American entertainer Madonna started her film career in 1979 in the low budget feature A Certain Sacrifice. Since then she has starred in numerous independent and Hollywood motion pictures, the majority of which have been box office failures. She has also appeared in three starring theatre roles, numerous television commercials and directed her debut motion picture Filth and Wisdom in 2008. In 1997 she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for her role in Evita.

Motion pictures

In 1979, Madonna starred in low-budget feature A Certain Sacrifice. Its release in 1985 coincided with the success of her Like a Virgin album, and Madonna tried to prevent its release. That same year, Madonna made a small cameo appearance as a club singer in the film Vision Quest singing Crazy for You; then garnered commercial and critical success in Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan, a story of a housewife who is fascinated with a woman she only knows by reading messages in the personals section of a New York City tabloid. It was a commercial success and grossed $27 million in the United States alone.

Madonna then appeared in the adventure drama Shanghai Surprise (1986) with then-husband Sean Penn. The film was dismissed by moviegoers and received poor reviews, many of them calling her acting wooden. Subsequent films such as Who's That Girl (1987) and Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) failed to attract commercial or critical success. She was the first choice for the role of "Susie Diamond" in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but famously rejected the part claiming it was "too mushy" . This proved to be an unwise decision on her part because the film turned out to be a box-office hit and it brought Michelle Pfeiffer to even greater fame.

In 1990, Madonna received good reviews for her turn as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy, directed by Warren Beatty and based on Chester Gould's comic strip. Beatty would later surface again in the 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (aka In Bed With Madonna) which showed the behind the scenes to the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.
In December 1990, it was announced that Madonna had pulled out of the controversial Jennifer Lynch film Boxing Helena.

In 1992, Madonna released two movies. The first was a cameo appearance as a trapeze artist in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog. The black and white film was an homage to German Expressionist cinema, backed by the music of Kurt Weill. She also starred in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own opposite Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Rosie O'Donnell. The film centered on a women's baseball team during World War II and earned Madonna good reviews. It was a big commercial success worldwide especially in North America.

Following the media backlash caused by her Sex book and its companion album Erotica, Madonna starred in the 1993 erotic thriller Body of Evidence with Willem Dafoe and Anne Archer. It was panned by critics and performed poorly at the box office. It caused great controversy in the media due to the explicit sexual content. Later that year, she starred in Dangerous Game opposite Harvey Keitel and James Russo. Considered nihilistic and violent, it was released straight to home video. Madonna did however, receive good reviews. Madonna has remarked her dislike of the end result saying of the director Abel Ferrara: "He fucked me over. .. however, I am good in it." This was also the first movie production from Madonna's entertainment company Maverick.

In 1995, Madonna almost got the role of the drug addicted Ginger McKenna in Martin Scorsese's, Casino, though she had secured the role, she lost the part at the last minute to Sharon Stone, who convinced Scorsese to cast her instead. Madonna played a cameo, singing telegram girl in Wayne Wang's Blue in the Face and a witch in Four Rooms. She also made another cameo appearance as a phone sex company owner in Spike Lee's Girl 6 in 1996. Later that year Madonna starred as Eva Perón in the film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. The film marked the first time in America since Desperately Seeking Susan that she was praised for her acting. Madonna had campaigned for the role for nearly ten years and, in December 1994, she wrote a four-page, handwritten letter to director Alan Parker explaining that she would be perfect to play the role. Parker agreed and Madonna took voice lessons to extend her range and researched the life of her character. In January 1997, she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but failed to receive a nomination at the Academy Awards, though the song "You Must Love Me" won the Oscar for Best Song. Both "You Must Love Me" and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" were hit singles.

Madonna's follow-up to Evita was another critically panned role as Abbie, a woman who decides to have a baby with her gay best friend, in the film The Next Best Thing (2000) directed by John Schlesinger. In America, the film started off strong on its opening week with $15 million, but this quickly diminished.
Swept Away followed in 2002, and was another critical and commercial failure. The remake of an Italian film by Lina Wertmüller in 1975 was the first big screen collaboration between Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie. It received seven Razzie Award nominations, winning five including Worst Actress for Madonna. The movie was only released to a few hundred cinemas in America and was released straight-to-video in Europe. Later that year, Madonna had a short cameo appearance in the James Bond film Die Another Day, and also sang the theme song. In the movie, Madonna played a fencing instructor named Verity who taught at a British academy.

