Priscilla * * * *

Are you lonesome tonight? 
"Am I ever!"

I really like the work of Sophia Coppola. To be honest I reckon she's better than her Dad.

One thing I've noticed about her films is that she is good at a portraying the isolated soul.  When I think of Lost in Translation, Somewhere, Marie Antoinette. The Beguiled, they are often people locked away in a gilded cage.  So it is little wonder that she was attracted to the biography of Priscilla Presley. 

An actress called Cailee Spaeny plays Priscilla.  She does a good job (she was Ruth Ginsburg's daughter in On the Basis of Sex), plus she has the physicality of being able to play a naive teenage girl and a more mature woman taking control of her life.

The film only concerns itself with the life of Priscilla  during her time with Elvis, which was thirteen years of her life.

It took me a little while to get into the groove, having to remind myself that this is a film about Priscilla, not Elvis.  (Who would be so brave after Baz Luhrmann's monumental biography?)

Yet all that Priscilla is, revolves around Elvis so he is very present, and he doesn't always come across as a saint.  I believe that there are a few complaints from Elvis lovers as to how he is portrayed. He is a man with weaknesses and flaws, propped up by an ever present contingent of good-old boys. 

We meet Priscilla as a fifteen year old.  She is the daughter of an army officer who is doing service in Germany at the same location as Elvis Presley, who was a draftee.  He is struck by her prettiness and openness (or is that naivety?)  After chaperone arrangements are made with her Dad she is allowed to go out with him.  

The weirdness of the situation is well conveyed.  He might have been in the army but he was still the worlds greatest Pop Star. Elvis had women throwing themselves at him.  Women of his own age.  But here he is, obsessed with this pretty little adolescent.  Meanwhile, Priscilla becomes both the most admired and hated girl in the school.  

After his discharge and his return to the USA, it become obvious that Priscilla, now full of ennui, is not going to do much else with her life unless she can be with Elvis.  Arrangements are made to continue her education and to have her watched over and so she is allowed to move in with him at Graceland, where Elvis is true to his word and leaves her chaste.  The trouble is, poor sweet Priscilla loves her man and doesn't want to be "chaste" no more.  Especially when it is obvious there are plenty of other women having their way with her fiance.

He tours constantly and is also having to go to Hollywood to shoot those terrible films he kept starring in.  All this time Priscilla is alone at Graceland: bored, and lonely.  Elvis has got a lot of prized objects, from flash cars to every kind of gadget and Priscilla has literally become another prized object in his huge collection.  She is his most valued possession. When he is home he loves her - almost worships her, and will lock himself away with her for days. 

What Pricilla wants more than anything is to be his wife and confidant and to let the world know about it. Hands off my man!  Meanwhile his active life continues with a world of groupies, and pills and artistic frustration. 

Yet when he shares his thoughts with her it always seems to end in conflict despite their real love for each other. 

To bring the story of Priscilla out of the shadow of Elvis would not be easy.  (As an aside, Elvis is played remarkably well by Jacob Elordi last seen in Saltburn).  Sophia Coppola has done well in bringing this biography to the screen. The recreation of the time period and even Graceland is near flawless.  Interestingly none of the music features songs by Elvis.