list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Filth and Wisdom on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Filth_and_Wisdom/363625/default.aspx Title: Filth and Wisdom
Year: 2008
Director: Madonna
Plot: After more than two decades as one of the world's most recognizable stars, Madonna steps behind the camera for the first time with this comedy-drama about a handful of bohemians struggling to make a name for themselves in London, which she both wrote and directed. A.K. (Eugene Hutz) is a Ukrainian émigré and struggling musician who fronts a band blending gypsy music with punk rock. Still coming to terms with a childhood pock-marked by abuse, A.K. believes that one has to confront the seamy side of life to find enlightenment, and with this in mind he supports himself by torturing masochists for money while dressed in military gear. Living in the same decaying apartment block as A.K. is Holly (Holly Weston), a gifted dancer who dreams of becoming a ballet star, though now she's forced to degrade herself as a stripper at a "gentleman's nightclub." A.K. is enamored of Holly, but can't work up the nerve to make a move. Elsewhere in the building, Juliette (Vicki McClure) wants to help children in the Third World, but is biding her time working at a pharmacy, where she swipes medicine for charity when she isn't pocketing recreational material for herself, and Professor Flynn (Richard E. Grant) is a blind poet who is surrounded by a personal library of books he can no longer read. Filth and Wisdom also features several performances by Gogol Bordello, the band Eugene Hutz leads in real life; the film received its world premiere at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 40
Number of Lists: 3
Number of blog posts: 5
SpoutRating: 2
]]>Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:04:49 GMTFilth and Wisdom2008MadonnaAfter more than two decades as one of the world's most recognizable stars, <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___100711/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Madonna</a> steps behind the camera for the first time with this comedy-drama about a handful of bohemians struggling to make a name for themselves in London, which she both wrote and directed. A.K. (Eugene Hutz) is a Ukrainian émigré and struggling musician who fronts a band blending gypsy music with punk rock. Still coming to terms with a childhood pock-marked by abuse, A.K. believes that one has to confront the seamy side of life to find enlightenment, and with this in mind he supports himself by torturing masochists for money while dressed in military gear. Living in the same decaying apartment block as A.K. is Holly (Holly Weston), a gifted dancer who dreams of becoming a ballet star, though now she's forced to degrade herself as a stripper at a "gentleman's nightclub." A.K. is enamored of Holly, but can't work up the nerve to make a move. Elsewhere in the building, Juliette (Vicki McClure) wants to help children in the Third World, but is biding her time working at a pharmacy, where she swipes medicine for charity when she isn't pocketing recreational material for herself, and Professor Flynn (Richard E. Grant) is a blind poet who is surrounded by a personal library of books he can no longer read. Filth and Wisdom also features several performances by Gogol Bordello, the band Eugene Hutz leads in real life; the film received its world premiere at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide40Tag Target (>10)352http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s363625.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Filth_and_Wisdom/363625/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/16/36398.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/16/2008 1:00:43 PM
Body: It hasn’t been terribly uncommon since the late ’60s for musicians to get behind the camera, whether for a straight concert film, a tour documentary or some kind of silly narrative focused on themselves and their bands. Jerry Garcia co-directed The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa co-directed 200 Motels, The Beatles collectively co-directed The Magical Mystery Tour and separately John, Paul and Ringo has each taken the helm on a film project, some more artsy (John and Yoko’s cinematic collaborations, like Up Your Legs Forever) or less self-focused (Ringo’s Marc Bolan doc, Born to Boogie) than others. Now it’s a little more common for musicians to become directors of fictional films that aren’t so reflexive. Many don’t even have anything to do with music at all. And many are so awful that it’s safe to say the filmmaker should stick to music making. This week, IFC releases the directorial debut of Madonna (Filth and Wisdom), and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has a new basketball documentary (Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot) hitting stores, so we’d like to celebrate by looking at some other musicians who turned filmmaker, for better or worse. Musician: Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors Debut Narrative Feature: Love Her Madly (2000) He and Jim Morrison met in film school, so it isn’t too surprising that Manzarek