At the end of each show, in order to prevent fans from running after him and tearing off his clothes, the security men shouted “Elvis has left the building”. In fact, this American singer who died too young, at the age of 42, and in full glory has never been erased from collective memory. It is still in people’s minds. Besides his extraordinary voice, which is eternal and which has not taken a single wrinkle when he was tired, puffy, slack during the last years of his life, his destiny was not ordinary either. Growing up in the black neighborhoods of Memphis, in the worst years of segregation, he was nourished by African-American culture, their gospel. Little Elvis was inhabited by the spirits of song and the spirituality of black performers. Reside ? Yes, because his swaying, his fidgeting on stage translated the rhythm inherent in his own person who went into a trance when he sang. When certain senators of the time decided to prevent him from moving on stage, he confessed that he could not help it, “the swaying goes with the song”, he said.
Austin Butler as Elvis in the Baz Luhrmann biopic. Photo Warner Bros. Pictures
A crazy and stylish image
It is the journey of this global and universal phenomenon that the Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann wanted to follow. Not to make a simple biopic of it, but also to explore a social phenomenon that dangled the weaknesses and vices of America at the time.
In the film, it all starts with the character of Colonel Tom Parker who took care of Elvis Presley’s career for 20 years. A role masterfully performed by actor Tom Hanks, completely transformed for the occasion. On his hospital bed, he almost apologizes to the public, saying, “They say I killed Elvis. How could I kill him when I created him? »
Admittedly, he created it “in the media”, affirms the director of Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby, but his talent, his personality, his human potential were already the work of God. Under this great “big top” of humanity with flamboyant and shimmering colors – Luhrmann loves circus atmospheres – reproduced by the dynamism and mad energy of a jerky, intense camera, which mixes past and present in harmony, we are witness how Elvis Presley, played by the young Austin Butler, spreads his wings to fly very high. How he will impose his style by becoming a bridge between a deeply racist America and one that will learn tolerance. The Australian filmmaker anchors the star deeply in his time. He first deciphers, through close-ups, the sociological phenomenon when the prudish young ladies, their eyes out of their sockets, quiver with pleasure at the first swaying of the one who will become the King. It makes him react to the death of John and Bobby Kennedy as well as that of Martin Luther King, showing that Elvis was not a simple singing automaton but a generous, good and human being. A hitherto hidden face of the god of rock. Through the prism of his relations with Colonel Parker, which is revealed by Baz Luhrmann as a fraud, it is the other side of the singer that the public discovers. To understand how, all his life, Elvis was manipulated by a money-hungry impresario. The esthete and perfectionist filmmaker has produced a film as spectacular as it is touching, as authentic as it is nostalgic, imbued with a multitude of emotions. A visual and sound slap that leaves you stunned from the beginning to the end of the film. For producer Gail Berman, Elvis goes beyond the framework of a simple biopic: “It is thanks to Baz Luhrmann who was able to perceive in Elvis Presley not only the human dimension, but also a captivating and mythical figure through which to tell the story of America, she told Allô Ciné. Baz is one of the few who knows how to tell a compelling story from the start while exploring deep and salient themes. »
Everything you need to know about the biopic “Elvis”
In the skin of Elvis
When he heard about the project, young comedian Austin Butler “felt I had to let go of everything I was doing to get the part,” he said. Obsessed with the world of Elvis, he had to live up to the myth, especially when Baz Luhrmann told him that he would have to interpret certain songs himself: those from before 1960 because they could not be mixed, whereas the others were mixed with the voice of the actor (studio recordings). As for the great performances, Presley’s own recordings were used. It was also necessary to study the smallest “moves” (dance movements), which were very difficult to do, and to undergo 5-hour make-up sessions for each scene.
Location
The film was shot in Australia, Baz Luhrmann’s native country. The latter traveled the country to find the actors who would surround Austin Butler. Filming which began before the coronavirus pandemic had to be stopped because Tom Hanks and his wife contracted the virus. He resumed a year later.
Young talents
Baz Luhrmann was keen to bring together big names in music and new talent for the sake of authenticity, and so cast rising stars to portray several of the film’s major characters, including: Kelvin Harrison Jr as BB King; Shonka Dukureh – whose first role – in that of Big Mama Thornton; Yola in Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s.
The scenery and the set
With the exception of a few locations, the film was shot entirely in the gigantic Village Roadshow studios on Australia’s Gold Coast.
To reconstruct Graceland, the domain of Elvis Presley, production designers Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy had access to the archives of the Graceland Foundation. It took ten weeks to build the exterior of Graceland, but due to the pandemic lockdown, the set remained protected under a plastic tarp for almost a year. All vegetation had to be moved and kept in a safe place, but also watered and maintained during the interruption of filming, as did the lawns around the property.
In the film, Elvis sometimes takes refuge in clubs in Beale Street, Memphis, where he finds his friends. This outdoor set, built at Suntown Landfill over three months, was one of the largest and most complex to build. It was necessary to make the street slope, as it was at the time.
The costumes
The costume team had the challenge of covering three decades: the 50s, 60s and 70s. Austin Butler alone wears more than 90 different costumes. In the 1950s, Elvis bought most of his stage and street clothes at Lansky Bros. on Beale Street in Memphis. Catherine Martin and her team collaborated with Kim and Butch Polston of B&K Enterprises in Charlestown, Indiana, who made the exact replica of Elvis’ iconic 70s stage costume, with the blessing of Elvis’ costume designer Bill Belew. As for the outfits of Priscilla Presley, Catherine Martin has collaborated with the brands Prada and Miu Miu.
At the end of each show, in order to prevent fans from running after him and tearing off his clothes, the security men shouted “Elvis has left the building”. In fact, this American singer who died too young, at the age of 42, and in full glory has never been erased from collective memory. It is still rooted…