. But it always runs the risk of half of your film being lame (when you tell two stories at once)
Oh, Nathaniel, if you were the Mona Lisa you'd be hanging in the Louvre. Everyone would come to see you. You'd be impossible to move...
I'm glad I'm not the only one who loved the video, I also thought her walking along the wall held up by the players was a interesting image. I also love Nicki and MIA, but I've listened to it like 10 times and cannot understand MIA other than "bionic" and what sounds like "I don't give a shit"?
I'm with Peggy Sue on the song and the video. I sort of feel like Madonna sort of gave up on her lyrics a while ago, even if she'll always have "Papa Don't Preach" the way Woody Allen will always have Hannah and Her Sisters.
I don't know what to make of that contorted pose at 2:49 being so obviously Bad Romance-inspired. Are we just going to circle this drain of mutual citation for a while?
Nick [in the voice of crazed Madge fan] GAGA did not invented contorted poses! Madonna invented them! Madonna invented YOGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My brain prefers to read the initial set of sentences as:
Fans can make you famous,
A contract can make you rich,
The press can make you a superstar,
But only luv can make you a bitch.
(and this was maybe the intention? In setting up such an obvious rhyme and then shying away from it?)