W.E. Madonna World Premiere at Venice Film Festival

Will the ‘Material Girl’ succeed in a directorial world usually reserved as a male dominated arena?

The Press Conference Room is packed to capacity. Madonna draws a bigger crowd than George Clooney or the fabulous Kate Winslet and the cast for Roman Polanski’s film Carnage.

Anxious journalists try to take pictures on cell phones. They are cautioned that the press conference will end if anyone other than the photo gallery attempt it. Having just witnessed the press mob Kate Winslet, this is wise.

An admirer presents Madonna with hydrangeas as she takes her seat. Madonna absolutely loathes hydrangeas.

Madonna appears to be in need of the support of her cast and crew; a little more fragile than the Material Girl we are used to.  She seems a little unprepared for the questioning and many questions are poorly phrased. Everyone wants to ‘cheat’. One question is really three.

The questions begin. Madonna seems a bit off, maybe tired after the massive effort of the four or more years preparing the research and work necessary to co write and direct a romance movie on such a royal scale. The movie is an inventive chronicle of the infamous love affair between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII.  Madonna compares her work to captaining a ship. Maybe she is a bit off because there are already both accolades and sharp criticism surfacing for her new movie. Rumors are the script is weak.

Why did Madonna want to make this film? She wanted look at an extraordinary love story, a love story about a woman who was unfairly treated by society, a society that tried to diminish her. She was inspired by a woman who was eventually trapped by the luxury and beauty around her and despite the great love of a King, who had made perhaps the ultimate sacrifice for her, had to give up some of the freedoms possibly essential to her happiness. Wallis Simpson’s inability to have a child is at the core of the movie. Madonna wanted tell this love story from a new perspective.

Madonna appears to be in need of the support of her cast and crew and a little more fragile than the Material Girl we are used to.

There is no question that Madonna has put a great piece of herself into this movie and so have the cast and crew.

Madonna wanted to tell a story that shows a celebrity as something more than a sound bite, which she feels is where society quickly tries to put celebrity. Did her relationships with two powerful men in cinema, Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie influence her work? Of course they did and she confesses to having learned a great deal from them. She was at first concerned that the King’s Speech would undermine the importance of her movie but after seeing it she felt that instead it was really a great movie to set the stage for her story.

We are looking forward to seeing Madonna and W.E. at TIFF and whatever the outcome of the movies Madonna again has gone fearlessly forward as a world-class entertainer and a storyteller.