Madonna hits the red carpet at the W.E. movie premiere during the BFI London Film Festival at Empire Leicester Square on Sunday in London.
Wearing a long, flowing black L’Wren Scott dress with a plunging neckline and a diamanté pattern, Madonna, 53, also did not seem to care that the film has been widely panned.
Madonna declared: “It doesn’t matter what the critics think, it’s what the public thinks.”
Madonna also revealed she loved directing and would want to do so again, saying that she would like a musical of her life made, adding:
“I’d want Andrea Riseborough to play me, because she’s incredible to work with and I’d work with her again.”
Madonna hits the red carpet at the W.E. movie premiere during the BFI London Film Festival at Empire Leicester Square on Sunday in London
Andrea Riseborough, 29, plays Wallis Simpson in W.E., part of the 55th BFI London Film Festival.
W.E. follows a two-tiered love story about Wally Winthrop, a woman in 1999 who is infatuated with the 1930s marriage of King Edward VIII.
W.E. is Madonna’s second venture as a director, with her first being in 2008, stepping behind the camera for Filth And Wisdom.
But critics were unkind to Madonna, giving the musical comedy poor reviews, despite British favourite Richard E Grant starring in it.
Yesterday, Madonna was joined by some of fashion’s biggest names including Georgio Armani and Valentino.
Madonna also walked the red carpet with lesser known faces like Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman.
The superstar caused controversy at the Venice Film Festival press conference last month while promoting her new film.
Madonna was overheard ridiculing a bouquet of hydrangeas a fan gave her, but later mocked herself in a YouTube video to recover from the incident.
Earlier this month, Madonna has been accused of neglecting her older brother, Anthony Ciccone.
Superstar’s brother said Madonna, along with the rest of their family, has left him to rely on food handouts from charities after he lost his job at a successful vineyard run by their father, Tony, in Michigan.
Anthony Ciccone, 55, claims he has been homeless for the past 18 months as a result.
He said: “My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time.”
“You think I haven’t answered this kind of question a bazillion times – why my sister is a multibazillionaire, and I’m homeless on the street?”
Anthony Ciccone, the second of eight children, said he had been forced to resort to extreme measures to survive.
“I don’t have any income and I’ve got to go collect bottles and cans, do odd jobs.”
Madonna’s spokesman didn’t make any comment so far.
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Madonna’s film W.E. will be re-edited ahead of its December release following the poor critics received at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, according to reports.
The W.E. (Wallis&Edward) drama is based on the controversial romance between King Edward VIII and his American divorcee wife Wallis Simpson. The story is brought to the present time by a 21st-century New Yorker who becomes obsessed with the pair. W.E. is Madonna’s first full-length film as a director.
Madonna's film, WE will be re-edited ahead of its December release
W.E. will be distributed in the US by the Weinstein company, which is co-owned by Harvey Weinstein, a producer known for his interventionist approach in the cutting room.
According to Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye and the New York Post’s Page Six column, W.E. would probably lose 10 minutes from its running time.
Madonna showed her willingness to return to the editing room in a conversation with Baz Bamigboye in Venice.
“Maybe it needs a bit of this and a bit of that, and maybe it is still a work in progress,” the singer said.
“For God’s sake, I hope it’s over with soon!”
Critical response to W.E., which stars Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, Oscar Isaac and James D’Arcy, has been mixed at best during its festival run.
There had been some talk of awards season buzz for W.E. prior to its festival run. Last year’s big UK winner at the Oscars, The King’s Speech, also touched on the story of the relationship between Edward and Wallis Simpson, a romance which prompted the monarch to abdicate in 1936.
Madonna’s movie, W.E. makes its world premiere out of competition tonight at the 68th edition of Venice Film Festival.
Madonna‘s film tells the story of celebrated romance between Britain’s King Edward VIII and the twice divorced American Mrs. Wallis Simpson, and the grave constitutional crisis it caused.
W.E., the Madonna’s film title stands for the initials of the two lovers, Wallis and Edward, although he close family and his mistresses called him David.
Andrea Riseborough, Madonna and Abbie Cornish pose at the photo call for the film W.E. during the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival. (AP photo)
The movie subverts the Royal Family heritage genre by introducing a modern-day parallel, about an unhappily married New Yorker named Wally Winthrop. Madonna uses this second storyline to counterpoint and comment on what happened to the Duchess of Windsor, as Wallis Simpson became when she finally married the King Edward VIII after he renounced the throne for her in 1936.
Madonna studied the crisis for years before deciding to make this movie.
Everybody knows that the affair cost the King his kingdom and an empire, but Madonna, the film-maker, who wrote the screenplay with her old friend Alek Keshishian, raised the question of what it cost Wallis Simpson.
Wallis Simpson played by Andrea Riseborough
Wallis Simpson became the Duchess of Windsor and lived a life of luxury but, as she points out in the movie, the King “used me to escape his prison, only to incarcerate me in my own”. Wallis Simpson was played beautifully by Andrea Riseborough.
