Madonna has always been resolutely Madonna, bitch. From 2024, this documentary directed by Michael Ogden follows her early career trajectory like a tracking pigeon. It’s extremely insightful, like a scrapbook bursting to life, full of interviews with those who knew her back in the day, like late brother Christopher who became one of her backing dancers, music producer Camille Barbone, and video director Mary Lambert.
It also features rare clips of her with her newly -short hair hanging with friends, as well as rare clips of her stretching exercises in ballet class (“I ripped my leotard and put it back together with safety pins”, she chuckles in typically mischievous voiceover).
She’d always had more than a pinch of punk in her DNA. It’s great to see her play guitar and sing in a cool Waitresses style band, Emmy and the Emmys. After all, she came from Michigan, Iggy et al undoubtedly an influence. But it was the new York club scene that made her.
Dan Gilroy, ex boyfriend and Breakfast Club band member, says:”Her dad was pretty worried about her…She came to New York with nothing, you know” Indeed, she had less than forty dollars and only her attitude when she arrived, having quit the professional ballet scene. Danceteria and The Mudd Club were calling, but it wasn’t always easy for a small girl with a big mouth.
From getting bottled off at live sets (“They hated me in Long Island”, she sighs) to accusations of “selling out” from club kids, to the frothing widespread moral outrage at her sexy image, to body shaming, fame for women equated to disgust in the Reagan era. Then she lost best friend Martin Burgoyne to AIDS, prompting her to put on a benefit show for AIDS at Madison Square Garden.
Indeed, her seemingly meteoric rise wasn’t an easy one, not as instant as everyone thought, either. But she was made of tough stuff, having grown up with four brothers and three sisters, and losing her mother, herself also called Madonna, to breast cancer.
Of course, the initial controversy was as nothing compared with what was to follow, whether kissing a Black Jesus in the ‘Like A Player’ video, or scenes of BDSM in the ‘Sex’ book being deemed “obscene”, but this thoughtful, if rather too Wikipedia-linear at times, film is pretty compelling. Her tenacity is the main focus here.
A shame she makes rather less impact these days- ironically, because of the dominance of Madonna -inspired female artists.
Screened on Sky Arts.
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