This article contains spoilers.
In her newest film “Priscilla,” Sofia Coppola adapts Priscilla Presley’s memoir “Elvis and Me.” The film follows Priscilla Presley from the point when she met Elvis as a young girl to when she divorced him. The film feels like a direct response to Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” which came out last year. When asked about this, Coppola states she began writing the script before even knowing about the film. While “Elvis” is an exploration of Elvis Presley, the public figure, “Priscilla” shows us the man Elvis was. The film is a more intimate and critical look at the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla.
The film begins with Priscilla, 14 years old, meeting Elvis for the first time on a military base. We see their relationship progress as her parents disagree with it but never do anything to completely stop it before Priscilla becomes too involved. Elvis then goes back to America, eventually convincing Priscilla’s parents to let her come live with him at Graceland. We watch as their relationship continues to develop and as Elvis becomes increasingly controlling. He controls how she looks and how she dresses. She is not allowed to work, and whenever she voices an opinion that is not what Elvis wants to hear, she is often met with violence. The people around them do not ever attempt to stop what is happening. After they are married and have a child, Priscilla begins to distance herself from Elvis. She moves to Los Angeles and begins doing things for herself and not him. She ultimately decides to leave Elvis after he attempts to assault her. The film ends with her leaving Graceland for the final time.
The movie places you directly into Priscilla’s place, forcing you to feel what she feels. You can feel her infatuation with Elvis the night after she first meets him as we watch her slowly walk down a hallway with a grin on her face and the world around her blurred out. Through a montage of her room changing and time passing in which Elvis’ image is ever present, we feel her depression and longing for Elvis after he leaves. At the end of the film, you feel the bittersweet joy that Priscilla feels as she drives away from Graceland for the final time. Coppola is able to use framing and visuals to communicate how Priscilla is feeling, and it makes for a film where you are not only seeing her story, but feeling it.
Coppola communicates the story not only through the plot of the film, but through the characters physical appearances as well. Priscilla’s hair goes through multiple evolutions throughout the film, which reflects her personal evolution. When she first meets Elvis as a teenage girl, her hair is light brown and is often in a low ponytail. This hair contributes to her overall image of innocence in the beginning of the film. After she moves to Graceland, her hair remains the same color, but she begins wearing it in more elaborate hairstyles. We see other girls her age in her school, and she is the only one with the hairstyle she is wearing, which signifies how she is being forced to grow up at a faster pace than her peers.
She then switches from her natural brown to dyed black hair at the request of Elvis. Her hair color reflects the control Elvis has over her, not only because she changed it because of him, but because it also matches Elvis’ black hair. Her hair remains this way for the majority of the movie, only changing once she begins to distance herself from Elvis. After the birth of their daughter, Priscilla’s hair goes from black to dark brown, reflecting how she is becoming her own person. By the end of the film when she leaves him, her hair is back to its natural color and is down instead of being up in an elaborate updo. This final change shows how she is finally free of Elvis and able to choose how to look.
The casting of Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as Priscilla and Elvis respectively is perfect. They both give outstanding performances. Casting Jacob Elordi as Elvis is a brilliant way to communicate to viewers how Elvis was seen at the time. For many of us, we don’t really understand how famous Elvis was because we were not alive, but by using Jacob Elordi, who is incredibly famous and also seen as incredibly attractive, the viewer is able to better understand the perception of Elvis when he was famous. Spaeny is perfect for the role of Priscilla through the combination of her voice and small stature. Throughout the film, it feels as if she is always a young girl pretending to be an adult. The difference in height between Elordi and Spaeny is jarring with Elordi towering over her. This difference subtly communicates not only how young Priscilla was when they met, but also the power that Elvis has over her.
The focus on Priscilla in the media is also important as we often only see Priscilla in the shadow of Elvis. In Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” Priscilla is really only Elvis’ wife and the woman that eventually leaves him in the end. In “Priscilla,” she is finally humanized; we see the grooming she faced, how she was controlled by Elvis, and how she found freedom at the end of it. Although she is still connected to Elvis in this film, it is truly her film and her story.