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 the king interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Crying in the chapel. Name your lead character Elvis in a film entitled The King and don’t be surprised if Presley devotees are shocked that, rather than some rags-to-riches rock ‘n’ roll story, they’re confronted by a gothic slice of Biblical tragedy. British director James Marsh – who, ironically, made 1996 documentary The Burger & The King on the real Elvis’ eating habits – and Monster’s Ball screenwriter, Milo Addica, have combined for a savage comic twist on traditional ideas of Christian faith and redemption; the Garden of Eden from the point of view of the snake. “We had talked about Bible stories and fairy tales and myths,” muses Marsh of his and Addica’s ad hoc collaboration, “about an antihero, a prodigal son, and Milo suggested a guy who’d just got out of the navy and needs to find a home.” Determined to set their tale in Corpus Christi, Texas (“Because I liked the name”), when they scouted the area they were grimly satisfied by a swamp location with “the genuine whiff of evil about it. Someone in our story was going to end up in this god-forsaken place and it wasn’t going to be pleasant.” So it is that young Elvis Valderez (Gael García Bernal) turns up seeking the American father he’d only ever heard about from his now-deceased Mexican mother. He finds – and is gently rejected – by his father, David (William Hurt), now a Baptist church pastor and upstanding community leader with a white wife and two cosseted teenage children. Elvis, however, won’t be denied and through a romantic relationship with David’s daughter – his own half-sister - gradually insinuates himself into the family with terrible consequences.  Though suffering from its determination to offer allegory and fable at the expense of credible character development, The King is nevertheless a striking and unsettling experience. Bernal’s sociopath is a seamless American movie debut, altogether darker than in past Mexican hits like Amores Perros or Y Tu Mamá También. And Marsh’s fascination with Corpus Christi and its heightened religious fervour pays off, the film’s disquieting and malevolent mood being suited to its sudden eruptions of violence. “Religion now plays a more significant role in [US] political culture than at any time in living memory,” Marsh notes, referring to his film’s sombre climax. “Elvis commits the most appalling crime, but he would take the Christians at their word and ask to be forgiven and saved – just as it tells you in the Bible.”
Leigh Singer
The King, on selected release 26 May 06.
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