Priscilla
Are you lonesome tonight?
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Italy & United States, 2023
In the UK, we had our own version of Elvis… Cliff Richard. Marketed as the British Presley, in 1959 he had a hit single with a song called ‘Living Doll’, reportedly penned in ten minutes by Lionel Bart, the creator of the musical Oliver! Elvis never made a cover as far as I know, but it would have made a better title for Sophia Coppola’s film.
Based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir of her life with ‘The King’, I think it’s fair to say that Priscilla didn’t win a whole lot of love from ReidsonFilm.
But yeah it was like watching an endless series of rejected Lana Del Rey music videos - C
The consensus was that the film was ‘a bit mid’, which for those of you who were born before 1980 means mediocre, I think. Coming one year after Baz Luhrmann’s brash, spangly, but fundamentally empty Elvis vehicle, Priscilla plays like a rebuff to his biopic, a historical course correction. In one sense, Coppola’s complete commitment to Priscilla Presley’s perspective would be admirable if it captured a real sense of the psychodrama of life within her gilded cage. But the dream-like, swoon-laden series of montage upon montage suffocates, rather than illustrates Priscilla’s internal world.
Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) first meets Elvis (Jacob Elordi) when she is just 14 years old, he has 10 years on her, and in this film about 20 inches (in reality, Elvis was six feet tall and Priscilla, five feet, four inches). He towers over her in every scene, she really is just a living doll. There is a pervasive disquiet about the early days of their relationship in the way the shots are framed; in the 1950s grooming had a very different meaning. Priscilla’s parents are clearly uncomfortable, but after all… he is Elvis.
Coppola’s portrait of life with the Presleys is muted both in the choice of colour palette, but also in how it portrays their world. It is a film of absences and voids. Priscilla lives an isolated, friendless existence and the principal figures in her married life are opacities, from Elvis’ Rat Pack pals, the Memphis Mafia, to his ever present, stony-faced father, Vernon. Watching Priscilla, I was longing for a cameo by a fatsuit-clad Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker. The problem is that Priscilla is just as opaque as the supporting cast, there is no real sense of her attitudes or motivations.
Sofia Coppola seems more interested in documenting an inventory of the Presley lifestyle, the camera is fascinated by their clothes, their jewellery, their accessories, including their guns. And Elvis himself? Well, an insecure narcissist for sure. Like Delilah cutting off Samson’s hair, Priscilla shears off Elvis’ magnetism and charisma. In one of the few references to his performance we see him on the stage and backlit…with an audience of ten, give or take?!
The pacing of Priscilla is a major flaw. We follow Priscilla’s life over thirteen years, yet there is no sense of her interior development as a girl, a woman, or a wife. Rather, we watch a sequence of vignettes - a disjointed compilation of highlights, and lowlights. Finally, she has enough of the repetitive cycle of coercion, control, and abandonment and the narrative jolts forward, skirting around her affair with her karate instructor, to a #MeToo, post-divorce, life of liberation.
There is one other obvious absence in Priscilla: no Elvis hits. Presumably due to rights issues, but Coppola certainly drives her point home with the soundtrack. When Elvis first meets Priscilla he is banging out ‘Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On’ on a honky-tonk piano. This was a hit for Jerry Lee Lewis who married his 13-year-old cousin, blowing up his rock ‘n’ roll career. And as Priscilla takes a deep breath and drives through the gates of Graceland, the film closes with that Dolly Parton classic, ‘I Will Always Love You’, a song that Elvis wanted to cover, but only if Parton would give him the publishing rights. She said no and well, let’s just say it didn’t turn out too badly. Whitney Houston’s version became the sixth best-selling single of all time.
I've been getting some bad publicity, but you got to expect that - Elvis Presley
Reids’ Results (out of 100)
C - 31
T - 53
N - 40
S - 58
There may be an absence of Elvis on the Priscilla soundtrack, but necessity proves the mother of invention and the random, or idiosyncratic, selection of music is pretty impressive. No Lana Del Ray though. Try out our ReidsonRecord playlist where you can find a ‘whole lotta’ music from films we have reviewed.
Well, looking at those scores I think it’s pretty clear that Priscilla isn’t the most popular film we’ve watched this season. Think we’ve been harsh? Let us know with a comment. But whatever your opinion, thanks for reading Reids on Film.
Coming next… The Structure of Crystal(1969)
I watched it on a plane and when I do watch films that way, they tend to feel a bit off while I’m uncomfortable and a bit sleepy. But sounds like that feeling of being off was about right going from your review. I thought there was a lot to like but I finished it feeling a bit 🤷🏻♂️
I think Reids on film have indeed been unduly harsh on Priscilla! Whilst I knew Elvis was a deeply flawed man, I previously had no idea that his relationship with Priscilla was so weird, so I found the insights interesting. Also made me reflect on the unsurprising fact that their only daughter went on to have her own dysfunctional marriage to a pop superstar. On a lighter note, I enjoyed the dresses ,the jewellery and the hair……I give it a 70!