Suddenly, Madonna is everywhere and everyone is talking about her. These are some new photos of Madge in Paris, where she was flea market shopping and hanging out with Brahim, her young lover who has surprising staying power, it seems, because they’re still together, despite gossip to the contrary. But little Brahim isn’t why people are talking about Madge – they’re discussing her second directorial effort, W.E., the film that Madge not only directed, but researched and wrote, all about Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. I covered various parts regarding the project last year – Madonna couldn’t get the cast she wanted, and Madonna herself gave a quote about how she didn’t believe Edward and Wallis were Nazi sympathizers (which is a historical fact, not a theory).

Anyway, according to critic Roger Friedman, W.E. is actually… good. He hasn’t actually seen the film, though, so his piece reads partially like an industry-heavy fluff piece:

Well, I may have to eat my hat. The inside word from The Weinstein Company is that Madonna’s effort as a movie director, “W.E.,” is really really good. Gregg Kilday is reporting that the Weinstein Company has bought the rights to Madonna’s movie. Now I’ve called some people I know–not Harvey or Bob–and they’ve told me the story. They bought the movie outright–no one else saw it. Madonna showed it to TWC first probably because Harvey Weinstein released her “Truth or Dare” twenty years ago. And the people who saw “W.E.,” including Harvey and Bob, loved it.

My first question: does it have any reference to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as Nazi sympathizers? I am told it’s at least mentioned. But this is also what was said: “It’s a smart and thoughtful and incredibly stylish. A performance by Andrea Riseborough that’s Oscar worthy. I don’t know how the f— she [Madonna] did it. It’s an art picture, there’s no question about it. It’s a picture for women. Bob and Harvey really loved it.

This is a lot like Tom Ford’s directing of A Single Man. We were impressed with her.

Everyone’s been talking about her in house for two weeks. She’s gotten it all up there on the screen. It’s hard to tell a good story. She managed to do it.”

My sources say this is all really true. They even say that they know there will be skepticism, but that once people see “W.E.,” they’ll get it.

I know, this is insane. People who read this column probably think I’ve been abducted by aliens. I can only go by what I’m told, though. And if “W.E.” is really so good, I’ll be the first to say it. The sales price, by the way, is said to be less than $5 million. More likely in the $4 million range.

[From Showbiz 411]

Sounds interesting, right? Not so fast. How is it possible that Madonna, a brilliant pop artist and business woman, and one of the worst actresses in the world suddenly a great writer-director? It has to be a fiction, right? Well, there’s another take on the situation – you can read the full story at the Mail, but the highlights are below. Basically, there are just as many sources saying that W.E. is a mess, that Madge still sucks, and that the historical revisionism of the Nazi-sympathies of Wallis and Edward are blatant and disgusting:

…The bad news for Madonna is that the buzz from a top secret test screening in New York last week is not entirely positive. I’m told that the film doesn’t make much sense – and looks more like a Chanel perfume advertisement than an £18 million movie ought to. Harvey Weinstein — who has bought the distribution rights — was observed looking ‘thunderous’ and ‘sour’ as the preview audience marked their scores on approval index cards. He is in the process of re-editing the film to try to make it more commercially viable, and says that it won’t be ready to show to critics ‘for several months’. The opinions of the New Yorkers who saw the film will be taken into account as he seeks to give Madonna a rare hit in the movie business. He is known as Harvey Scissorhands for his love of cutting films to make them more commercial. As he said in an interview: ‘I’m not cutting for fun, I’m cutting for the s*** to work.’

Madonna, now 52, whose control freakery is legendary, must be hating this part of the process. But, it seems, the film needs it.

‘It’s not a complete embarrassment for Madonna, and some of the sequences are spectacular, but some key elements are never explained,’ said my source at the screening last week. ‘It’s all about a woman, Wally, who is obsessed with Wallis Simpson, but we never find out why she cares about her in the first place. The script is really very so-so. It tries to suggest that Wallis Simpson gave up a lot to be with Edward in 1936, particularly her chance to have children, but the idea is never developed. It’s all about the surface and the styling. There’s no real narrative, and no heart.’

Another source, who saw the film at an early screening for potential distributors this spring in Berlin, said more simply that it was ‘just terrible’.

It’s a labour of love for Madonna, who has said that she is obsessed by the subject of the love affair between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. She began researching the project while she and Guy Ritchie were still married, and he is supposed to have given her some advice in the early stages. She asked surviving friends and associates of Simpson, including socialite Nicky Haslam, to help her with information about her. Her chief collaborator, though, was Alek Keshishian, a long-standing friend who was behind the camera in the documentary In Bed With Madonna. The two wrote the script together. The film stars Australian actress Abbie Cornish as a New Yorker who becomes fascinated by an auction of the possessions of the Duchess of Windsor, as Wallis Simpson became known.

Mrs Simpson is played by Andrea Riseborough and Edward by James D’Arcy. James Fox plays George V and his son Laurence plays Bertie, Edward’s younger brother (later George VI).

Production values on the £18 million film are high, with clothes made by Galliano and Issa and jewellery recreated by Cartier. The source who saw the film in New York says: ‘The cinematography is spectacular, as is the production design. On further reflection I have to say the movie seems to be way too preoccupied by props and set decoration — martini shakers, glasses, snifters, desks, furnishings of all kinds. There is certainly more style than substance, but you know people have such low expectations of Madonna that the critics might give her a pass and it might work in her favour.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The Mail goes on to list all of the problems that happened during production – an experienced producer and an experienced casting director quit on Madge after a few weeks, and complained in the press about her lack of collaboration or delegating on the film. Several actors pulled out of the film at various stages of preproduction – Margo Stilley, Ewan McGregor, and Vera Farmiga amongst them. W.E. was supposed to be ready for the Cannes Film Festival in May, but is now headed for a Fall release. I can’t say that I’m really looking forward to seeing it, but the promotional tour should be a hoot. I imagine Madonna will be acting like she’s the greatest AUTEUR in the world, and she’ll expect people to fall at her feet with gratitude for the historical rewrite on Wallis Simpson.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN.