Photo: Warner Bros. A few days ago, I was minding my own business in the Cannes press lounge when I heard an Australian voice cut through the din: “Illviss is bed. End Tuhm Henks iss tuhribble.” I couldn’t tell if this woman had actually seen Elvis, or whether she was merely relaying information she’d heard secondhand, but either way, it was proof the buzz for Baz Luhrmann’s rock-and-roll blockbuster was not good.
The Baz Luhrmann version of a rock biopic goes like this: Take all the beats you remember from films like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman — from the evil manager to the mouthfuls of pills to the partner who represents everything good and pure in this world because you needed their permission to get the rights — then remix them to add Neptunes hi-hats and Max Martin’s greatest hits. In comedy they have a rule: Don’t put a hat on a hat. Baz Luhrmann spits on this rule.
At the film’s press conference, cast and crew attempted to explain themselves to mere mortals. Luhrmann revealed that he was inspired by Shakespeare’s history plays, and also Amadeus, both of which spun real facts into grand fables. “I wanted it to be present now,” he said. Hence the hip-hop. “The lyrics to ‘Hound Dog’ were salacious, rude, unacceptable in polite society.