shot a lot of the tour footage that you find on Doors home videos, nor is it too surprising that he’d have greater aspirations as a director. But he really blew it with his first narrative feature, named for one of his band’s songs, which came with the Skinamax-ready tagline, “At the crossroads of art and obsession…waits murder.” Musician: Prince Debut Narrative Feature: Under the Cherry Moon (1986) Following the success of his acting debut in Purple Rain, Prince became attached to star in this black and white period musical and then ended up replacing Mary Lambert as its director. Unfortunately, the Fellini-influenced musician-turned-filmmaker disappointed, and Under the Cherry Moon bombed at the box office. Yet Prince would still go on to helm the concert film Sign o’ the Times and the even less popular Purple Rain sequel, Graffiti Bridge. Musician: Master P Debut Narrative Feature: I’m Bout It (1997) Rapper Master P is probably the most prolific filmmaker on this list, but he’s possibly also the least deserving of directorial work. Most of his movies have been ranked extremely low by IMDb users, yet they must be somewhat popular, as he’s been able to release nine straight-to-video titles since he first shared the director’s chair with Moon Jones for the semi-autobiographical I’m Bout It. His tenth movie, Internet Dating, hits stores December 30. Musician: Bob Dylan Debut Narrative Feature: Renaldo and Clara (1978) Dylan got his directorial feet wet working with D.A. Pennebaker on the doc Eat the Document, and then with this nearly four-hour surreal pic he pretty much drowned himself as a filmmaker. Not only was it poorly reviewed, it also played to mostly empty theaters, resulting in a recut two-hour version that focused primarily on the film’s musical performances. Currently, there is no cut of the film available to fans, though excerpts can be found on a bonus DVD released with a live CD a few years ago. Musician: Neil Young Debut Narrative Feature: Human Highway (1982) Young’s filmmaking alter-ego, “Bernard Shakey”, started off with the CSNY doc Journey Through the Past and has since also continued making films about his old supergroup, most recently with CSNY Deja Vu. But he’s also let a few narrative films slip through, including this weird edge-of-apocalypse tale co-directed by actor Dean Stockwell and featuring the members of Devo. Considering how easily it could be a cult classic today, it’s a shame the film isn’t available on DVD. Young’s more serious fans, though, at least have his so-so rock opera Greendale to enjoy for now. Musician: Rob Zombie, singer of White Zombie Debut Narrative Feature: House of 1000 Corpses (2003) Exactly what you’d expect from a heavy metal star, Rob Zombie entered filmmaking with a violent exploitation horror film. He followed it with the more accessible and more successful sequel The Devil’s Rejects and the more mainstream Halloween remake. It’s still up in the air if he’s better suited for the concert stage or the director’s chair. Musician: Fred Durst, singer for Limp Bizkit Debut Narrative Feature: The Education of Charlie Banks (2007) Many people would have expected something akin to Zombie’s filmmaking style to also come from rap-rocker Durst, but the former Limp Bizkit frontman surprised audiences at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival when he premiered this 1970s-set coming-of-age drama. Even more shocking than its genre and tone, though, was that it isn’t actually completely terrible. However, Durst’s sophomore effort, The Longshots, which opened to poor reviews and poor box office, may be evidence that Durst’s future as a filmmaker isn’t as bright as originally thought. Musician: Ice Cube Debut Narrative Feature: The Players Club (1998) He’s a much better actor than some might have expected or may still give him credit for — even if he sometimes appears in crap like Durst’s The Longshots — but Ice Cube’s filmmaking ability leaves much to be desired, as evidenced with this debut and only feature from the former member of rap group N.W.A. It’s not so awful, though, that he shouldn’t keep trying. He’s certainly not the worst rapper-turned-filmmaker (that might be Master P). Musician: David Byrne, singer/guitarist for Talking Heads Debut Narrative Feature: True Stories (1986) When Byrne’s quirky Warner Bros.-distributed film was released to theaters, it somehow failed to connect with either moviegoers or critics. Since then, it has fortunately become a cult hit, possibly because every film featuring John Goodman eventually catches on with cult audiences (Speed Racer may eventually have its day!). Following this fictional effort, Byrne went on to direct a couple of documentaries, including the arty Ile Aiye (The House of Life) about a Brazilian spirit cult. Musician: Frank Sinatra Debut Narrative Feature: None But the Brave (1965) This might be considered more along the lines of an actor-turned-filmmaker effort, but even during the peak of his movie career, even after he won an Oscar, the “Chairman of the Board” was first and foremost a singer. Sinatra had already produced a number of films, including Ocean’s Eleven, but Warner Bros. was still reluctant to give him his first directing gig. And perhaps the studio should have kept him out of the role, since he apparently didn’t even have the decency and respect to call his Japanese actors by their real names (he reportedly called them all “Freddy”). Though the WWII film was a modest hit, ol’ blue eyes never sat in the director’s chair again, but it’s speculated this has more to do with Sinatra’s wanting less responsibility than the studios’ wanting less racism from their filmmakers. