There are stressful moments, like “Moulin Rouge!”, when Mr. Luhrmann and Mrs. Martin found a fax that someone had accidentally left in the machine, urging the studio to take it over because “Baz out of control But if it’s not impossibly hard to give birth, it’s not Baz-y.
CM, as Ms. Martin is known, brings her husband’s enchanted worlds to life with lavish sets and costumes. She admitted that the magnitude of Mr. Luhrmann’s dreams, wanting to find “the best of the best of the best,” can make her feel like Harrison Ford is running to escape the rock in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” .
During the first week of May, Mr. Luhrmann to complete the mixing and editing of “Elvis” for its premiere in Cannes this weekend, one month before its wide release on June 24. He flew from Australia, where the film was made, to New York to Los Angeles and back to New York before going to France. And he also helped direct the Met Gala and walked the red carpet wearing a Prada “Elvis Decorative Aesthetic” outfit, as he put it, accompanied by Priscilla Presley, eerily on the arm of the movie Elvis, the 30-year-old Austin Butler.
Mr. Luhrmann, who calls himself a ‘research nut’, wrote the screenplay with three other writers. Immersed in his films, he surrounds himself with excavations from the world he creates, from curtains to wardrobe to photographs.
During “Gatsby,” he said with a laugh, “I think we went a bit far with the speakeasy part of it.” He and Mrs. Martin also flew to England so they could sail to New York on an ocean liner like Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
‘He makes coffee nervous’
On the afternoon of our interview, Mr. Luhrmann, skinny at age 59, was wearing flared black Celine jeans and Acne Western boots, a Prada sweater in a blue preferred by Elvis, a double diamond ring, a copy of Elvis’ “EP” ring, a pearl necklace and a gold “TCB” necklace with a diamond lightning bolt, a riff on the jewelry worn by Elvis and the Memphis mafia that quickly meant “Taking Care of Business”. And he showed off a replica of the bejeweled belt with gold chains Elvis wore on stage in the 1970s.
