[Baby, I Love you – Ramones]
On October 27, 2023 A24’s newest production Priscilla hit theaters. The film tells the story of Priscilla and Elvis Presley as told by Priscilla, played by Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi respectively. The movie follows Priscilla from when she met Elvis at 14 to when she divorced him at 28.
The film is inspired by the 1985 New York Times bestseller “Elvis and Me,” a memoir Priscilla Presley wrote about her life with Elvis. When Sofia Coppola – the director, writer and producer of Priscilla – read the memoir, she was aware of the 10-year age gap between the couple, but the book provided her with a new understanding of the significance of the age difference. Coppola’s filmography is filled with stories on teenage girlhood. To name a few would be, The Beguiled, Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides and the list goes on – Priscilla is the newest addition.
Coppola told Tonya Mosley on NPR’s Fresh Air…
[Sofia Coppola]: I felt like my role was just to explain her experience and always go through her point of view and what it was like for her at that age as a teenager.
Focusing on Priscilla, Coppola showcases a side of Elvis that is rarely portrayed and often hidden. Making for an interesting double-feature with Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.
[Vegas Instrumental – Doja Cat]
Elvis starring Austin Butler in the titular role came out last year and garnered three Golden Globe nominations and eight Oscar nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. It was a commercial success grossing over $288 million worldwide. However, like its namesake, Elvis focuses solely on Mr.Presley.
Where Luhrman omits the ethically grey details of the king of rock n rolls’ past, Coppola brings it into the light.
As someone who watched Elvis and noticed that Presley’s relationship with Priscilla was barely touched upon, I was interested to see her side of the story and I’m not the only one. Fellow moviegoer Samantha Powers also wanted to gain that perspective.
[Samantha Powers]: I expected to learn something about Priscilla I didn’t know before.
Which is something another moviegoer, Brooke thought the film provided.
[Brooke]: I think the main message, it’s kind of just to show, like, another perspective. Everybody knows who Elvis Presley is, no matter, like, how much they know about him. But then just having an entire movie dedicated to Priscilla and, like, her perspective and everything.
But the movie didn’t just provide this perspective, it packed many other messages into the film as well. Powers believed…
[Powers] There were a lot of messages about the perils of fame, a lot of messages about getting into relationships too young.
A message, Glorietta Arthoro, another moviegoer echoed in her own thoughts on the movie.
[Glorietta Arthoro]: I think the biggest message of the movie was to live for yourself because her whole life you know Priscilla in the movie lived for Elvis and was kinda like his muse then after she spent a little time away from him she realized that like she was her own person. And so I think the movies about like living for you.
[Brooke]: I think a lot of it was for, like, viewers to see, like, how ridiculous a lot of the things that happened was. And then it, like, makes you reflect when you think about how it’s based on a true story, on her book.
[I Will Always Love You – Dolly Parton]
However, the execution of this message wasn’t quite the perfect delivery.
[Powers]: Everything was focused on the image of her rather than like her thoughts and feelings, if that makes sense. Priscilla barely talked in the movie, there was like no dialogue. And I felt like the whole thing was really bogged down in like aesthetics as a way to kind of cover up how terrible their relationship was.
[Arthoro]: It was a very pretty movie I would say. I would say there were some scenes that made me think oh, this seems a little wattpaddy.
After watching the movie myself, these praises and complaints make a lot of sense. In the book, Priscilla is telling her side of the story but she is still trying to protect Presley, her parents and herself in the process. The movie protects them as well. Especially when Priscilla is also the executive producer of the film. Creating constraints that Coppola can only slightly hint at without being able to actually fully commit. Leaving viewers with a movie that is not complex but ambiguous at best.
[Forever – The Little Dippers]
For WNUR NEWS I’m Karrah Toatley.
