''Filth and Wisdom'' is a 2008 British

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

, starring

Eugene Hütz Eugene Hütz (; uk, Євген Гудзь, Yevhen Hudz, ; born Yevgen Oleksandrovych Nikolayev-Symonov, ua, Євген Олександрович Ніколаєв-Симонов, on 6 September 1972) is a Ukrainian-born singer, composer, disc ...

Holly Weston Holly Weston is an English actress. She is known for her role as Ash Kane in the British television soap opera ''Hollyoaks''. Weston also played the lead roles in feature films ''Filth and Wisdom'' and ''Splintered''. Early life Weston was bor ...

Vicky McClure Victoria 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–present) and Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows' film ''This ...

and

Richard E. Grant Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is a Swazi-English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy ''Withnail and I'' (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Mar ...

. It was filmed on location in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

, 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 ...

and

Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage is an area of Hampstead 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. Th ...

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

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

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. (

) who finances his dreams of rock glory by moonlighting as a cross-dressing

dominatrix A dominatrix (; ) or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflic ...

and his two female flatmates: Holly (

), 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 band that appears in the film is portrayed by real-life Gypsy punk 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 allowed additional dialogue written by Hütz himself to be included in the film.

Reception

''Filth and Wisdom'' was met with generally negative reviews. , it holds a 25% approval rating on the review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 63 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 daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

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

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

'' 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 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''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' 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. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' 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 weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''s

Anthony Lane Anthony Lane is a British journalist who is a film critic for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. Career Education and early career Lane attended Sherborne School and graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he also ...

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

iMovie iMovie (known at times as iMovie HD) is a preinstalled video editing application developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices. It was originally released in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-ena ...

, 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 Ade, Adé, or ADE may refer to: Aeronautics *Ada Air's ICAO code *Aden International Airport's IATA code *Aeronautical Development Establishment, a laboratory of the DRDO in India Medical * Adverse Drug Event *Antibody-dependent enhancement * AD ...

– 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 Ci ...

– A.K.'s Father *

– A.K. *

– Holly *

– Juliette *

– Professor Flynn *

Stephen Graham Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film '' This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ...

– Harry Beechman *

Inder Manocha Inder Manocha (born 1968) is a British Asian stand-up comedian and actor. Early life Born in London to Indian parents,Shobu Kapoor Shobu Kapoor (born 28 May 1961) is a British actress of Indian descent. Life and career 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 ''EastEn ...

– Sardeep's wife *

Elliot Levey Elliot Levey (born 6 December 1973) is an Olivier award winning actor. Career Olivier award winner for the role of Herr Shultz in Cabaret.known for his work in British Theatre, he has performed at the Donmar Warehouse, Almeida and National T ...

– Businessman *

Clare Wilkie Clare Wilkie (born 1974) is a British actress, best known for playing Sandra di Marco in the television soap opera ''EastEnders''. Prior to her appearance in ''EastEnders'', she had acted in the ill-fated soap opera '' Eldorado'' and played a l ...

– Chloe *Hannah Walters – Businessman's wife

References

External links

* * * *
Eugene_Hütz_Interview_with_Aaron_Hillis
_at_''IFC_News'',_October_2008.html" ;"title="Aaron Hillis">Eugene Hütz Interview with Aaron Hillis
at ''IFC News'', October 2008">Aaron Hillis">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 2000s romantic musical films 2008 directorial debut films 2008 comedy films 2008 drama films BDSM in films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films Films with screenplays by Madonna sv:Filth and Wisdom