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:00:43 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com10/16/2008 1:00:43 PMIt hasn’t been terribly uncommon since the late ’60s for musicians to get behind the camera, whether for a straight concert film, a tour documentary or some kind of silly narrative focused on themselves and their bands. Jerry Garcia co-directed The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa co-directed 200 Motels, The Beatles collectively co-directed The Magical Mystery Tour and separately John, Paul and Ringo has each taken the helm on a film project, some more artsy (John and Yoko’s cinematic collaborations, like Up Your Legs Forever) or less self-focused (Ringo’s Marc Bolan doc, Born to Boogie) than others. Now it’s a little more common for musicians to become directors of fictional films that aren’t so reflexive. Many don’t even have anything to do with music at all. And many are so awful that it’s safe to say the filmmaker should stick to music making. This week, IFC releases the directorial debut of Madonna (Filth and Wisdom), and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has a new basketball documentary (Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot) hitting stores, so we’d like to celebrate by looking at some other musicians who turned filmmaker, for better or worse. Musician: Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors Debut Narrative Feature: Love Her Madly (2000) He and Jim Morrison met in film school, so it isn’t too surprising that Manzarek shot a lot of the tour footage that you find on Doors home videos, nor is it too surprising that he’d have greater aspirations as a director. But he really blew it with his first narrative feature, named for one of his band’s songs, which came with the Skinamax-ready tagline, “At the crossroads of art and obsession…waits murder.” Musician: Prince Debut Narrative Feature: Under the Cherry Moon (1986) Following the success of his acting debut in Purple Rain, Prince became attached to star in this black and white period musical and then ended up replacing Mary Lambert as its director. Unfortunately, the Fellini-influenced musician-turned-filmmaker disappointed, and Under the Cherry Moon bombed at the box office. Yet Prince would still go on to helm the concert film Sign o’ the Times and the even less popular Purple Rain sequel, Graffiti Bridge. Musician: Master P Debut Narrative Feature: I’m Bout It (1997) Rapper Master P is probably the most prolific filmmaker on this list, but he’s possibly also the least deserving of directorial work. Most of his movies have been ranked extremely low by IMDb users, yet they must be somewhat popular, as he’s been able to release nine straight-to-video titles since he first shared the director’s chair with Moon Jones for the semi-autobiographical I’m Bout It. His tenth movie, Internet Dating, hits stores December 30. Musician: Bob Dylan Debut Narrative Feature: Renaldo and Clara (1978) Dylan got his directorial feet wet working with D.A. Pennebaker on the doc Eat the Document, and then with this nearly four-hour surreal pic he pretty much drowned himself as a filmmaker. Not only was it poorly reviewed, it also played to mostly empty theaters, resulting in a recut two-hour version that focused primarily on the film’s musical performances. Currently, there is no cut of the film available to fans, though excerpts can be found on a bonus DVD released with a live CD a few years ago. Musician: Neil Young Debut Narrative Feature: Human Highway (1982) Young’s filmmaking alter-ego, “Bernard Shakey”, started off with the CSNY doc Journey Through the Past and has since also continued making films about his old supergroup, most recently with CSNY Deja Vu. But he’s also let a few narrative films slip through, including this weird edge-of-apocalypse tale co-directed by actor Dean Stockwell and featuring the members of Devo. Considering how easily it could be a cult classic today, it’s a shame the film isn’t available on DVD. Young’s more serious fans, though, at least have his so-so rock opera Greendale to enjoy for now. Musician: Rob Zombie, singer of White Zombie Debut Narrative Feature: House of 1000 Corpses (2003) Exactly what you’d expect from a heavy metal star, Rob Zombie entered filmmaking with a violent exploitation horror film. He followed it with the more accessible and more successful sequel The Devil’s Rejects and the more mainstream Halloween remake. It’s still up in the air if he’s better suited for the concert stage or the director’s chair. Musician: Fred Durst, singer for Limp Bizkit Debut Narrative Feature: The Education of Charlie Banks (2007) Many people would have expected something akin to Zombie’s