Desperately seeking film success

For months, as Madonna and her director husband Guy Ritchie have filmed their first big joint project, rumours have been rife that the film is turning out to be another stinker to add to Madonna’s less than glowing film CV.

Numerous test screenings have reportedly left viewers disappointed and the film, a remake of the 1975 romantic comedy Swept Away, has had to undergo extensive re-editing. But finally it’s ready, with a release date set in the US for October and a later one set for the UK early next year.

However, a recent industry screening of the film failed to impress those attending, some of whom sniped that the film has only got a cinema release because of the two big names attached to it. It wasn’t all criticism, though, as the film is said to be a marked improvement on the previous edit.

It’s easy to assume that Swept Away will be a flop judging by Madonna’s track record in films. She’s had a couple of notable hits with her 1985 comedy Desperately Seeking Susan and more recently with 1996’s Evita.

But mostly it’s been misses such as Shanghai Surprise, Body Of Evidence and her last film The Next Best Thing. The long list of duff films from Madonna’s career has meant that Swept Away garnered a bad reputation before it was even finished.

“You could say that people get the reputation they deserve,” says Charles Gant, film editor at heat magazine. “Madonna is known as a not-so-great actress and I think it’s to do with the choices that she’s made.

“The more she stays true to what she’s proven herself as, the better it is for her. But she seems to think it’s too easy to do roles that rely on her being a singer or a star.”

Although Madonna has a reputation as an actress who is only adequate, it’s not helped by the fact that people inevitably compare her acting talent to her talent as a musical performer. But, as Colin Kennedy, deputy editor of Empire film magazine, says, there are many more hardships to overcome in the film industry.

“Not all of her movies are terrible, and those that are, she’s not necessarily the reason they’re bad,” says Kennedy. “Her film career illustrates just how much more difficult it is to find a quality script than it is to find a good song or a good producer.

“Music is her first language and she’s fluent in that but she’s less fluent in film, and it’s a much tougher language to learn.”

Whether Swept Away is a bad film remains to be seen, but one problem it seems certain to face is with the plot. Madonna plays a wealthy, self-obsessed woman who finds herself stranded on an island with a slovenly sailor who she employs on her boat.

Played by Adriano Giannini, the son of actor Giancarlo Giannini, who played the role in the original, the sailor reverses their roles on the island and becomes the controlling force in the relationship, until, that is, they fall in love.

Giannini has already spoken of how uncomfortable he felt filming the scenes with Madonna in which he had to slap her around and make her bark like a dog.

“It didn’t come easy for me to slap a woman,” he said recently. “Especially someone I had grown up listening to.

“When I first slapped her she thought it wasn’t violent enough and told me to hit her harder. It got a bit masochistic but she’s good, she’s very professional.”

Madonna has proved herself as a professional actress – as well as her film career she’s had two successful runs in stage plays – but Swept Away certainly doesn’t sound like the sort of mainstream entertainment that could turn Madonna into a certified box office draw.

“The problem is that in order to justify the violence the sailor metes out to her they have to make her very unlikeable, otherwise you have no sympathy for him,” says Gant. “But people don’t like Madonna being unlikeable.

“Then the whole premise of beating a woman into being a better person is a bit controversial. So it sounds like they’re in a bit of a no-win situation with the plot.”

There is also the problem of Madonna’s overwhelming celebrity. Part of the reason it’s always been so hard to take her seriously as an actress is because we know her so well as a pop star.

“When you’ve got someone of Madonna’s celebrity, it’s hard for her not to overwhelm any film project she’s involved in,” says Kennedy. “But normally star vehicles tend to go through a production treadmill that makes them very safe, such as the ones Elvis made, or the recent Britney Spears film.

“They play celluloid versions of their public image in films that are just cash cows and, fair play to Madonna, she’s never done that.”

While stars such as Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez have made successes of careers in both the film and music industries, it seems to be because they established themselves as actors first rather than the other way around. While Will Smith started out as a rapper, it was in the sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air that he became a household name.

“When actors take on a role they have to become a character but pop stars have already created a sort of character which is unchanging,” says Gant. “Then when they act in films it’s hard for an audience to see the character and not the performer.”

It’s too late for Madonna to establish herself beyond the celebrity we already know and love. But whether Swept Away is a success or not, it won’t stop the singer from making these adventurous forays into film.

“She’s one of the most powerful people in entertainment so it’s understandable that she wants to do a movie every now and then,” says Kennedy.

“There’s no evidence that she’s completely incapable of doing it, she just needs a role that works for her. But if no-one else enjoys the new film except her and her husband, they’re both successful people who have earned the right to do it.”