I grew up watching Elvis movies in the afternoon session and I remember when in 1977 I saw the announcement of his death on TV, so this movie speaks directly to part of my childhood.
The story is told through the eyes of his manager and shows the beginning and his rise and premature death.
Going to the subject we always deal with, the Cinematographer of the Australian Mandy Walker, in my opinion, had a sensitivity and at the same time an insight.
In the first part of the film, when Elvis begins to discover music and he is in a church where gospel singing takes place, he enters the church and goes to the center of the singing and there is a game of light and shadow, which in fact marks the film , in the middle of the shadow comes a strong light coming from above, symbolizing the birth, the blessing, the new life, the emergence, in the end… When I saw that light on Elvis’ face and body, still a boy, I thought I could already end there, one of the most impactful scenes I’ve seen.
The film has a beautiful play of light and shadows, in my opinion a relationship between joy and sadness, you see Elvis and you see backstage, it’s a relationship of joy and stress the whole time.
Other moments in which this duality between light and shadows takes place are her enchantment with B.B. King and earlier when he left his initial label and went to RCA, music’s major label.
When he falls in love with Priscila, there is a variation, the two are leaning against the window, at night, and when they kiss there is a light coming through the window from behind, a moonlight, which symbolizes an aura of divine light, very common in pictures of a religious nature.
The film is emotional, there is generally a very strong and sometimes blurred light on the Colonel, when the light is strong, it makes clear the bad intentions on the subject of the moment, and there is always a “close up” on his face, and when he has some kind of explanation of the facts according to his distorted and ill-natured view, the light is more cloudy and dark.
I really like when the light leads the story, not quite like that here, but it is technically very well placed and emotional.