filmmaking style to also come from rap-rocker Durst, but the former Limp Bizkit frontman surprised audiences at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival when he premiered this 1970s-set coming-of-age drama. Even more shocking than its genre and tone, though, was that it isn’t actually completely terrible. However, Durst’s sophomore effort, The Longshots, which opened to poor reviews and poor box office, may be evidence that Durst’s future as a filmmaker isn’t as bright as originally thought. Musician: Ice Cube Debut Narrative Feature: The Players Club (1998) He’s a much better actor than some might have expected or may still give him credit for — even if he sometimes appears in crap like Durst’s The Longshots — but Ice Cube’s filmmaking ability leaves much to be desired, as evidenced with this debut and only feature from the former member of rap group N.W.A. It’s not so awful, though, that he shouldn’t keep trying. He’s certainly not the worst rapper-turned-filmmaker (that might be Master P). Musician: David Byrne, singer/guitarist for Talking Heads Debut Narrative Feature: True Stories (1986) When Byrne’s quirky Warner Bros.-distributed film was released to theaters, it somehow failed to connect with either moviegoers or critics. Since then, it has fortunately become a cult hit, possibly because every film featuring John Goodman eventually catches on with cult audiences (Speed Racer may eventually have its day!). Following this fictional effort, Byrne went on to direct a couple of documentaries, including the arty Ile Aiye (The House of Life) about a Brazilian spirit cult. Musician: Frank Sinatra Debut Narrative Feature: None But the Brave (1965) This might be considered more along the lines of an actor-turned-filmmaker effort, but even during the peak of his movie career, even after he won an Oscar, the “Chairman of the Board” was first and foremost a singer. Sinatra had already produced a number of films, including Ocean’s Eleven, but Warner Bros. was still reluctant to give him his first directing gig. And perhaps the studio should have kept him out of the role, since he apparently didn’t even have the decency and respect to call his Japanese actors by their real names (he reportedly called them all “Freddy”). Though the WWII film was a modest hit, ol’ blue eyes never sat in the director’s chair again, but it’s speculated this has more to do with Sinatra’s wanting less responsibility than the studios’ wanting less racism from their filmmakers. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/karina/archive/2008/10/13/36248.aspx Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 10/13/2008 10:01:04 AM
Body: 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. Hutz plays A.K., a punk singer who pays his share of the rent in a London flat by moonlighting as a dom to insecure businessmen. He lives with two young ladies, ballerina-turned-unhappy stripper Holly (Holly Weston), who A.K. loves (mostly) from afar, and Juliette (McClure), an androgynously sexy pharmacist who dreams of hopping off to Africa to work with AIDS orphans. Throughout, Madonna references her own past (her ambitous lean years, her discovery that her dancer’s body could function as a “cash box” if (un)dressed appropriately) and present (her Kabbalah fixation, her –– here admittedly partially self-serving –– interest in African AIDS orphans), with a transparency that’s often clunky but always earnest and often endearing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as a filmmaker Madonna proves as inept at crafting and shooting dialogue as she has been at speaking it under the direction of others, but she seems extremely comfortable (and is usually successful at) filming bodies in performance to music, whether at the barre or in a dingy rock bar or twirling around a pole. Episodic and light on plot, Filth often feels like a number of music videos stitched together; refreshingly, Madonna seems almost uninterested in using her own music. Other than two “Erotica”-era cues in the strip club (where Holly at one point wears an outfit that looks like a costume from the Girlie Show tour, and elsewhere milks the most out of an easy but irresistable joke involving one of Madonna’s famous consorts), all of the music in film is performed by Hutz and Gogol Bordello. Filth is close enough in structure to a classic music narrative, that its actual lack of narrative weight becomes easy to overlook. Hutz is so compelling that he’s able to convincingly transmute a good deal of clearly Kabbalah-inspired voiceover into his patented, gypsy exotica. Though whole patches of the script are fuzzy with vague notions of duality that never seem to quite connect to the events of the narrative (the words “filth” and “wisdom” are inserted into Hutz’ monologues liberally, to the point where one gets the feeling that neither means quite what Madonna and co-writer Dan Cadan think they mean), this crack-pot claptrap seems to flow so naturally out of Hutz that it ends up being far less pretentious than you might think. (Less elegantly rendered is the theme that all children suffer abuse of some sort at the hands of a patriarch; “Oh, Father” said about the same with much more grace.) The jury is still out as to whether or not Ms. Ciccone-Ritchie has much to offer the world as a filmmaker, but she does have the, uh, wisdom to make the most out of her star’s natural charisma. Just for creating a vehicle which offers the pleasure of watching Eugene Hutz being Eugene Hutz, she’s done the Kabbalah version of a mitzvah. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth
