This spring Bubbel Pop Is it "just" a common "rockumentary" on the diva of Like a Virgin ? Not so sure! Thirty years before the era of networks, Madonna is already laying the foundations of mediated intimacy: indecent, calibrated, provocative — and always political. Behind a trembling black and white and millimetre choreography, the truth is sought, camouflaged, sold. And it is precisely this blur that fascinates in In Bed with Madonna...
A tour on screen
BLondon Ambition Tour. It is during this tour that the director Alek Keshishian to stick to the Basques of the famous American singer, then at the height of her glory. Alternating between the colour-filmed concert sequences and the black-and-white backstage footage, the film exposes the star in her moments of triumph, fatigue, tension and play. Madonna faces her boyfriend of the time on screen Warren Beatty (Hollywood actor a little out of date), his dancers, his manager Liz Rosenberg, or his father, during a poignant family scene. But behind the displayed intimacy is a self-directed work: Madonna orchestrates her image with as much care as her shows with closed windows.
The true genius of the film holds all in its editing, which constantly plays with the idea of truth. The concerts — stylized, explosive, theatrical (and coloured) — are filmed with contagious energy. But it is the behind the scenes, loved in this black and white wad, who claim to deliver « the real Madonna » : vulnerable, authoritarian, funny, tyrannical, militant, injured. You believe it for a while, then the illusion breaks — Everything seems replayed for the eye of the camera. Even the tears seem commanded, the silences inscribed in a dramaturgy... Warren Beatty will let go moreover what could be the whole matrix of the feature film when he says that the diva does not want to live outside the camera... The singer is not content to be filmed: she films through herself. Everything in In Bed with Madonna transpiring mastery, sometimes until obsession.
From Show to Politics
Much more than just one making-of tour, In Bed with Madonna is a queer and feminist manifesto, at a time when AIDS still kills indifference and homosexuality shockes the mainstream. By integrating her gay dancers into the heart of the device, safe sex on stage, mixing sensuality, sacred and vulgarity (the Our Father recited in garters...), Madonna makes her own body a militant tool. But as we mentioned above, this body is also a pure fiction: corset, stylized, invulnerable. The documentary then becomes an early reflection on the commodification of the "personal" and the solitude under the light. One side of the exhibition, the other a form of total distance.
All this makes In Bed with Madonna A rather exciting film, no matter how basic it is drawn to the musical work of the famous American singer. This spring Bubbel Pop updates the power of this documentary, which resonates particularly well with our time. Much more than just a pop "document", it is a founding work on image, genre, fame and self-direction. At a time when everyone is publishing their story life, Madonna appears as a visionary pioneer. Not because she was « true »But because she understood first and foremost that truth is a compositional role.
Data sheet
Blu-ray Region B (France)
Publisher: Bubbel Pop
Duration: 119 min
Release Date: May 28, 2025
Video format : 1080p/24 – 1.85
Soundtrack : English and French DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles French
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