Baz Luhrmann, that beloved and hated director in equal parts, capable of reinventing contemporary music, of creating bizarre stage compositions at a frenetic pace mixing all genres there have been and will have, of reaching ecstasy and expressive baroque, of embracing hedonism and sublimate it to delirium.
Baz Luhrman returns. He had been away from the (big) screens for almost ten years since the failure of ‘The Great Gatsby’but now it returns stronger than ever thanks to the ‘biopic’ ‘Elvis’his dream project, the most difficult of his career, the most risky and, surely, for which he will be remembered as a filmmaker beyond his great ‘hype’, ‘Moulin Rouge!’
As the great mythomaniac that he has always shown himself to be, Luhrmann approaches the figure of Elvis Presley in an almost reverential way, showing his lights and shadows, his iconic side, but also his human side. It is an introspective journey, but also historical, even political, through the entrails of an America under construction, full of contradictions, in which Elvis symbolized the American dream, and also its moral collapse.
The director himself has always been the demiurge of his stories, the master of ceremonies, the king of the ring of his own circus, and perhaps for that reason in this case he wanted to use the figure of the Colonel Parker (played by an unrecognizable Tom Hanks) as the narrator of the story. He was the one who launched Elvis to stardom, who squeezed him and finished him.
Like Forman’s ‘Amadeus’
“I wanted to do something similar to Milos Forman’s ‘Amadeus’. It is a film about Mozart, but it is told from Salieri’s point of view and from the envy that gnaws at him. It is easy to describe Colonel Parker as the villain of the show, but I wanted him to be a kind of defender of his actions before a court that is public opinion to reflect on the entertainment industry. When Elvis died the first thing he did was pick up the phone and ask for more records to be printed. Disgusting, right? But aren’t we the first to squeeze our idols and want more and more of them? & rdquor ;, tells Baz Luhrmann to EL PERIÓDICO.
Director defines the relationship between Colonel Parker and Elvis as toxic. Through it, he wanted to tell the backstage of the world of music, of fame, power and money, of how the show can become a Shakespearean tragedy, his favorite genre. “I grew up in Australia and grew up watching American television. I have always tried to understand that country on a cultural level and there is something about this invention of the American dream that Elvis and Colonel Parker represent. One is the show, the other is the business, and they are inseparable parts. For me this dichotomy is as interesting as a movie from outer space & rdquor ;.
Finding the right cast was no easy task. Luhrmann knew that he had everything on the line if he didn’t find the right Elvis. One day he received a call from Denzel Washington, whom he did not know. He told her about a boy he had worked with in the theater, his name was austin butler. The director gave him several tests. “Austin had lost his mother at the same age as Elvis. He had a kind of epiphany and did a second test in which he was practically in a trance. It didn’t feel like an audition, it was very raw emotionally. Literally Austin has been Elvis during the two years that the production has lasted, day and night, he has never left the role. I have never seen anyone with that work ethic, with that dedication”.
Austin Butler is Elvis
Indeed, Austin Butler becomes the great revelation of ‘Elvis’. His metamorphosis is both physical and even mental. “It was necessary to flee from the mere caricature, to look for the humanity of the character. I tried to be meticulous about some things, like how his voice changes over the years and how he moves. I spent a year and a half preparing it before shooting, because the pandemic caught us and I completely immersed myself in it & rdquor ;, says the actor. His immersion process was so absorbing, it nearly killed him. “When you forget yourself for so long, it’s hard to find yourself again. Indeed, I fell into an existential crisis at the end of the shoot, it left me exhausted in every way, but at the same time I was fascinated by the process, I let myself be carried away by it. At first I felt a responsibility that crushed me, I suffered from impostor syndrome. But, little by little, the way I dealt with fear and anxiety changed, not only in the film, but also in my own life & rdquor ;. The interpreter jokes trying to downplay the subject by saying that he had never danced and that, thanks to the character, he got carried away by the music, turning his body into a catalyst, just as happened to Elvis, which was most liberating and cathartic. .
‘Elvis’ goes beyond the mere autobiographical film, also the mere musical. Baz Luhrmann is an expert when it comes to deconstructing cinematographic language and his films are configured as sensory experiences. In this case, the story of ‘Elvis’ spans several decades of US history. The director plays with textures in his own way, with the rhythm and narrative times and adapts the changes of time to the protagonist’s own impulses, in an intense existential range that ranges from innocence to the perversion of fame, disappointment and the agony, from rebellion to his apathy in Las Vegas, a metaphor for his decadence.
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Of course, as in all of Luhrmann’s films, music takes on fundamental importance mixing old and new, i.e. legends like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and bands like Måneskin, B.B King and Little Richard with Jack White. “I love music and working with musicians. I have a small label within RCA and enjoy making music with both iconic artists and new talent. I have also been friends with great myths that have passed away, like Prince. And both he and others like Michael Jackson, repeated one thing: that they always felt more alive on stage. And when they got off it, they couldn’t bear ordinary life. There is a lot of loneliness there and that is one of the things I wanted to recreate in Elvis & rdquor ;.
As a creator, Luhrmann identifies a lot with one of the phrases of the king of rock: “it is very difficult to live up to an image and you cannot be young forever”. The director is about to turn sixty and considers that each of his films corresponds to a stage in his own growth as an artist. “I guess ‘Romeo+Juliet’ is kind of like my youth movie. Many tell me that I try to capture that moment of maximum fulfillment in my films, but I want to think that I have matured. What happens is that ‘Elvis’ addresses the issue of myths, icons, and somehow they have been frozen in timelike Marilyn Monroe, like James Dean and they are the only ones who enter the field of immortality & rdquor ;.