Priscilla, by Sofia Coppola, and Elvis’ unrequited love

This film by Sofia Coppola is the authorized version of the relationship between Elvis Presley and Priscilla, his first and only wife, but not his first or only lover.

And if we say it’s the authorized version of Priscilla Presley, it’s because it’s based on her own memoirs, Elvis and meof 1985, and the next actress in the saga The naked gun She also appears as an executive producer.

It’s been a year and a half since they met Elvis, Baz Luhrmann’s film, at the Cannes Film Festival, but Priscilla is very, very different. Although both have the musician at the center of attention, in the film with Austin Butler, the Colonel (Tom Hanks), her manager, had a lot of weight. Here she swings with the young woman who was 14 when she met Elvis, who was 24.

She was in Germany, where he was serving in the military at an American military base, and she was the daughter of a soldier based there. “I have to ask my parents’ permission,” says a young Priscilla when Currie Grant, a rock ‘n’ roll friend, offers to go to Elvis’ house in Friedberg, Germany.

Due to a rights issue, Coppola was unable to include Elvis Presley’s songs, which certainly marks a difference with Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated film. But there’s a reason it’s called that, Priscillaand it lives up to its title.

Elvis, the gentleman

Elvis is introduced as a true gentleman after the two fall in love. Many years will pass before he returns to the United States and his relationship with Priscilla, who was in high school, strengthens. Elvis is very good, he even catches a glass that was about to fall while playing the piano furiously, and years pass before he takes off his pajamas in the bed he shares with Priscilla at Graceland, his villa in Memphis, Tennessee.

Then yes, there will be the pills, the LSD, the moments of violence (“I inherited them from my mother”, he says), the birth of their daughter together, Lisa Marie – who died on January 12 of that year -. But above all her relationships with her lovers on film sets, first denying it to Priscilla, who, despite being younger than her, does not suck her thumb.

Cailee Spaeny (Erin inside Easttown Mare) does not physically resemble Priscilla, but given the conventions of cinema, everything is believed. Jacob Elordi, the Australian actor who became famous thanks to the role of Nate in the series EuphoriaAlso, with Zendaya, it has no resemblance to Elvis, but despite this it doesn’t clash at all.

Sofia Coppola favors the relationship between the two characters, that of the woman who waited, in a house, for the musician to come and give her the love he had promised her. But you know, everything has a limit and you can stop waiting. That’s what this movie is about

“Priscilla”

Drama. Italy / United States, 2023. 113′, SAM 16. From: Sofia Coppola. With: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Ari Cohen. Rooms: Hoyts Abasto, Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta, Pilar, Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter.