Elvis and Marilyn | The Press

February 2022. The movie trailer Elvis just got out. It gives the taste. After Bohemian Rhapsody recounting the life and work of Freddie Mercury and Rocket Man telling those of Elton John, immersing yourself for more than two hours in the life and work of Elvis Presley is a very exciting invitation. An extraordinary destiny and catchy tunes. We recognize the touch of director Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge meets Memphis. It’s gonna be big ‘stie! as an imitator of the famous rocker would say.

Summer 2022. That’s it. The film is on the screens. The tone is set from the start. After the Warner Brothers logo, we can read a motto set with precious stones, like the enormous belts of the King, Vegas version: “A life lived in fear is a life half lived. »

Elvis is not a musical. Elvis is a scary movie. And the spooky villain is Col. Tom Parker, the singer’s impresario, played by a deformed Tom Hanks. Looks like an evil Batman character. The Penguin version fairground. The whole extraordinary career of the king of rock’n’roll is delivered in this gloomy atmosphere. Through the eyes of a deranged manipulator. Even the musical scenes are loaded with angst. The exalted release of a star too often stifled and the hysterical madness of a crowd too long bullied.

If you thought you were swaying on Hound Dog Where Blue Suede Shoes, It’s not that. Your heart is beating, not your hips. Elvis is not a feel good movie. It’s a feel bad moviee.

You thought you would come out of it cracked, you come out of it dejected. Almost disappointed. Then you realize that your expectations were disappointing. Who had no report. How can you think the Elvis story was going to be uplifting? Luhrmann is right. The story of Elvis is toxic, so toxic that he died. And his film makes us live his life which is a slow death.

A few weeks later, we learn of the fall release of a Netflix film recounting the fate of Marilyn Monroe: Blonde hair, from director Andrew Dominik. Marilyn, the greatest sex symbol of all time. An eternal myth. We say to ourselves that it will be glamour, sensual, Hollywood. And tragic, of course, we are not so naive, we know the end.

Then the view appears on our screen and we realize that Blonde hair is not a tragic film, it is a hyper tragic film. Intolerably tragic. From the first second to the last. Not a moment of respite.

Art, love and success will not change Norma Jean’s journey. It will always be hell for this broken child, for this exploited woman-child.

You watch the film as one watches misfortune. The sad eyes, the heavy soul. The photo direction is great, but the beautiful images only make the actions and intentions uglier. You wanted to see Marilyn’s life, you are forced to live it. And that hurts. Dominik succeeded in his work. Make you feel the distress of the star. It’s just not easy to manage. Still.

Because Marilyn and Elvis have always been part of our lives. These are two cults. Beauty and fame. Elvis Presley was the ideal man of the XX^e century. Marilyn Monroe was the ideal woman of the XX^e century. We envied them, having it all wrong.

Happiness is not to be the most beautiful. Happiness is not being the most beautiful. Happiness is to be well. And Elvis was not well. And Marilyn was fine.

We must stop believing that everything depends on our body. That the more it arouses envy, the more beautiful our life will be. We have to work on our inside, more than our outside. It’s even more complicated. It is not money or fame that will solve our problems. It’s having people we love and who love us. That too is more complicated. To find, but above all to detect. Knowing how to appreciate the real, the sincere. Those with whom it will be good to move forward.

Cinema is increasingly becoming a reflection of the anxiety-provoking world in which we are trying to survive. Joker, The Batman, Elvis, Blonde hair, so many popular feature films that take us apart, sink us. Before, we watched a movie for entertainment. To lighten up. Now, we go to the sights to bring ourselves face to face with a reality that we try too hard to flee. Our inner pain. The film makes a small hole in us, to evacuate the pressure. In the end, it also lightens, but it is more stressful.

If the films about the life of Elvis and Marilyn move us so much, it’s because it’s about the fate of two strangers who have become stars, and mean a lot to us. It is up to us to use it to be more sensitive to the fate of all the known and unknown, who could mean much more to us.