]]>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:01:04 GMTKarinaKarina on SpoutBlog10/13/2008 10:01:04 AMNot 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. Hutz plays A.K., a punk singer who pays his share of the rent in a London flat by moonlighting as a dom to insecure businessmen. He lives with two young ladies, ballerina-turned-unhappy stripper Holly (Holly Weston), who A.K. loves (mostly) from afar, and Juliette (McClure), an androgynously sexy pharmacist who dreams of hopping off to Africa to work with AIDS orphans. Throughout, Madonna references her own past (her ambitous lean years, her discovery that her dancer’s body could function as a “cash box” if (un)dressed appropriately) and present (her Kabbalah fixation, her –– here admittedly partially self-serving –– interest in African AIDS orphans), with a transparency that’s often clunky but always earnest and often endearing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as a filmmaker Madonna proves as inept at crafting and shooting dialogue as she has been at speaking it under the direction of others, but she seems extremely comfortable (and is usually successful at) filming bodies in performance to music, whether at the barre or in a dingy rock bar or twirling around a pole. Episodic and light on plot, Filth often feels like a number of music videos stitched together; refreshingly, Madonna seems almost uninterested in using her own music. Other than two “Erotica”-era cues in the strip club (where Holly at one point wears an outfit that looks like a costume from the Girlie Show tour, and elsewhere milks the most out of an easy but irresistable joke involving one of Madonna’s famous consorts), all of the music in film is performed by Hutz and Gogol Bordello. Filth is close enough in structure to a classic music narrative, that its actual lack of narrative weight becomes easy to overlook. Hutz is so compelling that he’s able to convincingly transmute a good deal of clearly Kabbalah-inspired voiceover into his patented, gypsy exotica. Though whole patches of the script are fuzzy with vague notions of duality that never seem to quite connect to the events of the narrative (the words “filth” and “wisdom” are inserted into Hutz’ monologues liberally, to the point where one gets the feeling that neither means quite what Madonna and co-writer Dan Cadan think they mean), this crack-pot claptrap seems to flow so naturally out of Hutz that it ends up being far less pretentious than you might think. (Less elegantly rendered is the theme that all children suffer abuse of some sort at the hands of a patriarch; “Oh, Father” said about the same with much more grace.) The jury is still out as to whether or not Ms. Ciccone-Ritchie has much to offer the world as a filmmaker, but she does have the, uh, wisdom to make the most out of her star’s natural charisma. Just for creating a vehicle which offers the pleasure of watching Eugene Hutz being Eugene Hutz, she’s done the Kabbalah version of a mitzvah. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/13/36247.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/13/2008 10:00:47 AM
Body: 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. Hutz plays A.K., a punk singer who pays his share of the rent in a London flat by moonlighting as a dom to insecure businessmen. He lives with two young ladies, ballerina-turned-unhappy stripper Holly (Holly Weston), who A.K. loves (mostly) from afar, and Juliette (McClure), an androgynously sexy pharmacist who dreams of hopping off to Africa to work with AIDS orphans. Throughout, Madonna references her own past (her ambitous lean years, her discovery that her dancer’s body could function as a “cash box” if (un)dressed appropriately) and present (her Kabbalah fixation, her –– here admittedly partially self-serving –– interest in African AIDS orphans), with a transparency that’s often clunky but always earnest and often endearing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as a filmmaker Madonna proves as inept at crafting and shooting dialogue as she has been at speaking it under the direction of others, but she seems extremely comfortable (and is usually successful at) filming bodies in performance to music, whether at the barre or in a dingy rock bar or twirling around a pole. Episodic and light on plot, Filth often feels like a number of music videos stitched together; refreshingly, Madonna seems almost uninterested in using her own music. Other than two “Erotica”-era cues in the strip club (where Holly at one point wears an outfit that looks like a costume from the Girlie Show tour, and elsewhere milks the most out of an easy but irresistable joke involving one of Madonna’s famous consorts), all of the music in film is performed by Hutz and Gogol Bordello. Filth