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The Cannes Film Festival audience trembled for Austin Butler as the King at the world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”
The film received a standing ovation for 12 minutes, the longest of this year’s festival to date.
As the applause moved on and on, a tear-eyed butler hugged an equally excited Priscilla Presley, who flew to the south of France to give her the blessing for the film about her late husband.
The musical drama of Warner Bros. caused Cannes to spontaneously burst into applause as Butler recreated some of Presley’s greatest hits such as “Jailhouse Rock”, “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Suspicious Minds”.
PRISCILLA PRESLEY PRAISES ELVIS BIOPIA WITH AUSTIN BUTLER: “I HAD BIG SHOES TO FILL”
Priscilla Presley attends the ‘Elvis’ photocall during the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 26, 2022 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
“Elvis” is one of the most important titles to be screened at Cannes, with a carpet full of stars including Sharon Stone, Shakira, Kylie Minogue, Diplo, Jeremy O. Harris and the Italian rock band Måneskin.
It wasn’t just the power of celebrities lighting up the red carpet: Warner Bros. CEO Discovery, David Zaslav, dropped his Chinese uniform and Sun Valley tech vests and wiped himself in a black tie, licking his hair behind his ear, perhaps as a tribute. to the King. The tycoon climbed the stairs with super producer Gail Berman, who was pastor of Luhrmann’s latest, and was sitting in the auditorium next to Butler’s girlfriend, model Kaia Gerber. Warner Bros Pictures Group chief Toby Emmerich was also part of the field executive group.
At the lush later party of the film, Zaslav was surprised by the reception of the film. He told Variety that the night before, Butler had shown the film for the first time, with his girlfriend Gerber, and they were both crying.
The Palace audience was especially in love with actor Alton Mason, who plays Little Richard. In an earlier scene where Presley is partying with BB King legend, newcomer Mason dazzled with a rendition of “Tutti Frutti,” complete with acrobatic dance moves. Mason, who began as a model and dancer, earned half-screen applause.
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Austin Butler, who played Elvis Presley in the biopic, alongside Priscilla Presley at the Cannes Film Festival. (Photo by Samir Hussein / WireImage)
With the audience still standing, Luhrmann hugged his cast members and was clearly moved by the warm public reception of “Elvis.” Picking up the microphone as he wiped the tears from his eyes, he recalled his first experience at Cannes for “Strictly Ballroom.”
“I had a bit of an epiphany because 30 years ago, my wife and I made a little movie called ‘Strictly Ballroom,’ but in our movie we had an exhibitor who gave us a screen, watch the movie and he left before he finished and said, “This is the worst movie I’ve ever seen and you’ve ruined your career. [Pat Thomson]”She was a mother.”
Luhrmann continued: “Anyway, we went up the coast and my hair was very long and we were staying in a caravan park and I was saying, ‘This movie will never go well,’ so I started shaving. And I got a phone call and it was a French man, and he had a tin bucket over my head because the night before someone had been killed by a coconut that fell from a tree. , a voice said, ‘Hello, my name is [former festival director] Pierre Rissient, I am from the Cannes Film Festival, we have seen your film and we would like to offer you a screening at 12 in the morning at the Palau … And at the end of the [screening in Cannes]I remember a security guard coming … and he grabbed me and said, “Sir, from now on, your life will never be the same again.”
Embracing current festival director Thierry Fremaux, Luhrmann said that when COVID hit and “Elvis” closed, it looked like “it would never happen.”
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Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley were married from 1967 to 1973. (Getty Images)
“But for the courage of [Tom Hanks] come back, and the courage of this cast and this team to go through COVID and finish this film, and we’re back in Cannes, and see these streets so full of people who love movies, of all lifestyles and all the background and every kind of movie, there’s so much more about what this place means and what it means to go back to the movies. And for that, we are eternally grateful, Cannes. All I can say is, “Thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you very much.”
Luhrmann’s films are often exaggerated and extravagant, which is exactly the atmosphere that Warner Bros. led to the director’s world premiere of “Elvis” at the Cannes Film Festival. The studio surprised those attending the premiere with a concert on the beach after the film’s debut screening.
Luhrmann featured guest DJ Diplo, who premiered an original song from the “Elvis” soundtrack with Swae Lee and Butler. Italian glam rock band and Eurovision winner Måneskin also performed their soundtrack single at the Majestic Beach Club party, where Butler and Gerber danced all night.
The party was also attended by a Walt Disney Company ambassador, Peter Rice, president of Disney General Entertainment Content. He tilted his hat to Warner Bros. and compared the film to “an aria.”
PRISCILLA PRESLEY SAYS SHE WOULD GET ‘NERVOUS’ LEAVING ELVIS ALONE: ‘EVERYONE WOULD BE IN FRONT OF HIM’
The performance was preceded by an electrifying drone show with lights depicting the figure, name and motto of Elvis TCB, accompanied by music.
“Elvis” is Luhrmann’s first directing effort since “The Great Gatsby” in 2013, which also premiered worldwide at the Cannes Film Festival. Butler stars in the lead role alongside Tom Hanks as the famous Elvis coach, Colonel Tom Parker; Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla; Kodi Smit-McPhee, the recent Oscar nominee for “The Power of the Dog,” as country legend Jimmie Rodgers; Yola Quartey as Sister Rosetta Tharpe; and Kelvin Harrison Jr. with BB King.
Prior to the world premiere of “Elvis” in Cannes, the film received rave reviews from three of the music icon’s family members: Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley and granddaughter Riley Keough. Lisa Marie described the film as “nothing out of the ordinary”, adding: “Austin channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul in a wonderful way. In my humble opinion, his performance has no and if it doesn’t win an Oscar, then I’ll eat my own foot. “
Keough told Variety in Cannes that he started crying for the first five minutes after seeing “Elvis,” adding: “I felt the work that Baz and Austin put in to try to do well. I felt honored that they were really hard to really get their essence, to feel their essence. Austin captured it so beautifully. “
Warner Bros. will release “Elvis” in US theaters on June 24. The film joined “Top Gun: Maverick” as two Hollywood stores at the world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.