"Priscilla" -- Movie Review

 

This year’s Centerpiece screening of the 61^st New York Film Festival was the North American Premiere of the biographical drama “Priscilla”, written and directed by Sofia Coppola.

Synopsis

The life of Priscilla Wagner as Elvis Presley’s girlfriend and wife.

Story

In 1959, Priscilla Wagner-Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is a 14 year old military brat living at a base in Germany with her parents.  Lonely and bored, she meets one of the officers at the base who claims he can introduce her to the famous Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), who also happens to be stationed there at the time.  It takes quite a bit to convince her parents, but eventually, she is allowed to attend a party the rock star is throwing.  When Elvis is introduced to Priscilla, he’s immediately smitten and seeks her parents’ permission to start dating this high school freshman – which they reluctantly grant. 

Upon Elvis’ discharge from the army, Priscilla anxiously awaits word from him.  Weeks go by, then months, followed by years.  It isn’t until Priscilla is a high school senior in 1962 that she finally hears from him; he asks her to visit him at his home in Memphis, Tennessee at a vast estate known as Graceland.  Once there, Priscilla gets swept up in Elvis’ lifestyle; although by now he has developed quite a reputation for having famous girlfriends, he refuses to be physically intimate with Priscilla until they are officially married – this, despite the fact that they are sleeping in the same bed together. 

Once they are finally married shortly after her high school graduation, things begin to change.  Elvis’ popularity is soon overtaken by a music group from England known as The Beatles.  His mood becomes darker and he now concentrates more on making movies in Hollywood than recording new songs.  By the late sixties/early seventies, music tastes have changed considerably.  Elvis, who is now a father, decided to revive his career by performing in Las Vegas.  Priscilla notices this gradual change in his behavior – partially induced by whichever form of medication he’s currently taking.  Will she be able to keep their marriage afloat or must she take their daughter and leave Elvis forever?

Review

In the years – decades, actually – since the death of Elvis Presley, what little is there left to know about his ex-wife Priscilla’s life with him that most of us haven’t already osmotically absorbed into our national zeitgeist?  The answer is not much – and therein lies the problem with “Priscilla” as a motion picture.  Over time, we’ve already heard the stories – and those few that we haven’t we could pretty much assume, given Elvis’ erratic behavior in his later years (much of it due to his dependence on pills).  The audience doesn’t wind up learning a great deal by watching “Priscilla”, so it basically winds up being a retread of information already out there.

The value in this version of the story is that it is told from his ex-wife’s perspective – how she deals with the power dynamics and trying to provide her husband with a normal life when he wasn’t performing, shooting movies or recording.  Although Priscilla could maintain her objectivity on the situation, her husband could not – he was surrounded by Yes Men who did not have the backbone to leave the trappings of his fame and power.  As a result, he was used to getting his way all of the time and would fly into a rage when he couldn’t get it or when people disagreed with him.  This might also explain why he tried to get his wife into as much usage of medication as he had relied upon. 

Post-screening, there was no interview with writer/director Sofia Coppola as she was with her family on this evening.  However, the two stars of the movie were present, as were some of the crew.  Cailee Spaeny said that since the film was shot out of sequence, it presented some odd challenges for her; for example, in the morning, she would shoot scenes where she was a mother to Lisa Marie, then after lunch, she would be playing Priscilla as a 14-year-old teenage girl.  Co-producer Youree Henley said that although Priscilla’s book came out in the mid-80’s, it was only a few years ago that Coppola pitched the idea to her for the motion picture.  Much of “Priscilla” was actually shot in Toronto in only 30 days and one of the bigger obstacles was to find an exterior that would look like the actual Graceland.