is close enough in structure to a classic music narrative, that its actual lack of narrative weight becomes easy to overlook. Hutz is so compelling that he’s able to convincingly transmute a good deal of clearly Kabbalah-inspired voiceover into his patented, gypsy exotica. Though whole patches of the script are fuzzy with vague notions of duality that never seem to quite connect to the events of the narrative (the words “filth” and “wisdom” are inserted into Hutz’ monologues liberally, to the point where one gets the feeling that neither means quite what Madonna and co-writer Dan Cadan think they mean), this crack-pot claptrap seems to flow so naturally out of Hutz that it ends up being far less pretentious than you might think. (Less elegantly rendered is the theme that all children suffer abuse of some sort at the hands of a patriarch; “Oh, Father” said about the same with much more grace.) The jury is still out as to whether or not Ms. Ciccone-Ritchie has much to offer the world as a filmmaker, but she does have the, uh, wisdom to make the most out of her star’s natural charisma. Just for creating a vehicle which offers the pleasure of watching Eugene Hutz being Eugene Hutz, she’s done the Kabbalah version of a mitzvah. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:00:47 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com10/13/2008 10:00:47 AMNot 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. Hutz plays A.K., a punk singer who pays his share of the rent in a London flat by moonlighting as a dom to insecure businessmen. He lives with two young ladies, ballerina-turned-unhappy stripper Holly (Holly Weston), who A.K. loves (mostly) from afar, and Juliette (McClure), an androgynously sexy pharmacist who dreams of hopping off to Africa to work with AIDS orphans. Throughout, Madonna references her own past (her ambitous lean years, her discovery that her dancer’s body could function as a “cash box” if (un)dressed appropriately) and present (her Kabbalah fixation, her –– here admittedly partially self-serving –– interest in African AIDS orphans), with a transparency that’s often clunky but always earnest and often endearing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as a filmmaker Madonna proves as inept at crafting and shooting dialogue as she has been at speaking it under the direction of others, but she seems extremely comfortable (and is usually successful at) filming bodies in performance to music, whether at the barre or in a dingy rock bar or twirling around a pole. Episodic and light on plot, Filth often feels like a number of music videos stitched together; refreshingly, Madonna seems almost uninterested in using her own music. Other than two “Erotica”-era cues in the strip club (where Holly at one point wears an outfit that looks like a costume from the Girlie Show tour, and elsewhere milks the most out of an easy but irresistable joke involving one of Madonna’s famous consorts), all of the music in film is performed by Hutz and Gogol Bordello. Filth is close enough in structure to a classic music narrative, that its actual lack of narrative weight becomes easy to overlook. Hutz is so compelling that he’s able to convincingly transmute a good deal of clearly Kabbalah-inspired voiceover into his patented, gypsy exotica. Though whole patches of the script are fuzzy with vague notions of duality that never seem to quite connect to the events of the narrative (the words “filth” and “wisdom” are inserted into Hutz’ monologues liberally, to the point where one gets the feeling that neither means quite what Madonna and co-writer Dan Cadan think they mean), this crack-pot claptrap seems to flow so naturally out of Hutz that it ends up being far less pretentious than you might think. (Less elegantly rendered is the theme that all children suffer abuse of some sort at the hands of a patriarch; “Oh, Father” said about the same with much more grace.) The jury is still out as to whether or not Ms. Ciccone-Ritchie has much to offer the world as a filmmaker, but she does have the, uh, wisdom to make the most out of her star’s natural charisma. Just for creating a vehicle which offers the pleasure of watching Eugene Hutz being Eugene Hutz, she’s done the Kabbalah version of a mitzvah. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/karina/archive/2008/2/14/25152.aspx Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 2/14/2008 5:00:43 PM
Body: Jurgen Fauth has nothing but praise for Heavy Metal in Baghdad (we felt pretty much the same when we saw it in Toronto), the screening of which, Jurgen says, “was so oversold that I ended up in the front row, effectively watching a distorted fun house mirror version of Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s documentary.” “Most of the European critics came down pretty hard on Petri Kotwica’s Black Ice, a film in competition from Finland,” notes Filmbrain, “But I found this deliciously dark drama about dangerous deceptions to be a good bit of trashy fun.” Mr. Grant is far less enthusiastic about In Love We Trust and Just Anybody. Daniel Kasman is not entirely sold on Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, but he concedes “Maddin???s humor comes through perhaps stronger in this film than any other (he narrates himself, with dialog by regular collaborator George Toles), pushing an obsessive, if not repetitive, theme of the life of a city and the life of a boy being an inescapable series of traumatic, almost unreal conflicts and co-minglings of unreturnable pasts and their dream-like traces in the present.” Also at The Auteurs Notebook: an extremely memorable one-liner from Klaus Kinski’s “notorious one man show,” Jesus Christ Saviour. 3..2…1…and the Filth and Wisdom backlash has arrived. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » karina
