Film Focus//Madonna & Steven Klein - #secretproject – Revolution of Love
With screenings guerrilla
style all over the world and reports of less than happy security guards in the venues
chosen it seems that the launch of Revolution of Love is going just as planned. Made in collaboration
with Steven Klein, it draws on the themes of darkness and liberty touched upon
during her recent MDNA tour.
The film shows Madonna herself in an unidentified
prison, a possible reference to Guantanamo Bay, thrown into a cell and beaten. Her voice over accompanies
the monochrome footage with scenes of her wielding a gun and shooting members
of her stage team before later recasting the traditionally destructive instrument
as a reviving, life giving one when she wakes the previously shot drew with the
same gesture. It’s a juxtaposition of the kind that makes you think – and whilst
the message is expounded amply in the voice over the visual messages are even more
explicit.
The traditional
themes of Madonna’s music, truth, freedom and love are cast as visual metaphors
to make a film that seeks to spread the word of love in all of its possible forms.
With some recurring themes seen in the MDNA tour film we are taken into a world
that mirrors the oft-hidden darkness of reality and shown it in all its ugliness.
Words have never been
a problem for M and she lays it on the line in the film. She may have once been
on an a mission to make you dance but this is darker territory and the message
is clear. The world is falling apart with discrimination and persecution
tearing cracks in society. The solution is even clearer - love is the way, as
in all parts of life.
If other proponents
of this message haven’t made the point enough already, then this film does so
in the starkest of terms. The message is given is terms that all can understand
– and who doesn’t understand love? With as many meanings and interpretations as
those who give and feel it it’s ripe for exploration and this film does just
that by showing the opposite.
We see Madonna
surrounded by four uniformed prison guards towards the films conclusion;
prostrate on the floor – as the lift descends away we hear a gunshot and are
left in doubt as to the allusions being made. The world is turning into a
prison camp, the guards are the politicians and they are all aiming their
weapons be they political, human rights depriving or the gun toting type. Are we
going to let ourselves be enslaved? The message it would seem to be is not.
Even if we’re in a
country with a good standard of living and freedoms there is much to be learnt
from this artfully directed and executed film. The obvious allusions are
towards freedom of expression and gender abuse – witness the arrest and
imprisonment of Pussy Riot in Russia or the persecution of women in the world
as a whole.
But what can we take
from the film as a whole? The message is beyond reproach – in a society
increasingly run by capitalism rather than human interest we’re seeing less
love and more interest in the needs of stake holders. As the film confirms the
true stake holders in life are us and freedom is something that is entirely
relative to your situation.
Detractors may
suggest that this is millionaire preaching her ideals on the world but in an absence
of anybody else doing so – somebody has to take the initiative. Love, as the
song has it, may be in the air but trying to find it is difficult for some. Art
and politics have not intertwined convincingly for a very long time and with
the Love Revolution we’re seeing a message that could just stick – but will the
effects be seen soon? That remains to be seen… but there is still enough love
in the world to keep us going for now for those lucky enough to have it, at
least we think so…
Check out the film
via BitTorrent from 24th September or at one of the guerrilla style screenings hitting
the cities of the world in its launch week.
Words by Sebastian
Gahan.
