By H.C. Ferger
Priscilla Presley feels like a character created by Sofia Coppola. A beautiful young woman finds herself in a cage made of Chanel and hair spray. So it was no surprise to me when it was announced A24 would be financing a new Coppola film adapting the iconic 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me.” Now that I have seen the film, it feels like Priscilla Presley is less of a character made by Coppola but a persona manipulated by Elvis.
“Priscilla” has been controversial since its announcement. Many had decried the idea of portraying love that began between 14-year-old Pricilla and 24-year-old Elvis (acting as if Sofia Coppola isn’t going to point out the flaw herself). Elvis’ own children and grandchildren have come out against the film before it even arrived in theaters. Elvis’ own daughter, Lisa Ann Presley sent emails to Coppola right before her own passing in January of this year saying, “My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative.” and calling the script “shockingly vengeful.” It was so disliked by the Elvis’ estate that there is no music of Elvis in the film and the film was unable to shoot on “Graceland”; the infamous mansion of Elvis. It also follows last year’s Oscar-nominated Baz Lurman film “Elvis”. But where Lurman looks to speak to the iconography of Elvis (which it certainly fails at but makes an interesting comparison with this film) Coppola seeks to meet her film’s namesake at her point of view.
This perspective seems to be the guiding force to its very measured and patient pace. The opening shot shows us Priscilla’s bare feet gliding over the gorgeous shag carpet of “Graceland.” Mirroring both the innocence of Priscilla and the alluring and slightly ominous feeling of “Graceland.” We soon find Priscilla, played by newcomer Cailee Spaeny, sitting in a diner being herself in her natural brown and blonde hair until suddenly she is swept up into the inner circle of Elvis. We see how Elvis’s natural charm and superstar persona, expertly played by Jacob Elordi, is able to sweep her off her feet and they come together in a moment of sadness. For Elvis, he is coming off the loss of his mother and is clearly in desperate need for that void to be filled. The remainder of the film is truly this dynamic alone. Elvis slowly builds a persona out of Priscilla. One that has jet black hair, doesn’t work, wears only blue and “keeps the fires warm” as he says to a hilariously repetitive effect. Moments of wanting something else outside of this doll-like lifestyle are immediately stifled and lead to increasingly violent and manipulative outbursts in Elvis. So the film becomes an increasingly quieter film with long scenes of nothing. We will see Pricilla sitting in a white room and luxurious furniture doing nothing. Waiting for her husband to return home to her. But when he returns this longing is not met with release. Elvis is unable to meet Pricilla in this place of intimacy. Both through the guilt of his spiritual morality (that is ever-shifting) and his vision of only seeing her as this porcelain stand-in for his mother.
Slowly Priscilla becomes aware of her place and chooses to escape for a while. She lands in Los Angeles and begins to become more of her own person. Here I feel like the film rushes to the end and almost startles you with its ending. Yet we do see returning motifs as she fades back into the brown and blonde hair that she had at the beginning and wipes away the winged mascara. Also mirroring the drugs she is introduced to her by Elvis, she is able to “detox” herself from him and find her healthy self as she finds her own voice in the end and rides off to Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” This quick ending seems to work against the nuanced first hour and a half and leaves you feeling a little empty in the end and struggling to find the emotion in its victorious ending.
Sofia Coppola never fails to impress with her immaculate costuming. Its connection with both the characters and its surface pleasures adds so much to this gorgeously shot film. The star performance sits nicely alongside the quiet performance of Scarlett Johannson in her Oscar-winning film “Lost in Translation,” but what really surprised me here was the portrayal of Elvis. From the looming violence of the guns and thugs that follow him in what seems like every other scene or the lost wondering that leads to his confusion and at times hilarious ideas around philosophy and religion. Yet, I cannot help but feel a slight disappointment in its anti-climatic ending.
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended Films:
Lost in Translation – Directed By: Sofia Coppola
Elvis – Directed By: Baz Lurman