''Filth and Wisdom'' is a 2008 British

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

(in her directorial debut), starring Eugene Hütz, Holly Weston,

Vicky McClure Vicky Lee McClure (born 8 May 1983) is an English actress, model and presenter. She is known for her roles as Detective Inspector Kate Fleming in the BBC series ''Line of Duty'' (2012–2021) and Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows's film '' This Is ...

and Richard E. Grant. It was filmed on location in

London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, from 14 to 29 May 2007. Locations included two actual strip clubs in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

and

Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage is an area in the London Borough of Camden, England. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and includes Swiss Cottage tube station. Swiss Cottage lies north-northwest of Charing Cross. The area was ...

; both owned by the Secrets Clubs chain. Additional scenes were shot in July 2007. The film premiered at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

on 13 February 2008 which was attended by Madonna and cast members Hütz, Weston and McClure. It did not receive many positive reviews. On 17 October 2008 the film went into limited release, as well as being simultaneously released "On Demand" on most cable providers. It is the first motion picture production for Madonna's company, Semtex Films.

Plot

Described as a comedy/drama/musical/romance, the story revolves around a Ukrainian immigrant named A.K. ( Eugene Hütz) who finances his dreams of rock glory by moonlighting as a cross-dressing

dominatrix A dominatrix ( ; or dominatrices ), or domme, is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. The BDSM practice is called female dominance, or femdom. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily l ...

and his two female flatmates: Holly ( Holly Weston), a ballet dancer who works as a stripper and pole-dancer at a local club and Juliette (

), a pharmacy assistant who dreams of going to Africa to help starving children. The

Gypsy punk Gypsy punk is a hybrid musical genre that combines traditional Romani and Eastern European folk music with punk rock, and is considered a subgenre of the wider label of folk punk. One of the first rock groups to incorporate elements of punk a ...

band that appears in the film is portrayed by real-life

band, Gogol Bordello, who also contributed three songs to the film's soundtrack. The band's lead singer, Hütz, portrays the main character; a character with a philosophical attitude towards life. Madonna included additional dialogue written by Hütz.

Reception

''Filth and Wisdom'' debuted in

with mixed reviews. On the review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, it holds a 24% approval rating, based on 62 reviews with an average rating of 3.94/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Filth and Wisdom'', while certainly ambitious, is mostly unconvincing and incoherent." ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' Online claimed, "Madonna has done herself proud" and ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' described the film as "not an entirely unpromising first effort" but went on to say "Madonna would do well to hang on to her day job."

Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote, "Well, it had to happen. Madonna has been a terrible actor in many, many films and now – fiercely aspirational as ever – she has graduated to being a terrible director." Jonathan Romney of ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' called the film "a good-humoured, averagely average vanity project" and "a cheap and cheerful comedy," adding that "Madonna simply cannot direct actors." ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''s Anthony Lane panned the film, saying that "in technical terms, more professional productions than this are filmed and cut on

iMovie iMovie is a free video editing software, video editing application made by Apple Inc., Apple for the Mac (computer), Mac, the iPhone, and the iPad. It includes a range of video effects and tools like color correction and image stabilization, b ...

, by ten-year-olds, a thousand times a day" and that "if the actors were paid according to their talents, they cannot have cost more than forty bucks."

Cast

* Ade – DJ *

Olegar Fedoro Olegar Fedoro ( ''né'' Olegár Pablo Fedóro; ; born 6 March 1958) is a Ukrainian-born former Soviet performer who later became a Spanish and then English actor. He enrolled in the acclaimed VGIK Film School (All-Russian State University of ...

– A.K.'s Father * Eugene Hütz – A.K. * Holly Weston – Holly *

– Juliette * Richard E. Grant – Professor Flynn *

Stephen Graham Stephen Graham (born 3 August 1973) is an English actor and film producer. He began his career in 1990, with early notable roles in '' Snatch'' (2000) and ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), before his breakthrough role as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne ...

– Harry Beechman * Inder Manocha – Sardeep *

Shobu Kapoor Shobu Kapoor is an Indian British actress. She is most notable for playing the role of Gita Kapoor, the long-suffering wife of market trader Sanjay (Deepak Verma), in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 1993 to 1998. Early life Shobu Ka ...

– Sardeep's wife * Elliot Levey – Businessman * Clare Wilkie – Chloe *Hannah Walters – Businessman's wife

References

External links

* * *
Eugene Hütz Interview with Aaron Hillis at ''IFC News'', October 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filth And Wisdom 2008 films British romantic comedy-drama films British musical comedy-drama films Films directed by Madonna 2000s musical comedy-drama films 2008 romantic comedy-drama films Films shot in London Films about Romani people British romantic musical films British independent films 2000s romantic musical films 2008 directorial debut films BDSM in films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films Films with screenplays by Madonna English-language romantic comedy-drama films English-language musical comedy-drama films English-language romantic musical films 2008 musical films sv:Filth and Wisdom