| BIOGRAPHY
Possessing one of the most distinctive voices in pop music and
one of the most distressing résumés on the big screen,
Madonna has proven that whatever the role -- screwball seductress,
martyred Argentinian first lady, embittered single mom-cum-yoga
instructrix -- her abilities as a performer will manage to undermine
any production whose credits bear her name. Like Elvis before
her, Madonna has proven that no matter how sterling a pop reputation
an artist may have, success on the Billboard Top 100 does not
translate into similar plaudits at the box office.
Born Madonna Ciccone in Bay City, MI, in 1958, Madonna was raised
in a strict Roman Catholic household. She attended the University
of Michigan as a dance student for a brief period before dropping
out to move to New York City in 1977. There, she quickly became
a habitué of various downtown gay discos; spurred on by
her dance teacher and her deejay pals, she embarked on a singing
career. Before releasing her debut album, however, she made a
debut of another kind in an all-but-forgotten, micro-budgeted
date-rape melodrama entitled A Certain Sacrifice (1979). In an
omen of things to come, Madonna later tried to halt the theatrical
release of the film after her musical career took off.
The artist's proper screen debut came courtesy of Susan Seidelman's
Desperately Seeking Susan. The 1985 release featured Madonna in
a supporting role as a funky girl/object of desire around which
the film's screwball plot revolved. Her rising star helped to
make Susan a minor hit; aided by Seidelman, she was able to capitalize
on her effervescent comic charm and her kooky, uber-Soho, Material
Girl persona.
Unfortunately, Madonna's relationship with volatile young actor
Sean Penn led her to accept a role opposite him, both in real
life as well as onscreen in Shanghai Surprise (1986). The retro-styled,
George Harrison-produced debacle endured a brief and mercilessly
lambasted life at the box office; Madonna's marriage to Penn didn't
last much longer. Next up for the indefatigable entertainer was
Who's That Girl? (1987), a stillborn, flimsy imitation of the
Melanie Griffith/Jeff Daniels vehicle Something Wild, released
just one year prior.
Notable only for its hit title track, the ostensible homage to
Howard Hawks starred a pained Griffin Dunne opposite a bubbly,
impetuous Madonna, apparently performing in the style of her semi-controversial
"Open Your Heart" video. Needless to say, their chemistry
did little to ignite box-office fireworks.
Madonna next courted the best reviews of her film career to date
playing a feisty baseball player in the 1992 A League of Their
Own, in which she starred amongst a talented ensemble cast that
included Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and offscreen gal-pal Rosie O'Donnell.
Those favorable reviews were soon overshadowed, however, by the
maelstrom of negative publicity just a few months later, when
she formed a troika of artistic shame with her starring role in
the pseudo-S&M thriller Body of Evidence (1993), her show-and-tell
photo book Sex, and her subpar dance album Erotica.
Madonna kept a relatively low profile during the next three
years, popping up occasionally for cameos in Blue in the Face
and Four Rooms as well as a leading part in Abel Ferrera's barely-released
Dangerous Game, co-starring Harvey Keitel. Instead, she spent
much of her free time hounding director Alan Parker to cast her
in the title role of the long-gestating film version of Andrew
Lloyd Weber's Evita. Madonna's efforts eventually paid off when
she won the part in the Christmas 1996 release; although critics
responded with mixed opinions, the singer/actress managed to garner
a Golden Globe for her performance.
Just when it seemed the actress had written off Hollywood for
good, fate came calling in the form of boy-toy gal pal Rupert
Everett and his script idea titled The Next Best Thing. Billed
as a romantic comedy, the John Schlesinger-helmed vehicle was
in actuality an uneasy melange of The Object of My Affection,
My Best Friend's Wedding, and, improbably, Kramer vs. Kramer.
Critics responded to the film with primal screams of derision,
many of which were aimed at Madonna's balsa wood-inspired and
deeply schizophrenic performance. Around this time, insult was
indeed added to injury when, in early 2000, the erstwhile thespian
was dubbed the Worst Actress of the Century at the Razzie Awards,
beating out such notables as Bo Derek, Pia Zadora, and Elizabeth
Berkley.
The stage was set for another of the actress' many career reinventions,
and it seemed as though she might do just that with her marriage
to film director Guy Ritchie, the father of her second child,
Rocco. Though she had not yet appeared in one of the Brit's testosterone-laden
heist films (including 1998's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
and 2000's Snatch) she did play a starring role in their lavish
Scottish Highlands' nuptials in December of 2000.
|
FILMOGRAPHY
• Die Another Day (2002)
• Swept Away (2002)
• The Hire (2001)
• Madonna - What It Feels Like for a Girl (2001)
• The Next Best Thing (2000)
• Evita (1996)
• Four Rooms (1995)
• Body of Evidence (1993)
• Dangerous Game (1993)
• A League of Their Own (1992)
• Shadows and Fog (1992)
• Bloodhounds of Broadway (1990)
• Dick Tracy (1990)
• Who's That Girl (1987)
• Shanghai Surprise (1986)
• Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
• A Certain Sacrifice (1980) |
