Cannes Film Festival | Elvis searches for himself, not finding himself

Mark Kasivi
Press

World debutElvisPresented outside the competition at the Grand Theater Lumière on Wednesday evening, this is undoubtedly the most anticipated event of the 75s^And Cannes Film Festival. Of course the film received a round of applause at the end of the screening. In the presence of Luhrmann and actors Austin Butler, Tom Hanks and King’s widow Priscilla Presley, the opposite would have been almost unthinkable.

Boss Luhrmann at the Cannes Film Festival. His first film, Definitely the ballroomIt premiered this week as part of the Cinema à la Blaze series, which was released in 1992 in the Un Some Resort category. Red Mill! Opening the festival and competition in 2001, and The Great Gatsby It was also the debut film in 2013.

Luhrmann says he chose 30-year-old Austin Butler to play Elvis because “he’s an actor who can naturally reflect the unique body language and voice characteristics of this unique actor, but also his influence.”

Butler’s change, we see in particular Once in Hollywood …, By Quentin Tarantino, is amazing. He gives his own voice to Presley’s songs, which have been revisited and sometimes rearranged to suit the taste of the day … but not always in the best taste.

The filmmaker is the problem of the film Red Mill !, Because we do not believe in any of his characters. They are very cartoonish, with the depth and magnetism of a cover movie poster. “I’m a superhero,” Elvis says, and it looks like Lurman has turned him into a character in his usual way. Cartoon.

Tom Hanks, who plays Elvis’ Impressorio, the intriguing and Machiavellian Colonel Tom Parker, has been created to be very grim, reminiscent of the Fat Bastard character played by Mike Myers. Austin Powers. Especially with the pseudo-Dutch accent in his voice, which is reminiscent of Impressario’s vague appearance.

This Life history The chronology and eloquence of Elvis Presley’s life and work is particularly interesting in the relationship between the famous singer and this famous Colonel Parker, who has been his impressor for 21 years. In Ethan Coyne’s documentary about him, which was screened in Cannes earlier this week, Jerry Lee Lewis said, “He treated me like a monkey in a cage.”

When Colonel Parker was hosting a circus show, he heard “that white young man singing like a black boy” on the radio. He immediately realized that he had a rough diamond in his hand. Elvis’ story is told from the Colonel’s point of view, he gave 50% of his guard’s receipts.

Luhrmann says the two men, at times, fought. Elvis may be less than one would think under Colonel’s thumb, but not free enough to remove him. Parker always invented a new trick. The screenplay, unfortunately, does not fully understand the basics and nuances of their dynamics.

This hogiography of the King of Rock and Roll touches the dark side of the artist very little, making us understand that Elvis, overworked and enslaved, was under house arrest by the Colonel in Las Vegas. For barbiturates.

It’s not a detail in his story, but it’s like a hair in the soup, suddenly Elvis Presley, swollen, died in 1977 at the age of 42.

Colonel Parker says at the end of the film that he did not die of a heart attack or taking too many pills. He died because he loved his audience more than his own life.

Boss Luhrmann seeks to draw a parallel between the struggle for civil rights and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers, the existence of this great role in America and the boiling point of time. It was flat – most of the film was shot in studios in Australia; It feels – and we do not understand where the filmmaker is coming from. Remember Elvis’ contacts with the black community? Does it give social or political meaning to one’s life?

However, the biggest flaws of his film are elsewhere. In its relentlessly spinning perception behavior, in its frantic crowd, it is misused to cause seizures. Split-screen And emphasis on thin violins. Everything is in a place of emotion. She never appears.

Elvis Released in theaters in North America on June 24.