Reasons for you to see “Elvis”, the new film by Baz Luhrmann? The frantic editing, hallmark of the director. Austin Butler’s charisma in the lead role. The King’s Immortal Repertoire. I went to miss Graceland.
Of course, I also went for everything I mentioned before — and more: the fantastic recreation of the energy of his shows and the rescue of the strength of beautiful faces on the big screen (what was once called cinema). But what I really wanted was to revisit a place I met in 2012.
I went to Memphis, in the US state of Tennessee, with a mission to do a story for “Fantastic”. That year, Brazil would receive a super exhibition with relics of the “king of rock” and, to promote the event, none other than Priscilla Presley would open her house to me.
I was aware that I would explore a “sacred” place. From the DJ who for decades only played music by Elvis to the studio where he recorded his first hits, I was not disappointed in any encounter I had before: the idol’s energy was always there. But nowhere was she as strong as at Graceland.
Yes, I knew that Luhrmann hadn’t used his own house as a location. The entire film was shot in Queensland, Australia. But I was pretty sure the director wouldn’t settle for anything less than an identical replica of the Presleys’ post-colonial mansion.
And she was there on the movie screen, in all her grandeur. And, well… smallness! One of the things that struck me most when I entered that portico to be greeted by Priscilla was how relatively modest the house was.
Of course, we’re not talking about a hut, but behind the imposing facade, instead of sumptuousness, I felt welcome in very cozy spaces.
The entrance hall, very well explored in the scene in “Elvis” in which Priscilla decides to separate, is relatively small, as are the dining room (which also appears a lot) and the guest room. The feeling, strangely, was that I was walking through a dollhouse.
Perhaps the surreal trajectory of Elvis’ life contributed to this. Everything looks manufactured, from the intimate room decorated with Hawaiian-inspired “tiki” motifs (unfortunately not explored by Luhrmann) to the small stable for the pet horses.
And at the same time, everything felt so alive and vibrant. As, by the way, the director of “Elvis” knew how to pass very well in his film. In the minutiae of the details, the passport so that everyone could enter the magic of the universe of this idol.
Traveling the world, I’ve been to several places that I call “musical pilgrimage destinations”. The Père-Lachais cemetery, for example, in Paris, where, among so many artists, is buried Jim Morrison, the legend of The Doors.
I’ve also been to Amália Rodrigues’ house, in Lisbon. To the Carlos Gardel Museum in Buenos Aires, where the tango legend lived with his mother.
I visited CBGB several times in New York, before the place had its stage, where artists such as Velvet Underground, Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads passed, transformed into shelves for designer clothes.
Thanks to Skank for inviting me to interview them at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London. And, on more idiosyncratic scales, I went to the Beatles’ “ashram” in Rishkesh, India, and the birthplace of Freddie Mercury (Queen!) in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
From all these places I brought not only memories, but indescribable sounds that, far from being ghosts, are to this day as alive with me as, they say, Elvis himself.
He doubts? Then go to the cinema and check it out.
