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."