Madonna’s debut film panned

At least one film can be ruled out of contention for the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival this weekend - Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom. Despite the queen of pop's lofty ambitions as a director - she counts Fellini and Godard as her inspirations - the film went down like a lead balloon at Wednesday's festival screening.

Filth and Wisdom is a morality tale starring Eugene Hutz, lead singer of New York Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, as a philosophising S&M escort. Other characters include a thieving chemist's shop worker and a ballet dancer forced to lap dance.

It is a testament to her ego that Madonna has pursued her relationship with the cinema at all. Since her excellently received acting debut in the 1985 screwball comedy Desperately Seeking Susan, she has made a series of turkeys including Swept Away and Shanghai Surprise. To make matters worse, recent films directed by her husband, Guy Ritchie, have been universally panned.

When Madonna faced the press in Berlin on Wednesday she said she was exploring the idea of releasing Filth and Wisdom on the internet. "It's quite exciting because it's a non-conventional way for a film to be seen and I like doing things in a non-conventional way." Especially if no film distributor is going to touch it with a bargepole.

A favourite for the Golden Bear this year is Mike Leigh, whose new comedy Happy-Go-Lucky was loved by critics at Berlin on Tuesday. If Leigh wins, he will become the only living director to have won all three major European film awards, having already taken the Cannes Palme D'Or and Venice's Golden Lion. ·