]]>Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:00:43 GMTKarinaKarina on SpoutBlog2/14/2008 5:00:43 PM Jurgen Fauth has nothing but praise for Heavy Metal in Baghdad (we felt pretty much the same when we saw it in Toronto), the screening of which, Jurgen says, “was so oversold that I ended up in the front row, effectively watching a distorted fun house mirror version of Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s documentary.” “Most of the European critics came down pretty hard on Petri Kotwica’s Black Ice, a film in competition from Finland,” notes Filmbrain, “But I found this deliciously dark drama about dangerous deceptions to be a good bit of trashy fun.” Mr. Grant is far less enthusiastic about In Love We Trust and Just Anybody. Daniel Kasman is not entirely sold on Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, but he concedes “Maddin???s humor comes through perhaps stronger in this film than any other (he narrates himself, with dialog by regular collaborator George Toles), pushing an obsessive, if not repetitive, theme of the life of a city and the life of a boy being an inescapable series of traumatic, almost unreal conflicts and co-minglings of unreturnable pasts and their dream-like traces in the present.” Also at The Auteurs Notebook: an extremely memorable one-liner from Klaus Kinski’s “notorious one man show,” Jesus Christ Saviour. 3..2…1…and the Filth and Wisdom backlash has arrived. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » karina http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/2/14/25151.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 2/14/2008 5:00:30 PM
Body: Jurgen Fauth has nothing but praise for Heavy Metal in Baghdad (we felt pretty much the same when we saw it in Toronto), the screening of which, Jurgen says, “was so oversold that I ended up in the front row, effectively watching a distorted fun house mirror version of Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s documentary.” “Most of the European critics came down pretty hard on Petri Kotwica’s Black Ice, a film in competition from Finland,” notes Filmbrain, “But I found this deliciously dark drama about dangerous deceptions to be a good bit of trashy fun.” Mr. Grant is far less enthusiastic about In Love We Trust and Just Anybody. Daniel Kasman is not entirely sold on Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, but he concedes “Maddin???s humor comes through perhaps stronger in this film than any other (he narrates himself, with dialog by regular collaborator George Toles), pushing an obsessive, if not repetitive, theme of the life of a city and the life of a boy being an inescapable series of traumatic, almost unreal conflicts and co-minglings of unreturnable pasts and their dream-like traces in the present.” Also at The Auteurs Notebook: an extremely memorable one-liner from Klaus Kinski’s “notorious one man show,” Jesus Christ Saviour. 3..2…1…and the Filth and Wisdom backlash has arrived. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:00:30 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com2/14/2008 5:00:30 PM Jurgen Fauth has nothing but praise for Heavy Metal in Baghdad (we felt pretty much the same when we saw it in Toronto), the screening of which, Jurgen says, “was so oversold that I ended up in the front row, effectively watching a distorted fun house mirror version of Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s documentary.” “Most of the European critics came down pretty hard on Petri Kotwica’s Black Ice, a film in competition from Finland,” notes Filmbrain, “But I found this deliciously dark drama about dangerous deceptions to be a good bit of trashy fun.” Mr. Grant is far less enthusiastic about In Love We Trust and Just Anybody. Daniel Kasman is not entirely sold on Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, but he concedes “Maddin???s humor comes through perhaps stronger in this film than any other (he narrates himself, with dialog by regular collaborator George Toles), pushing an obsessive, if not repetitive, theme of the life of a city and the life of a boy being an inescapable series of traumatic, almost unreal conflicts and co-minglings of unreturnable pasts and their dream-like traces in the present.” Also at The Auteurs Notebook: an extremely memorable one-liner from Klaus Kinski’s “notorious one man show,” Jesus Christ Saviour. 3..2…1…and the Filth and Wisdom backlash has arrived. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/drugs/MemberTagFilms.aspxdrugs
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