tellurikwaves Blog : CINEMA :Les blessures narcissiques d'une vie par procuration

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p19

03/06/2014 11:07 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p19

03/06/2014 11:07 par tellurikwaves

Love conquers all?
10/10
Author: laterdanish from United Kingdom
25 October 2011

It's incredible to believe that this is the first major film Madonna has directed ,and it's a real labour of love.3years have been spent making the movie and all the effort and hard work is right there in front of your eyes when you watch it.An amazing story and stunning performances - particularly from Andrea Riseborough as Wallis Simpson.The cinematography is a visual feast for the eyes and the costumes are wonderful. The piano led soundtrack is also another nice touch. I can still hear it playing in my ears now! It's ultimately a feminist statement about love and power. The entire production is stunning and Madonna's touch can be felt all over it.

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p18

03/06/2014 10:59 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p18

03/06/2014 10:59 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p17

03/06/2014 10:57 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p17

03/06/2014 10:57 par tellurikwaves

'Darling, they can't hurt you if you don't let them.'
7/10
Author: gradyharp from United States
8 May 2012

The much maligned, brief theatrical film by Madonna - W.E. - fairs better on the small screen than it likely did in the movie houses. The stories are bifurcated, each one resembling a television creation - one a docudrama biopic, the other a contemporary soap opera. That Madonna, who directed and wrote the screenplay with Alek Keshishian, decided to mix the two stories is a bit daring but in some ways it works very well. In other ways the parallel stories seem like time traveling cars on the same highway that never quite travel at the same speed or quality.

The film mixes the notorious affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson with a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard. The time is 1998 and at an auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor unhappily married ex-Sotheby employee Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) becomes obsessed by their historic love story. Her own marriage to womanizing, abusive psychiatrist William (Richard Coyle) undermines her feelings of worth and as she learns more about the sacrifices involved in the famous affair, she gains her own courage to find happiness.

The film flips back and forth between the present and the 1930s and it is the historical aspect of the film that is almost flawless. We get to know Wallis Simpson (in a brilliant portrayal by Andrea Riseborough) and understand her failed first two marriages (at the time we meet her she is still married to Ernest Simpson played by David Harbour), and see the American sizzle that made her the talk of England. When Wallis wrangles her way to meet Prince Edward, better known as David, (James D'Arcy) there is a chemistry that develops to the point of passion and ultimately leads to Wallis divorcing Ernest to marry Edward

- a deed that leads to Edward's abdication of the throne for 'the woman I love', which he had assumed when King George V (James Fox) dies, to his stammering brother Bertie (Laurence Fox) and his caustic wife Elizabeth (Natalie Dormer). The paparazzi make their life miserable and the couple is not allowed to return to England until Edward dies, with the faithful Wallis supportively by his side through 36 years of marriage.

Wally - meanwhile - longs to be pregnant but sustains such abuse from William that she ultimately yields to the loving friendship the auction house Russian security guard Evgeni (Oscar Isaac) and begins her life again. The two stories are connected by Wally's obsession with the royal couple's notorious affair and at auction's end she is given access to private letters between Wallis and Edward that have been in the possession of Mohamed Al-Fayed (Haluk Bilginer) - a tacked on ending that feels ill at ease and redundant.

Everyone connected t the biopic angle of this film is excellent and Madonna shows that she knows how to direct affairs of the heart in a royal situation very well indeed. Both Andrea Riseborough and James D'Arcy are superb and the costumes and music and cinematography of this historical portion are exceptionally well done.Though the idea of the contemporary sluggish story is reasonable,Abbie Cornish seems uncomfortable with the script: Oscar Isaac shines as her new love. In all the film, though spotty, has merit and it not a bad debut for Madonna as director.

Grady Harp

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p16

03/06/2014 10:53 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p16

03/06/2014 10:53 par tellurikwaves

Oscar Isaac : Evgeni Kolpakov /Sécurité et Abbie Cornish : Wally Winthrop

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p15

03/06/2014 10:44 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p15

03/06/2014 10:44 par tellurikwaves

Abbie Cornish : Wally Winthrop et Andrea Riseborough : Wallis Simpson

*

A fascinating film--half brilliant, half awful.
Author: Mer_Girl_Fits_Heaven from Canada
3 November 2011

Far from the best or worst picture of the year, W.E. is certainly the most intriguing. It tells the story of Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) and the New York housewife who is obsessed with her in 1998 (played by Abbie Cornish). This is not a straightforward historical film, nor is it trying to be. Instead, the film is a mediation on celebrity,history and the way people search in those realms for meaning in their own lives.

For example, Wally in 1998 is trapped in a loveless marriage where she is virtually ignored by everyone, so she imagines Wallis as utterly fabulous, and adored by the man who abdicated for her. "What are you thinking about?" she is asked at one point. She responds, "What it must feel like to be loved that much". Madonna hits that nail right on its head, and this premise is the reason she can't tell the story from a straight historical perspective celebrities really only exist in our heads. Madonna likely knows this better than anyone.

For this reason, Wally waves away her idols alleged Nazi sympathies and the possibility that she and Edward's marriage was not all that it seemed, because in New York in 1998, she needs to believe that love canbe eternal. In this context, the much maligned scenes in which Wallis appears to Wally to give advice make perfect sense. All celebrities and historical figures really arefigments of our imaginations anyway.

