RHINESTONE COWBOY

Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has created a glitzy genre of his own over three decades, fusing music and images into dazzling big-screen spectaculars. As he debuts opulent biopic Elvis, has he found the ultimate subject for his distinct brand of pop-culture phantasmagoria? And does he dream in diamonds?

- JANE CROWTHER

It's not just the gem-encrusted 'EP' pinkie ring, the silver 'TCB' (Taking Care of Business) necklace glinting at his throat, or even the feline physical presence that recalls the spirit of Elvis Presley when Total Film meets Baz Luhrmann in a London hotel suite. Yes, the high collar of his black silk suit and the white quiff also plays into that rock'n'roller vibe; but as Luhrmann curls up on the sofa like a Persian puss, it's clear that the 59-year-old from smalltown Herons Creek in New South Wales and the King (hailing from rural Tupelo in Mississippi) share a similar ability to dream. And dream big.

Young Mark Luhrmann (more on the name change later) helped out working on his family petrol station and spent his free time watching classic movies like The Red Shoes or Citizen Kane at the local cinema and ballroom dancing, the glamour of both pursuits providing a world away from reality. Those theatrical movies, of heightened style, were my diet as a kid,” Luhrmann says, his Antipodean drawl unkinked by years of working between Oz and LA. Just like Elvis in this one white house in a Black community - his diet as a kid is the music around him. You can't stop a kid from being formed by what's around him. And that's what was around me. That doesn't leave you, you know?