Monday, August 29, 2022

DVD/150: MADONNA: THE CONFESSIONS TOUR - LIVE FROM LONDON (Jonas Akerlund, 2007)

My favourite Madonna tour is immortalised in this exhilarating, sometimes maddening, tv film, shot over two nights during her 8-night residency at Wembley Arena.

Released with a live cd lifted from the soundtrack, for all Akerlund's editorial faults, it takes me right back to the three nights I saw it and still leaves me in pure Madonna Heaven.

CONFESSIONS was a sensory explosion of colour, music, lights, costumes, choreography and video which Aklund attempts to recapture but several times, mostly at the start, he superimposes so many visuals on top of rapid editing that you simply cannot just enjoy the performance.  As usual, the worst casualties of the frantic cutting is the excellent work of the dancers - they were exciting enough, trying to generate a fake excitement never works.

Divided into four 'acts': Equestrian, Bedouin, Never Mind The Bollocks and Disco, Madonna delivers unforgettable, iconic, non-stop, glorious performances.

Shelf or charity shop?  Are you INSANE?  Despite Aklund's visual schizophrenia, what a way to relive the glorious CONFESSIONS tour.  Iconic performances of GET TOGETHER, LIKE A VIRGIN, LIVE TO TELL, LIKE IT OR NOT, RAY OF LIGHT, LET IT WILL BE, MUSIC INFERNO, EROTICA, LA ISLA BONITA, LUCKY STAR and HUNG UP light up the set-list but there is not a dud among them and the show is augmented by Stuart Price's great music arrangements and the non-stop dancers including the marvellous Daniel 'Cloud' Campos (aka Skater Boy).  One of the most exciting shows reliveable whenever I want...



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