Elvis: Cannes’s most insane acting performance of 2022?

Who better to add atmosphere to Croisette than Buzz Luhrmann? Since the launch of his first full-length film, Ballroom Dancing, in 1992, the Australian director has taken on the responsibility of opening fireworks: in 2001 with Moulin Rouge, then in 2013, thanks to The Great Gatsby. Nine years later he returned to the south of France with Elvis, one of the most anticipated opus of this edition.

After a peculiar revision of Romeo and Juliet, then Gatsby, Buzz Luhrmann treats the monument: Elvis Presley. Or the epitome of cool and rock. A true icon who deserved a biographical film with an image of the madness he created when he kissed her hips on stage and broke the shackles of Puritan and Segregationist America.

The star appears as a superhero in a whirlwind of images, sounds and music. And the story told by his troubled and unreliable manager, Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), compares his career to the history of the United States, one of the catalysts of which was the 1950s and 1970s.

After Kurt Russell, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, or Michael Shannon, Elvis is portrayed by Austin Butler, who discovered specifically in the series Kerry Diaries, Sex and the City, or the Shanara Chronicles. The now 30-year-old American actor has beaten Harry Styles, Ansel Elgort, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Miles Teller to play the role of his life. And the third film in Cannes, The Dead Do Not Die, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The stars at the time were Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Adam Driver (in Jim Jarmusch), or Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio (in front of Quentin Tarantino’s camera). This time he is in the spotlight. Despite its existence Tom Hanks And Baz Luhrmann’s love rating. Because we only see it on screen. And it does not take long to realize that we are witnessing something spectacular. As much as the movie.

If the makeup, hairstyle and costumes (signed by Catherine Martin, the director’s usual chief decorator and costume designer) obviously help the resemblance. But the actor was able to tone the king’s voice and, above all, his physicality and energy. On and off concert stages. The result is simply stunning, so much so that sometimes we wonder if we are looking at archival images of real Elvis, or reworked plans to create that impression.


“We were all lucky that he was the captain in the film: he is passionate and hardworking, which makes him a great stage partner.”Told us by Olivia Dejong, Priscilla Presley translator, in April. “One of my first wonderful memories from filming was attending one of his performances and his disappearance beyond the character as he sang and danced. It was an amazing watch and the whole set was excited every time they were making it. “And he worked for a very long time, for an incredible result. Watching him was magical.”

My body started to close the next day after Elvis graduated.

The result of long work and full investment on his part, this magic will have dire and unexpected consequences for the actor, who was taken to the hospital after the filming ended when his body revolted: “The next day I woke up in excruciating pain and was taken to the hospital”He explains QG. “My body started closing after Elvis finished.” More fear than harm upon arrival because it was the “only” virus that gives the same sensations as appendicitis.

Starring in July 2019, Austin Butler began filming in January 2020. But the footage, due to Covid, lasted until March 2021. So the actor spent more than a year and a half in Elvis’s skin, which may explain this violent decompression. . Which is obviously just a distant memory for the actor who conquered the Cannes Film Festival while the whole world was waiting for his performance.

Talk about rubbing salt in my wounds – d’oh! And maybe more. Do we accept bets?