The King of Rock and Roll at the Cannes Film Festival: the highly anticipated «Elvis», a biopic by Baz Luhrmann dedicated to the famous singer, was presented out of competition.
In a narrative that follows his personal history and career, of particular relevance is the relationship with his manager, with whom Elvis will weave an artistic partnership lasting about twenty years. The film focuses precisely on this complex relationship, from the growth of the first rock star in history to the achievement of world fame, a peak never before reached by any other star with so much vehemence. All while America is experiencing a socio-cultural upheaval, which will lead to great changes.
Classic narration of an incredible ascent followed by bad falls, in “Elvis” you can feel very much the presence behind the camera of Baz Luhrmann, Australian director who includes in his career films such as “Romeo + Juliet”, “Moulin Rouge »And« The Great Gatsby ». Luhrmann’s overabundant and stunning style shines through above all in a decidedly brilliant first part, where the staging manages to drag the viewer into Elvis’s spectacular performances. it becomes more conventional and a victim of too many stereotypes about how to manage a biopic, losing some of its initial momentum.
An interesting point of view
Playing with the temporality of the tale, the film adopts an interesting point of view, using the memories of Colonel Parker to reconstruct the fundamental stages of Elvis’s musical career. The idea is curious and not trivial, albeit with some too much didacticism towards the conclusion. It is an enjoyable film «Elvis», even if fluctuating due to an evocative but in the long run tiring audiovisual bombardment, which tries to hide some limitations of a script that is not always engaging. Very good performance by the protagonist Austin Butler, a young actor who works hard, while Tom Hanks is less intense in the role of the manager.
It should be noted that, again out of competition, a beautiful documentary on David Bowie entitled “Moonage Daydream” was presented in Cannes in recent days, which we hope to see soon in Italy as well.
Broker
In competition, an excellent author like Claire Denis has proposed a very disappointing film like “Stars at Noon”, while once again convincing Hirokazu Kore-Eda with “Broker”. The great Japanese director, Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018 for the beautiful «A family affair», he makes his debut here in Korean, signing a film fully in his strings. At the center of her is a young mother in difficulty, who decides to abandon her newborn in a facility box. Instead of being welcomed by social workers, the child will be secretly taken into custody by two men who claim to want to find the best family for him to grow up in.