Skip to Content

Find your next home with Luxist's "Estate of the Day"

Eugene Hutz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Madonna's 'Filth and Wisdom' to Premiere in Berlin

Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Berlin », Shorts »

Pinch me, I must be dreaming -- Madonna directed a movie?! And it will receive its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival?! Will wonders never cease? The Associated Press is reporting that Filth and Wisdom "will screen in the Panorama section, outside the main competition." A check of the festival web site turns up this press release, which confirms the news: "Music star Madonna will give her directorial debut alongside the works of underground star Bruce LaBruce and TEDDY winner 2007, Zero Chou from Taiwan."

Madonna was rumored to be directing a film entitled Blade to the Heat, inspired by a 1959 boxing match which resulted in the death of one of the combatants after he slurred the other's sexuality. That project may still be mired in development. Filth and Wisdom apparently stars Stephen Graham, Richard E. Grant and Eugene Hutz. Her official site says that she directed a television ad earlier this year, so she may be gearing up for more projects to come. Production on Filth and Wisdom, described as a low budget, 30-minute comedy possibly based on some of Madonna's own life experiences, began in May.

The IMDb page lists Tim Maurice-Jones as cinematographer; he previously worked with Madonna's hubby Guy Ritchie on Revolver and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Dan Cadan is listed as the writer; he's also worked with Ritchie for years, steadily moving his way up the production chain.

In general, Madonna has not been well served on the big screen, though I have a soft spot for her role in Desperately Seeking Susan. I'm very curious to see how Filth and Wisdom turns out. Will Madonna become a director to reckon with? The Berlin Film Festival runs from February 7-17.

Review: Kill Your Idols

Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Music & Musicals », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »



In the first scene of S. A Crary's Kill Your Idols, Martin Rev of Suicide describes mainstream rock in the early 1970s as an escape from reality. To him, bands like The Rolling Stones, with their glamorous image, dramatic outfits and bigger-than-life bravado were a necessary distraction from the increasingly depressing world outside. The Viet Nam War was a constant presence, and Watergate's stunning revelation was yet another blow to the fragile American psyche. Rev and others, however, wanted to deal with the world on its own terms, and to find a way to address the horror and perceived injustice of the lives they lived. Rev expressed his fury through music and he, along with his band Suicide, was one of the first entries into what shortly became known as the No Wave scene, a short-lived punk movement rooted in New York's East Village.

Starting with the founding of Suicide in 1972, Crary's film documents the next two decades in New York punk, with a twin focus on No Wave and the small group of NY punk bands that either made it big or threatened to do so in 2002 (the best known of which are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes). Despite its narrow focus, Kill Your Idols -- which Crary directed, photographed, and edited -- should appeal to an audience well beyond the punk music niche: In addition to an historical document about the founding of an often over-looked movement, it's also a meditation on artistic creation, and the sources of inspiration.

New On DVD - Chicken Little, Dreamer, The Squid And The Whale

Filed under: New Releases », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment »


  • Bukowski: Born in to This - There is a morbidly fascinating fly-on-the-wall vibe that pervades John Dullaghan's profile of the late Beat writer Charles Bukowski, a base familiarity that parallels the Ham On Rye author's own inimitable hard-lived life and style. Epic in scope (and length), first-time director Dullaghan compiles dozens of meticulously screened hours of archival footage, coupling the best of it with new interviews with Bukowski survivors to present a terrifically real character study of a little-studied real character. The watchable Chuck-alike Happy Hour, starring Anthony LaPaglia as a booze-addled writer, is also just out.
 
.