“Priscilla”: Too many loose hints, too little action

Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” tells the story of the ex-wife of singer and actor Elvis Presley. The work describes how a 14-year-old initially falls in love with the “King of Rock’n’Roll” and later finds herself in a golden cage. Sounds like exciting film material, but we’ll reveal in our review whether it fills the whopping 113 minutes without losing the viewer’s attention and whether it’s worth going to the cinema from January 4th.

Trapped in Graceland

The year is 1959. She still lives under her maiden name, Priscilla Beaulieu, in Wiesbaden, where her stepfather and air force officer Paul Beaulieu has been transferred. At the age of 14, she went to Elvis Presley’s house party, ten years her senior, where she also started talking to the singer. There is a crackling atmosphere between the two of them. Priscilla, who is then invited to further meetings by Elvis, gets her stepfather’s approval and now lives a life in which she goes to school during the day and travels with the rock’n’roll icon at night. However, the then heartthrob’s career soon requires him to return to the States, while Priscilla still has to go to school in Germany. The long-distance relationship, which consists of a few phone calls, increases the American-born woman’s homesickness and longing for the love of her life.

At the age of 17, she moved to Presley’s Villa Graceland in Memphis and attended a Catholic girls’ school there in order to complete her studies. Over time, however, the initially romantic relationship develops into a toxic prison in which Priscilla only exists for Elvis. He begins to comment on her outfits, makeup, and demeanor, which he thinks wouldn’t fit his style if he didn’t look closely.

While he travels through the States to film various films and give concerts, Priscilla has to wait for him in the house. She is not allowed to have a job because it could prevent her from being available when he wants her to be. She finds out about his love affairs through newspapers, is not allowed to travel after him and is tried to calm him down with gifts. In 1967, when she was in her early 20s, she married the singer, became pregnant and finally gave birth to daughter Lisa Marie Presley.

While Elvis indulges in more affairs and tantrums over the years, Priscilla Presley makes more and more space for her own life with her own interests. In 1973 she decided to separate and get a divorce.

Priscilla is bored and so are the viewers

Priscilla’s story is about much more than the fact that she felt lonely and bored in Graceland. It’s about a young woman who is pushed into the shadows so that the man at her side can continue to shine. Who constantly tries to be enough, is repeatedly shown that she isn’t, until she finally recognizes her own worth and leaves. An impressive process when you consider the time, the rights of women or the non-existent rights and, above all, the icon status of her husband.

Unfortunately, Sofia Coppola’s drama (“Lost in Translation”, “The Virgin Suicides”) does not manage to capture this dynamic. Using a whitish filter, Coppola shows a woman walking back and forth in the villa with a dog in her arms, waiting for her husband to return. Definitely worth one to maybe three scenes to show the viewer her everyday life and her love for him. Maybe there is a reason for it to exist in one or two more sequences so that you can understand its feeling of monotony. But when it becomes the main component of the work, it not only conveys the feeling, but also seems just as monotonous. Actions seem to repeat themselves continuously: Priscilla goes to school and comes home to wait, spends a few days with Elvis or talks to him on the phone – and then everything all over again.

She always finds out about his affairs through the newspaper. Initially, it breaks your heart to see a young woman sitting alone at the breakfast table learning, not from one person but from tabloids, the real reasons why her husband probably doesn’t want her to travel with him. But the more often the scene comes, the less people follow it. You see the newspaper on the table and know what will follow.

Priscilla is portrayed as a passive person, which is perhaps due to the times. Still, it seems unrealistic that she didn’t put up any active fight but then was brave enough to file for divorce – something that wasn’t exactly easy for women at the time.

Hints upon hints

There were quite a few moments in the film that woke you up after all the monotony. So does Elvis’ (well played by Jacob Elordis, “Euphoria”) freak out when he asks Priscilla’s opinion on a song and doesn’t agree with her answer. He breaks up with her while she’s pregnant and then every second decides against what he said. In the role of Priscilla, Cailee Spaeny (“Mare of Easttown”) illustrates very well her constant effort to do everything correctly, and how over time this effort turns into disinterest. But such scenes are reduced to the bare minimum.

Priscilla suggests that she did not expect her early pregnancy and that she was a little in shock. However, we will leave it at this statement. To what extent or whether she ever manages to get used to it is completely left out. Suddenly, a few scenes later, all we see is a young woman happily pushing her daughter in the swing.

Elvis’ outbursts of anger also raise more questions than they provide any explanation. Was she living with someone who was choleric or incapable of criticism – or what exactly was going on? It is clear to say that such aggressive outbursts towards his wife could never have been okay. The film should also lead to more understanding for her and not for him, according to Coppola’s approach. But when you look at it, you feel as if you need to classify it in order to better understand her life.

Conclusion: “Priscilla” is an important counter-narrative to the glorified history of the so-called “King of Rock’n’Roll”. It shows once again that despite a lot of reporting, you simply don’t know famous personalities – no matter how much you understand the music. The greater the power of a well-known person, the more important it is to know how they use it. This is precisely why Sofia Coppola’s film could have gone into more detail instead of repeatedly showing similar scenes and leaving a lot to the viewer’s imagination through hints.