Priscilla – this is a cautionary tale – a sweet delicacy with a bitter aftertaste.
Based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir. Elvis and me (the real Presley serves as executive producer and consultant), Sofia Coppola’s little film is not a traditional biopic but a lyrical exploration of girlish desire and the risks that come with it.
Focusing on the love and home life of Presley, played by newcomer Cailee Spaeny in a subtle display of vulnerability, it asks: What happens when a young girl falls hard, is seduced and desired—and encouraged—by a much older man—to give him her identity? Coincidentally, Elvis Presley is the older man.
Elvis (played here by Jacob Elordi as a smug source of charisma and the consummate man-child) met teenager Priscilla Beaulieu at a US Army base in West Germany when he was 24 and she was 15. Their romance could be described in modern parlance as caring and, certainly offensive over time.
But rather than take a didactic look at the power dynamics between them, Coppola focuses on the excitement and seduction of a teenager in love. This is not a film about sacrifice; It’s about what it means to enter into a toxic love relationship and find dangerous attraction in it.
With its hazy psych-rock soundtrack (unsurprisingly, Presley Coppola’s estate wouldn’t allow the use of actual Elvis songs) and vintage Chanel costumes, the film takes Priscilla’s point of view, being influenced by this seduced world.
She pressures her hesitant parents to allow her to visit Elvis in Memphis and ultimately stay with him. And this despite his long absence, his infidelity and persistence in sex. If Coppola had specialized in gilded cages, Priscilla knows exactly how to tell this story.
Dressed in chic ’60s glamor, complete with eyeliner and pastel evening dresses, the film is set in Elvis’ Graceland as the maelstrom of global attention crashes into his celebrity, and yet it somehow feels familiar.
Not all of us are married to celebrities, but many of us know what a girl’s desires are and what it’s like to try hard to live up to the role. Priscilla overcomes his frivolous attributes and rises to greatness.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.