The late Elvis' penchant for ostentatious glitz and glamour and Baz Luhrmann's reputation as a director of moving paintings with opulent sets - in "Elvis", what belongs together comes together. As the biography of the King of Rock'n'Roll is well known, you can relax and enjoy the flood of images. What is surprising, however, is the perspective from which it is told: Manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), who introduces himself with the words "Without me, Elvis wouldn't have existed, and yet they want me to be the bad guy".

Baz Luhrmann

It is no coincidence that the first three cinema films by director Baz Luhrmann, born in Sydney, Australia in 1962, are called the Red Velvet Curtain Trilogy. "Strictly Ballroom" (1992), "Romeo + Juliet" (1996) and "Moulin Rouge" (2001) boast the opulence of an opera production. And not just visually, but also acoustically with overlapping pop songs and rhythms. Luhrmann's wife Catherine Martin has always been responsible for the styling, and he writes the scripts together with school friend Craig Pearce. This was also the case with "The Great Gatsby" (2013) and now "Elvis".

It's not that the recently retired and widowed teacher Nancy has never had sex, it's just that it's never been good. That's why she treats herself to a sex worker, Leo, with whom she wants to fulfil her long list of secret desires one after the other, including one or more orgasms.

In the original film, Nancy wishes her counterpart "Good Luck To You, Leo Grande". The German title, "Meine Stunden mit Leo", is far more chaste. The intimate intimate play with Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack is a successful mixture of lived tragedy, dry humour and bare facts.

Emma Thompson

When Emma Thompson presented "My Hours with Leo" at this year's Berlinale in a screaming pink glitter suit, it seemed obvious that the bashful teacher and the radiant star were worlds apart. But the comedienne, actress and Oscar-winning screenwriter, who was born in London in 1959, believes this to be a serious misconception. "All women pose naked in front of the mirror, no matter how old they are, what shape they are or what class they come from. Because we want to conform to an absurd ideal of beauty that has been imposed on us."

It's easy to miss the most meaningful moments in "Drive My Car" because they are quiet and short. To compensate, there are many of them: Glances that wander into the distance or fixate on the rear-view mirror or cigarettes that are held out of the window, first one, then two. People don't get really close when they talk to each other, but when they are silent between the lines. Author Haruki Murakami captured the emerging closeness between a theatre director and his chauffeur in the short story "Drive My Car". Japanese film director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi turned it into 177 Oscar-winning minutes.