Causing a commotion - Madonna - 1987

Madonna

Causing a commotion

Madonna

Source: imdb.com

The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself,Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide. Her film career, however, is another story. 

Her performances have consistently drawn scathing or laughable reviews from film critics, and the films have usually had tepid, if any, success at the box office. Born Madonna Louise Ciccone in August 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, she is the daughter of Madonna Louise 

Fortin and Silvio Ciccone, an engineer designer for car companies. Her father was of Italian descent (from a family from Pacentro) and her mother was of French-Canadian ancestry. She moved to New York in 1978 and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey, 

joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called "Breakfast Club" and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire 

Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums, and her musical and fashion influence on young women was felt around the globe. Madonna first 

appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: L'oggetto del desiderio (1985) and Crazy for You (1985). However, she scored a minor cult hit with Cercasi Susan disperatamente (1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. 

Madonna's next effort with then husband Sean Penn, Shanghai Surprise (1986), was savaged by critics, although the resilient star managed to somewhat improve her standing with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (1987) (although she did receive 

decidedly mixed reviews, they weren't as negative as those of her previous effort) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired I maledetti di Broadway (1989). The big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (1990) had her playing bad girl "Breathless Mahoney" flirting with Warren 

Beatty, but the epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonnawas much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in Ragazze vincenti (1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the 

wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence - Il corpo del reato (1993), an obvious (and lame) attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón in 

Evita (1996), a fairly well received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the movie cameras for several years, returning to co-star in the lukewarm 

romantic comedy Sai che c'è di nuovo? (2000), followed by the painful Travolti dal destino (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure La morte può 

attendere (2002). After finally admitting that her acting days were over, Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the barely remembered Sacro e profano (2008) and a year later she reunited with A letto con Madonna (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a 

script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. - Edward e Wallis (2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple, was 

released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "Masterpiece".