{"id":23437,"date":"2022-06-03T13:30:57","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T09:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=215366"},"modified":"2022-06-03T13:30:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T09:30:57","slug":"elvis-cannes-2022","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/elvis-cannes-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"The King Is In The Building In Cannes: Austin Butler Says Exploring Elvis Was \u201cThe Joy Of My Life\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Austin
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 26: Austin Butler attends the photocall for “Elvis” during the 75th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 26, 2022 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Samir Hussein\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANNES, FRANCE: All was quiet along the French Riviera on Wednesday morning, so quiet in fact that you could hear the moored boats gently tapping their respective wharves. Caf\u00e9s along Rue du Commandant Andr\u00e9 \u2013 a usually bustling strip for tourists \u2013 had all but a couple of guests enjoying their mid-morning piccolos. Even the journalist\u2019s terrace at the Palais de Festivals had swapped his usual audio of world accents for a choir of seagulls, with many members of the press taking the morning to rest.<\/p>\n

But come 6.30pm \u2013 a very rockstar hour to start the day \u2013 and the city of Cannes is alive. A sea of photographers in tuxes root their legs in position on the red carpet at the Grand Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Lumi\u00e8re. Makeup artists trail their famous clients out of hotels, ensuring one final stroke of illuminator makes it to the cheekbone. Sleek, black BMWs line the la Croisette, many with blacked-out windows to protect the identities of the stars inside.<\/p>\n

One of them has American actor Austin Butler – who was recently named the newest ambassador of Cartier – travelling in its back, another Australian actress Olivia DeJonge. The young stars play Elvis and Priscilla Presley in Baz Luhrmann\u2019s Elvis<\/em>, an epic, 159-minute biopic tracing the King\u2019s rise to fame in the 50s, his marriage to Priscilla and his very complex relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks).<\/p>\n

\"Austin
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 25: Olivia DeJonge and Austin Butler attend the screening of “Elvis” during the 75th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 25, 2022 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Samir Hussein\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Austin
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 25: (L to R) Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge attend the screening of “Elvis” during the 75th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 25, 2022 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I walk into the press screening, I ask one journalist why he has chosen to watch this Cannes season\u2019s golden ticket from the corner seat in the back row.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel like I can take all of Baz in if I\u2019m sitting further away,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

One minute into the film, I knew that man was right. Frenetic flashing montages, retro animations, split screens and colour, colour, colour. Luhrmann knows the past two years have been devoid of cinematic experiences and, in Elvis<\/em>, he\u2019s wasted no time in jump-starting our love for the theatrical with this highly melodramatic, fast-paced and buzzy sensory overload \u2013 one that should only<\/em> be experienced in the cinema. It\u2019s a Baz-illion times more Baz than we\u2019ve ever seen, and I, for one, was overjoyed. It\u2019s a dizzying good time.<\/p>\n