Baz Luhrmann, director of red Mill and of Romeo + Juliet unveiled the trailer for his film on Thursday Elvis. And the filmmaker also presented his vision of the King of rock.
“Great playwrights like Shakespeare did not write biographies. They took a life and used it as a canvas to explore a larger idea. A biographical film is a great idea, but take ‘Amadeus’ for example: it’s not the story of Mozart, it’s a film regarding jealousy,” explained Baz Lurhmann during the unveiling press conference of the trailer ofElvisan event in which the QMI Agency participated.
“Several musical icons have been very important in my life. I was a fan of Elvis, but that love isn’t the reason I wanted to make a movie regarding him. In our time, the life of Elvis mightn’t be a better canvas for exploring 1950s, 60s and 70s America. Elvis had a mythical life. In 42 years, he has lived three great lives. And what is interesting is that this existence is at the heart of the culture of these three decades.
Photo courtoisie Hugh Stewart
While talking with his musicians and doing a lot of research at Graceland, the filmmaker discovered that “one of his former collaborators insisted that Elvis was weird when he was young and that he was shocking. The question I then asked myself was how I might translate “strange and shocking” for a contemporary audience. So there are times when the film is totally faithful to reality, but there are also passages that are an interpretation more than a transcription.
“The other element that interested me is Colonel Tom Parker, who I say was never a Colonel, never Tom and never Parker.” Played by Tom Hanks, the character tells the story of Elvis Presley, an outside eye that serves as a catalyst to explore the musical and social aspects of the three decades.
When Austin Butler is asked regarding his reasons for accepting the role of the King, the actor explains that “there were a lot of reasons. Basically, it was to explore his humanity. Elvis had become a reflection of the society of the time, he was an icon and was considered superhuman.
Singing…
“I was 27 when I was chosen, I am 30 today. I’ve been living in his psyche for a while,” said the comedian.
“When I started this process, I had set myself the goal of having the same voice as him. I didn’t want anyone to hear the difference between a recording of his voice and mine. And I held on for a long time. For a year before shooting started, I worked with voice coaches six days a week to get the same inflections. Eventually, I had to break free.”
“It has been a privilege to be able to go to Nashville to record with some of the best gospel orchestras. The gospel had an immense influence on Elvis, in his spirituality, in his music, in his way of moving as well as in the freedom of his body,” he said.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture
Baz Luhrmann made a point of specifying that “technically, one cannot use the recordings of Elvis which date before the years 1960 because they were carried out in mono. Austin therefore sings the young Elvis and, from the 1960s, we mix the two voices.
Recalling that his Elvis is a canvas allowing him to touch on many social subjects, the Australian filmmaker painting a complex portrait of the young people of the time. “The previous generation had been at war. Adolescence was a whole new invention. Why? Because the teenagers had money, radios. The social networks of the time were the radio. What were the teenagers doing at night? They were listening to black music on their transistors. And this is the beginning of the phenomenon.
“The sexual revolution, initiated by rock, was terrifying. The liberation of the younger generation was all the more terrifying because it was linked to the complicated race relations in the United States”, underlined Baz Luhrmann.
- Elvis hits theaters on June 24.