In the end, the theme is that people should not obsess over celebrities, but should "get a life" of their own. This brings us to the films one serious downfall. The audienceis forced to spend more than half the movie with Wally, who is beyond boring and unsympathetic. This can be blamed on the script and the performance by AbbieCornish, who never seems to do any more than pose and read lines. The character was never believable or engaging, and the script must resort to over the topmelodrama to move her story along. In short, the 1998 storyline is a mess, and you'd think that a film whose premise is that celebrity-obsessed people need to get a life would have known better than to focus on an obsessed fan with no life.

That said, everything with Wallis is spot on, better even than anything found in "The King's Speech" (2010). Andrea Riseborough, who plays Wallis accomplishes in a single scene what Abbie Cornish couldn't in all of the movie. She makes us admire and care for the woman she's playing. She has a charisma (much like the directorherself) that guarantees the indulgence of the audience. She is going to be naughty, and we're going to love her for it.And thus you have the most interesting movie of the year: half masterpiece, half slog. If the 1931 storyline had been stretched out to 90 minutes, and the 1998 onereduced to 10 or 15, this would have been one of the best films of the year. As it is, it a tremendous curiosity.

I must mention, however, the best scene in the movie, featuring an elderly Wallis and a dying Edward. I shan't give it away except to say that it captures perfectly both the sweetness of enduring love and the sadness, and inevitability of age and death. Where I was laughing derisively at the previous scene, this one had me in tears before it was through. Like I said, a very interesting experience. I have refrained from mentioning its superstar director, because most critics can't seem to see past their feelings about her as a person. Still, I can't help but note that Madonna is vastly better suited to depict the lifestyles of the rich and fabulous, than the dreary doldrums of us common-folk.

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p14

03/06/2014 10:37 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p14

03/06/2014 10:37 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p13

03/06/2014 07:04 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p13

03/06/2014 07:04 par tellurikwaves

External Reviews

Showing all 116 external reviews

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p12

03/06/2014 06:59 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p12

03/06/2014 06:59 par tellurikwaves

A Good Movie Overlooked because of Madonna's History
9/10
Author: zachary_nickerson-426-117878 from United States
18 July 2012

I began watching this movie expecting to ironically like it because it had Madonna's name on it. I expected a trashy, beautiful, skin-deep spectacle whose emotional depth was replaced by beauty. What I found was a very good movie whose small bumps were amplified because Madonna's name was listed under Director. Expecting to like this on the same level that I liked Filth and Wisdom (frivolously and embarrassedly), I was VERY surprised when this movie was what I was given.

The movie's main characters are acted very well - Abbie Cornish's Manhattanite House Wife is not adoring mush and Andrea Riseborough's Thirties Trollop is not a charactature of an early Twentieth Century puppet. The music for the movie is superb, as are the costumes.

And while this is not directing at its greatest, Madonna has done quite an amazing feat for having this be her first attempt as a Full Length Director (because did Filth and Wisdom count as a movie?). Because her name was on the credits, reviewers went into the movie looking for a witch hunt. In all reviews small complaints were blown out of proportion so that a pedantic, pretentious reviewer could give W.E. one star. Yes, Madonna had a few hiccups on the way, but no more than with any other first-time-director.

Rollingstone (my Bible for movie reviews) gave it one out of four stars but neglected to voice why or where Madonna went wrong, but merely stated that she failed at directing.Many say that this movie is all fluff and no substance - which would be fine had Madonna's name not been on it. Remember Marie Antoinette or 2009's Oscar-Winning A Single Man? Those movies were all beauty and no plot and yet it was highly praised and one of my favorites. Why? Because the beauty was a commentary on the main character, just as it is in W.E..

Wallis was very much a woman of frippery, and Madonna showed that beautifully in both her (wee bit obvious) eye with the camera and her sometimes-subtle, sometimes- (hopefully)-obvious script. In all, I found this movie to be very good and I would love to see it again. I was expecting frippery to the Filth and Wisdom standard, but instead got a wonderful piece that should have been taken more seriously. The Oscars should have nodded at this film for more than its costumes in nominations for Andrea Riseborough, Abel Kornziowski, Madonna (for Masterpiece), and (big maybe) Madonna (for her directing).

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p11

03/06/2014 06:53 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p11

03/06/2014 06:53 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p10

03/06/2014 06:32 par tellurikwaves

W.E / WALLIS & EDWARD de Madonna (2012) p10

03/06/2014 06:32 par tellurikwaves

W.E. surprises in all the best ways
10/10
Author: ryanbigbro
13 September 2011

I am not exactly sure what I expected from Madonna's latest film as a director, but I convinced myself to go into it with an open mind. I ended up being impressed in every way. Madonna has a great vision. The film is visually stunning, and the performances are all convincing and powerful, though never over-the-top as might have been expected. Madonna has put together a great screenplay with just the right emotional highlights, and then she executes the overall picture in the best way possible. On the heels of the success of "The King's Speech," I think people will really love getting to see see the other side of the story. I truly hope people give this movie a chance. It is a diamond in the rough.