It gave me the opportunity to show what a vulnerable, tender, kind and very, very empathetic person he was, says Baz Luhrmann.
In the film, Luhrmann intersperses concert footage from Elvis' long stay in Las Vegas in the early 1970s with magazine photos, clips from some feature films, backstage photos and, not least, excerpts from a 40-minute interview in which Elvis talks about his life.
It has always been about how others have talked about and told stories about Elvis. Here he is doing it himself. And you get a whole new picture of what he was like, not least how funny he was, which is noticeable in the rehearsal films. He was really funny and sometimes a little silly, says Luhrmann and continues:
Deep down, he was a vulnerable guy whose father had been in prison. They made him into a kind of god, who had an unparalleled gift when it came to music. But he always tried to make people feel relaxed. He made them feel comfortable.
“Cool guy”
Luhrmann tells how as a child he lived in a small country town where the cinema often showed Elvis films and how he thought: “Wow, who is this cool guy?” Then his interest in David Bowie, Elton John and others took over.
As an adult, he returned to Elvis and had the premiere of the feature film about the American icon in 2022.
That was the way into the documentary. Elvis was a fantastic stage performer, but how interesting was he as a person? The more I watched him, the more interesting and fascinating he became to me.
Baz Luhrmann found the material from the concerts in Las Vegas by chance.
I got a tip and found 67 boxes covered in dust. That's where my journey began. Some fans will say "we've seen some of this before" - yes, but that was poor second-hand quality; we made it look new.
“No one like him”
Elvis Presley loved music, notes Luhrmann.
He could take a song like “Bridge over troubled water” and turn it into powerful gospel. He created the music, arranged it with his voice. And the movie ends when he is in the prime of his life. We wanted to remind you of when he was at his best, when there was no one like him.
Luhrmann's next film is about Joan of Arc, starring Isla Johnston. It will be a mega-budget film shot in Australia.
We're building the French castles there, because the ones that still exist in France don't look like they did in the 15th century. We'll start filming late this year or early 2027.
Age: 63.
Family: Wife Catherine Martin, two children.
Lives: In Sydney.
Profession: Director, producer and screenwriter.
Previous films in selection: "Strictly Ballroom", "Romeo & Juliet", "Moulin Rouge", "Australia", "The Great Gatsby", "Elvis".
Current: "Epic: Elvis Presley in concert" which has a Swedish cinema premiere on 27 February.
