From Memphis to Hollywood
Baz Luhrmann’s point of view Elvis was never going to be underestimated: “It’s not so much a movie as a 159-minute trailer for a movie called Elvis,” concluded Peter Bradshaw. Fast-rising Austin Butler plays Presley, with Tom Hanks as dastardly Colonel Tom Parker. It’s been two decades since Luhrmann made a decent film: the new one hits UK cinemas on June 24.
Solar sessions
Elvis had 21 No. 1 singles in the UK. Baz Luhrmann also achieved the feat with his Everyone is free (to wear sunscreen), an unexpected No. 1 in 1999. It was the era’s equivalent of a Live, Laugh, Love poster. It was a good year for one-shot wonderswith Mambo No 5, Blue (Da Ba De) and Mr Oizoit is flat beatwhich rebounded from Levi’s announcement to top the charts.
A French touch
Quentin Dupieux, the Frenchman behind Mr Oizo, also makes surrealist films. 2019’s Deerskin, a dark comedy about a vintage jacket, was the first to hit theaters in the UK. Among its cast is Albert Delpy, a prolific stage and film actor, as well as the father of Julie Depy – he played his on-screen father in two of his films and in his 2021 Netflix/Canal+ series On the Verge.
If the Shue fits
The show followed the Los Angeles lives of four friends in their late 40s, played by Delpy, Sarah Jones, Alexia Landeau and Elisabeth Shue. For a brief period in the 1990s, his brother Andrew Shue almost became the most recognizable Shue, with his role as Billy in Melrose Place. He also had a small football career, even occasionally playing for The Galaxy while on TV.
The wedding plot
Joining a character arc as Nurse Benson mid-Melrose Place was Priscilla Presley. Long before turning to Dallas and the Naked Guns, she married Elvis in 1967. She is played in Luhrmann’s film by Australian actress Olivia DeJonge, previously seen in Netflix’s ‘sci-fi Dawson’s Creek’ The Society. And with that, this mysterious train comes to the end of the line.
Pairing notes
Lily Greil Marcus’ revered 1975 book Mystery Train examines American culture through rock ‘n’ roll – in 1991 he followed up with Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession.
Beverage In 2015, Luhrmann and costume designer wife Catherine Martin collaborated inside the Faena Hotel Miami Beach. Their signature cocktail includes vodka, champagne, aperol, rose and hibiscus.