Looking back over the long pre-production period of W.E., Madonna’s latest directorial outing (currently the subject of a critical drubbing in Venice), it’s interesting to think that Vera Farmiga was once attached, and that rumours once had it that Madonna herself was to play the lead character in a musical version of the story.

Madonna seems like a fairly easy target for the critics and yet the word from the film’s first showing has been pretty unanimous. There has been praise for Oscar Isaac and Abbie Cornish and the production design but for those of us who have yet to see anything of the film all we have is the critical stink. Until now it seems as The Playlist have found two clips from the film online and now you have the chance to see what’s what.

Here’s the light touch of a one line synopsis to seduce you first,

A two-tiered romantic drama focusing on the affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.

Just do yourself a favour and don’t click through and read the comments left on the YouTube pages – even awash in a sea of stupid there are some particularly monuments to nonsense which poke through the surface and are visible for miles around.