The Cannes Film Festival calendar is drawing to a close, and Elvis, the highlight of this year's screenings, has finally been unveiled. After the world premiere, the audience gave the film a twelve-minute standing ovation, the most popular of all the films that have been shown so far. However, after the special media screening on the other side, many film critics gave it a relatively low score, which made people wonder if the audience on both sides were watching the same film.

Director Baz Luhmann (left) and star Austin Butler. People's Vision Illustration

Elvis Presley, the legendary American musician, is the new work of director Baz Luhmann after nearly a decade since 2013's The Great Gatsby. Nine years ago, "The Great Gatsby" also held its world premiere in Cannes, and the reviews were equally polarized. In fact, since Luhmann started filming, various works including "Romeo and Juliet" and "Moulin Rouge" have often been loved by the audience who loved it, and the audience who didn't love it complained that it was only superficial and exaggerated.

"Elvis" is scheduled to be released in North America and other places on June 24.

Luhmann has been in Cannes for a long time, going to Cannes for the first time in 1992 to find investment for his debut film, Strictly Ballroom. In 2001, "Moulin Rouge" came to the Cannes screening, accompanied by Luhmann and star Nicole Kidman on the red carpet, it was Thierry Fumau, who had just taken up the artistic director of Cannes that year. That was the first time for Fummer to walk the red carpet in Cannes, which left a deep impression on him and made him and Luhmann become close friends. This time, "Elvis" can come to Cannes for its world premiere, and there is naturally a friendship behind it.

On May 25, 2022, local time, in Cannes, France, at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, the out-of-competition biopic "Elvis" premiered on the red carpet. IC diagram

It is said that Luhmann has been preparing for "Elvis" for ten years, and has done a lot of work before the official start of shooting. With his data collection team, he also moved to Memphis, the hometown of Elvis Presley, to live for a while, in order to better understand the growing environment of "Elvis" in his childhood. "Elvis lives with his mother, and the family conditions are very poor, so he was assigned by the government to live in such a black community." Luman said, "But the school is in a white community, so he wore clothes every day when he was a child. You have to go through the whole black neighborhood before you can go to school."
Luman introduced at the media conference: "The most important point of this film is to show the background of Elvis growing up as a child. Like Eminem many years later, they both grew up in the black community, when they were young What they absorb will have a profound impact on their personal growth." "The music Elvis made in the future is inseparable from the friendship between him and BB King, who were not well-known African music newcomers at the time."
While living in Memphis, Luhmann also specifically visited "Elvis"'s childhood neighbor, Sam Bell, who revealed to him a lot of their childhood memories. "They formed a little gang, went to black bars, went to gospel meetings together. Among these young people, Elvis absorbed all kinds of nutrients and got a lot of things he couldn't get from his mother." In September of last year, Sam Bell tragically passed away, and Luhmann's rescue interview has left a valuable asset for the film and related research work on the life of "Elvis".
Although the preparations were well done, after the filming of "Elvis" began, unexpected troubles were encountered. The first is that Tom Hanks, the manager of "Elvis" Parker, unfortunately contracted the new crown pneumonia. At that time, it was in the early stage of the global spread of the new crown pneumonia, and the outside world had limited understanding of this new epidemic. Therefore, it was a big question mark whether the entire film could be successfully completed.

Tom Hanks plays Parker, the manager of Elvis.

"Looking back now, the situation at that time seems to have been a long, long time ago. At that time, people all over the world never thought that the new crown pneumonia would have such a powerful force and affect us so deeply." Luman said at the press conference , "But in a sense, it also gave me a chance to breathe. I used that time to rethink the structure of the whole film, and now you see the entire first act, all of which are the epidemic lockdown. During this time, I changed it again."
Even so, the media's bad comments have been placed in front of everyone. Perhaps because of this, the director emphasized at the press conference: Compared with anyone else's opinion, the most important thing to him is the opinion of Priscilla Presley, the ex-wife of "Elvis". "She told me, 'If my husband could see Austin Butler perform, he would say, oh my God, you're me.'
Likewise, their daughter, Lisa Pressley, responded positively after seeing the film, especially affirming Butler's performance, saying he has a good chance of winning an Oscar. In fact, Harry Styles and Miles Teller were considered for the "Elvis" character in the film, and ultimately didn't feel like a good fit until Austin Butler's audition tape was received.

"Elvis" played by Butler

Austin Butler has been acting in obscurity since he was 13 years old, and his best moment was a few years ago when he played murderer Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In the audition video, Butler sang "Unchained Melody" affectionately, which immediately moved the director Luhmann, and decided to star in him. Luhmann learned later that when Butler sang this song, he was thinking about his dead mother, which can be said to reveal his true feelings.

"Elvis" star at a press conference. People's Vision Illustration

At the press conference, Butler revealed that he spent two whole years immersing himself in the character of "Elvis" and put down almost everything else. He carefully pondered the different ways of singing, speaking and walking of "Elvis" in each period, and tried to be vivid. Perhaps because he was too involved in the role, the young Butler fell down completely the day after "Elvis" was completed. When he was admitted to the hospital, he was found to be infected with a virus similar to appendicitis, and he was discharged from the hospital after lying in bed for a week. At present, although a large number of film critics have been quite harsh on "Elvis", the media people have all praised Butler's performance. I believe that over time, his acting career in Hollywood will become wider and wider.
To be honest, for the current film market, the story of "Elvis" is by no means an eye-catching subject. After all, as the American film critic Anne Thompson said: "If you are 25 years old this year, it means that Elvis Presley has been dead for 20 years when you were born." And the 25-year-old movie audience , which may represent the most dominant moviegoers in the United States and the world today. Due to the impact of the epidemic, middle-aged and elderly audiences in the United States are reluctant to leave their homes and return to the theater. Including "West Side Story" and "Downton Abbey 2", many works targeting middle-aged and elderly audiences are not ideal at the box office after their release. For the 2 hours and 39 minutes of "Elvis", which will be released in North America on the 24th of next month, with a production cost of 150 million US dollars, this is also the most important issue facing the producer Warner.
"Indeed, young people don't care about 'Elvis'." Director Luman also admitted this frankly in an interview with the media. "But in a way, it's also a good thing. Because it means they don't have preconceived ideas and can watch the film with a very honest attitude."