Madonna makes director’s debut at BFF
Showbiz Desk

BERLIN—Having been panned for most of her efforts in front of the camera, pop icon Madonna makes her debut in the director’s chair Wednesday at the Berlin Film Festival. Critics have already begun sharpening their pencils at the prospect of “Filth and Wisdom” which revolves around a Ukrainian immigrant who finances his dreams of rock stardom by moonlighting as a cross-dressing dominatrix, and his two female flatmates.
Madonna, who will add some welcome star power to what has been a rather lacklustre Berlinale, has been less than timid about her ambitions as a filmmaker. “I have always been inspired by the films of Godard, Visconti, Pasolini and Fellini and hope that I may one day make something that comes close to their genius,” she said in a her director’s statement for Wednesday’s premiere.
Billed as a London-based comedy, “Filth and Wisdom” stars Eugene Hutz, the Ukrainian frontman for Gypsy punk rock band Gogol Bordello, as well as British cult star Richard E. Grant. Madonna’s own acting career got off to a promising start with a starring role in 1985’s “Desperately Seeking Susan,” but then went into terminal decline with her appearances in major flops like 1986’s “Shanghai Surprise” alongside first husband Sean Penn.
Her last celluloid outing was in the widely derided “Swept Away” in 2002, which was directed by her current husband Guy Ritchie and involved, according to the New York Times, “a lot of swearing, a little nudity, a modicum of sex and an eternity of staring at your watch”. In “Filth and Wisdom,” Hutz plays “AK” a self-proclaimed philosopher and poet, whose sideline career sees him assume characters ranging from a Marine drill instructor to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — depending on the tastes of his clients. Grant plays a blind professor and frustrated writer who lives in the same building.