During the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour, a documentary entitled I'm Going to Tell You a Secret was filmed by Jonas Akerlund, showing behind the scenes footage of the tour. It was premiered on MTV in November 2005. In late 2004, she provided the voice of Princess Selenia in the animated film Arthur and the Invisibles, which was released in January 2007. It was directed by Luc Besson and has been a commercial success worldwide with two sequels already in the planning.

She had originally been selected to play the title role in Music of the Heart, however she was replaced by Meryl Streep two weeks before filming began.

Madonna regularly lends her support to films that personally interest her such as Fahrenheit 911 and Slumdog Millionaire. She also supported ex-husband Sean Penn in his Best Male Actor Award for Milk at the 2009 Academy Awards.

Filmography

This is a chronologically-ordered list of films in which Madonna has appeared.

¹ Madonna provides the voice of Princess Selenia in the English language version only.

Directing

Madonna has directed an advertising TV campaign for her clothing range with fashion chain H&M and also directed her first feature film Filth and Wisdom.

Commercials

Madonna has starred in various international television commercials (see below), as well as high profile print advertising for Versace clothing (1995, 2005), Ebel watches (1998), H&M clothing (featuring the crew from her Confessions Tour, 2006) and Louis Vuitton bags (2009).

Documentaries

In 1991, Madonna released the documentary Truth or Dare (named In Bed With Madonna outside North America). Directed by Alek Keshishian, the film followed Madonna on her Blond Ambition world tour. It featured black and white backstage scenes and live performances filmed in color.
Truth or Dare grossed more than $15 million in the U.S. alone. While criticized for being manufactured, the film offered insights into Madonna's relationship with then-boyfriend Warren Beatty and showed her admitting that ex-husband Sean Penn was the love of her life. Madonna deeply dislikes the title of In Bed With Madonna and has expressed in interviews that it is a "stupid title". The original title of the documentary was "Truth or Dare: On The Road, Behind The Scenes and In Bed With Madonna".

In 1992, behind the scenes footage was filmed by Fabien Baron during the making of the book Sex. This footage was intended to be shown at the launch party of the book, and has since been leaking on the internet. It includes many of the images used in the "Erotica" music video accompanied by 1920s music. It was handed out to 100 special guests at the launch and is listed on www.imdb.com as a documentary. It is sometimes known as The Making of Sex.

Madonna's second documentary, I'm Going to Tell You a Secret (2005), followed her and her family on the Re-Invention World Tour in 2004. Directed by long-time collaborator Jonas Åkerlund, it premiered commercial free on MTV in the US on October 21, 2005. It was released on DVD June 20, 2006 with a bonus audio CD.

In late 2006, Madonna announced that she was funding a documentary about Malawi and it was through viewing this footage that she first saw David Banda, whom she has since adopted. An excerpt from this can be found on Amazon.com. The film is called I Am Because We Are.

On stage

In 1986 Madonna appeared in a workshop of Goose and TomTom written by David Rabe and directed by Gregory Mosher, Madonna played "Gum chewing gun moll" Lorraine and starred along her then-husband Sean Penn and Harvey Keitel.

In 1988 Madonna made her Broadway debut in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. While generally receiving negative notes, the New York Times congratulated her for the "intelligent, scrupulously disciplined comic acting."

In 2002, she made a London West End theatre debut in a version of Australian plawright David Williamson's play Up For Grabs. The setting was relocated from Sydney to New York. Generally criticised for her lack of technical ability, a critic used in his review a line from the play: "If you think a big marketing budget will sell any old junk, you'd be wrong. It's got to be quality junk".

Music from Motion Pictures and TV

the following Madonna songs have appeared in the formentioned motion pictures or TV series. For information on Madonna's contribution to songs appearing on soundtrack albums, see: Madonna albums discography and Other soundtrack albums featuring Madonna songs

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