(ANSA) - CANNES, MAY 26 - Baz Luhrmann, the visionary Australian director of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge !, The Great Gatsby, makes films as epic feats with studies, preparations, obsessive attention to detail from the costumes to the last role.
And he binds himself emotionally to his works, he is the first to be shaken by them.
So at the press conference for Elvis in Cannes, where yesterday the world premiere, with the protagonists Austin Butler and Tom Hanks (in addition to the Maneskins), he had a triumphal reception by immediately launching the film in the Oscar 2023 area, Luhrmann was almost moved by telling what had happened.
Priscilla Presley, the woman that the king of rock 'n roll had married in 1967 to separate in 1973 while remaining tied to her, had already seen the film privately and approved, with a statement released on social media.
Yesterday the widow, 77 years old,
Luhrmann underlined how he wanted to bring out in the film the cultural context in which Elvis was born, the Mississippi, the deep poor South American, who grew up on the street in a black community.
"I love that audiences understand what his beginnings there meant and how powerful his inspiration was. Elvis' love of gospel and blues was a genuine reaction to the music he was listening to growing up, being the only white family in a world. black neighborhood in Memphis. "The music that came out of Elvis was the music of his childhood and adolescence, the one he absorbed into his friendships with up-and-coming black musicians, such as BB King.
Elvis - continued Luhrmann - all his life he didn't ask, 'I didn't invent Rock and Roll, I just gave my interpretation.
I'm not the king '".
