Priscilla is a 2023 film directed by the award-winning filmmaker, Sofia Coppola. The film focuses on how the young Priscilla Beaulieu becomes the Priscilla Presley that we know today. The movie is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, “Elvis and Me.” It is a revealing look into the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley.
This film has been long anticipated by Coppola’s fans. Many trusted her to do Priscilla justice, as she portrays her leading ladies in such a sympathetic and realistic way. When Elvis entered Priscilla’s life, she was only fourteen years old. Coppola can capture teenage girls’ struggles in such a visceral and visually beautiful way, and doesn’t disappoint with this character!
An Introduction to Sofia Coppola’s Work
Sofia Coppola is known for directing films such as The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and The Beguiled. These movies highlight how imposed expectations and limitations negatively affect teenage girls and women in general. Karissa Love, a YouTuber, and poet, accurately describes Coppola’s focus on women as “fish out of water.”
What’s so universal about Coppola’s work is how she captures the feminine experience. Specifically, she illustrates how so many girls are forced to ask what they are supposed to do after their innocence is taken advantage of. So many young women have to deal with the societal issues of objectification and being put on a pedestal. What I love most about her work is how she so beautifully brings life to feminine characters and how they see the world.
Priscilla’s Side of the Story
Priscilla aims to bring light to Priscilla’s story, and how she was mistreated by Elvis Presley. Their relationship was abusive in many ways, and it starts with the grooming of teenage Priscilla. She was fourteen when Elvis began to romantically pursue her at twenty-four years old.
Elvis uses Priscilla as an emotional crutch on the side. He takes advantage of her amazement and naivete and keeps her waiting for his call. Even from the beginning of the movie, we see how Elvis forces Priscilla to make him her whole life while he gives little back in return. Seeing Priscilla writing letters to Elvis in her childhood room made me feel so sad because many young girls have this celebrity crush fantasy, but for her, their relationship seemed genuine, and Elvis knew that.
This manipulation continues in her lonely experiences when she moves into their home, Graceland. Elvis is always away, and she is not allowed to have a job or “make a public display of herself.” When Elvis does come home, he is controlling and forces her to have a very specific image. He makes her change her style, her makeup, and her hair.
Priscilla finds difficulty in managing both Elvis’s demands and her schoolwork. She uses pills to stay awake and cheats in order to graduate high school. They are married by the time she is twenty-one. It is hard to see that her teenage years were so isolating, as Elvis was never vocal to her about his music, his other relationships with women, and how he truly felt about her.
Elvis lied to her, was violent towards her, and confined her to being with him. She realizes this by the end of the film when she sees that she enjoys a life where she could lead it. She finds her independence and realizes that she no longer wants to be attached to and mistreated by Elvis.
My Thoughts
I believe that it’s important to say that the focus of the film is definitely not Elvis Presley, but rather, how Priscilla was affected by his actions. Elvis is all-consuming in her life and is portrayed as volatile and menacing by actor, Jacob Elordi. The scenes that Elvis was present in felt uncomfortable as an audience member. Everything he said felt like a red flag for male manipulation and predation.
This film is definitely different from other more glamorized depictions of Elvis, and I appreciate how Priscilla’s narrative is being brought to the forefront where she hasn’t been mentioned before. Cailee Spaeny, (who plays Priscilla) does an amazing job of expressing Priscilla’s reactions to Elvis’s behavior and why she felt she couldn’t leave Elvis for a long time.
What I liked the most about Spaeny’s performance was how she acted out the moments when Priscilla was alone: playing with the dog Elvis gave her, writing letters to Elvis in her childhood room, taking out her cosmetics on the counter, and even taking martial arts lessons. She is a wonderful, lovely woman who didn’t deserve any of the hostility that she experienced. Coppola expertly shows a few moments in the film when Priscilla feels happiness in their relationship. We see montages of Elvis being momentarily kind to her and giving his attention to her. The visuals are dreamlike and sweet, which is how Priscilla saw those experiences.
Priscilla still speaks very kindly about Elvis, despite how he treated her. She offered her love to him and he was her whole world for a time. However, Priscilla was, and still is, her own beautiful person apart from the “bigger-than-life” Elvis.