It’s the early 1960s, and Priscilla Ann Beaulieu is just 14 years old. She doesn’t have any friends or hobbies, just the day-in, day-out monotony of living on a U.S. Army Base in West Germany. But you know who else is stationed on this base? Elvis Presley.
Elvis was drafted into the service in 1958, but by the time he and Priscilla cross paths, it seems his rank is head entertainer to the officers. Not bad work if you can get it, and certainly the sort of thing a young girl like Priscilla would want to be part of.
Priscilla, the latest from writer-director Sofia Coppola, is a story of deflation. Or rather, it’s an all-American love story Coppola is constantly trying to deflate. It’s understandable why Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny, outstanding) would be enchanted and attracted to Elvis (Jacob Elordi, just as good) despite their 10-year age difference. Not only is he tall, dark and handsome, he’s Elvis goddamn Presley, the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and there is nothing else to do on this base.
Here is where expectations begin to deflate: 24-year-old Elvis courts the young Priscilla, but he’s more interested in popping pills and going to sleep next to her than sleeping with her. It’s a letdown for Priscilla — the first of many.
A couple of years pass, and Elvis returns to Graceland in Tennessee and requests the presence of Priscilla. She goes, thrilled to finally be away from Germany and out from under her parents. But if she was hoping for wild parties with celebrities and passionate nights with the King, she quickly realizes that Elvis spends most of his days with his boys, the Memphis Mafia, and his nights living a chaste life — at least with her. Deflation again.
‘Are you lonesome tonight?’
Elvis flies off to Hollywood to make movies and Priscilla reads about his rotating affairs in the tabloids. He comes home, denies the rumors and continues not to sleep with her, distracted by the boys, the pills, the desire to make better movies and a growing interest in pop spirituality.
All the while, Priscilla — with her jet-black hair and fashionable outfits — wanders the empty rooms of Graceland. She is growing older, but Coppola and her hair and makeup team continue to make Spaeny look childlike. She is a kept woman, the kind Elvis desires, and Priscilla goes along with it because she loves him, trusts him and can’t believe he will betray that trust.
Working from Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, Coppola opts not for the history lesson and instead turns the narrative inside out and focuses on the romance. When Elvis leaves to shoot movies in Hollywood, the camera stays in Tennessee with Priscilla. When Elvis goes out with the boys for a pill-poppin’ gun-shootin’ good time, the camera stays with Priscilla in the empty sitting rooms of Graceland. Where so many filmmakers before have been enchanted by Elvis that they stick to him like glue, Coppola eschews the King for quiet time with his sequestered Queen.
Priscilla is an itchy kind of movie. The pacing is languid and often restless. Elvis’ temper is violent and sudden, and his approach to marriage is as conservative as his music is radical. But he is a handsome fellow, and even though Elordi doesn’t exactly look like Elvis, his mannerisms, confidence and vocal inflections paint a picture of what so many found charming about the King.
Elvis holds the frame even when Coppola and cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd train their camera on Priscilla. It’s as if they are saying you have to look to see her. And in a way, maybe she can’t even see herself. But when she does, Priscilla finally takes the action the story has been calling for, and the movie’s narrative snaps into perfect clarity.
ON SCREEN: Priscilla opens in limited release Oct. 27 and expands Nov. 3.
