Madonna presents Confessions II - The Film, an audiovisual project that adapts the first six songs from her new album. Featuring Sabrina Carpenter and Benedict Cumberbatch in the cast, the work unfolds a dreamlike narrative that moves between the cosmic and the surreal, moving away from linear structures to explore dreams and constellations.
Visual construction: practical effects and low-key CGI 🌌
To achieve that dreamlike logic, the team opted to combine physical models with contained CGI, avoiding screen saturation. Transitions between scenes are synchronized with the album's tempo changes, using fades that mimic human blinking. Carpenter and Cumberbatch filmed their scenes on modular sets, allowing backgrounds to be relocated without breaking the dream's continuity. The camera, often handheld, seeks the visual instability of a memory.
Cumberbatch plays a black hole with an existential crisis 🕳️
Benedict Cumberbatch, according to set sources, spent three hours daily in matte black makeup to portray a depressed space hole. His main dialogue, a seven-minute monologue about the loneliness of absorbing matter, was recorded in a single take. Sabrina Carpenter, meanwhile, dances around him like a shooting star, though she confessed to stepping on his cape several times. The final scene, with both floating in a digital void, recalls an episode of Doctor Who but with more sequins.