A year and a half after Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis”, Sofia Coppola unveils “Priscilla”, a biopic about the wife of the rock n’ roll icon. What do the first spectators think?
Three and a half years after On The Rocks broadcast directly on Apple TV+, Sofia Coppola is back with Priscilla, a portrait of Elvis Presley’s wife. Inspired by Priscilla Presley’s memoir published in 1985, her new feature film is both a true story and a coming-of-age story like her previous works.
Worn by Cailee Spaeny – awarded the Female Actor Prize at the last Venice Festival for this role – and Jacob Elordi – also starring in Saltburn by Emerald Fennell on Prime Video – the feature film tells the story of Priscilla’s meeting with Elvis, when she was still a schoolgirl. He, at 24, is already a world star. From their secret romance to their iconic marriage, Sofia Coppola paints the portrait of Priscilla, a self-effacing teenager who slowly wakes up from her fairy tale to take charge of her life.
What do the first spectators think of this feature film released in our cinemas this Wednesday, January 3? With 264 ratings and 33 viewer reviews at the time of writing, Priscilla scores 3.2 stars out of 5.
For Cinetim: “Sofia Coppola takes the opposite view of Baz Luhrmann’s film with Priscilla, a biopic about the muse and the unhappy wife of the king of rock’n roll. Here there is no great spectacle or impressive editing effects, which interests the filmmaker it is more about the couple’s relationship, but above all how this unknown and underage schoolgirl became one of the most famous women of her time.
But Priscilla is also the melancholy portrait of an era. The one where women could express themselves much less than today. I hated Marie-Antoinette, I loved Priscilla which is certainly its director’s most accomplished film. Cailee Spaeny is great against a not incredible but convincing Jacob Elordi. This film will not please Presley fans, for my part, I find that with Luhrmann’s film, they form a very good whole, completely complementary. A truly beautiful, sunny and moving auteur film.”
A24 Priscilla
A complementary film to Elvis by Baz Luhrmann
According to the Internet user, Sofia Coppola’s feature film is therefore a good complement to Elvis by Baz Luhrmann, released in June 2022 and nominated in 8 categories at the 2023 Oscars. The latter also highlights the performance of the young actress American Cailee Spaeny already seen in Pacific Rim Uprising, Bad Times at the El Royale Hotel and The Craft from 2020. The actress was also awarded the Volpi Cup for best female performance at the Venice Film Festival.
An opinion shared by The Man Without a Name who notes: “Two entirely different films which are both worth watching for different reasons. Priscilla is a film with a linear storyline, calm direction and a more tidy aesthetic. The film above all immerses us in the monotonous daily life of Priscilla, who only plays the role of “wife”, having to erase her personality… Sofia Coppola’s direction is very successful. She tells us more than the (few) dialogues.”
A24
Priscilla
Fabien D. also praises the director’s staging and specifies: “Sofia Coppola’s work is always as coherent and exciting. We could criticize her for always making the same film but isn’t that the mark of great authors? Priscilla is the story of an emancipation, a film more complex and subtle as it seems, which avoids making Priscilla a simple victim and Elvis her executioner.
Coppola’s superbly stylized direction, the quality of the interpretation of his star couple, without forgetting the soundtrack, one of the usual assets of Coppola’s films, contribute to the charm of a captivating film, a sort of pop trip vintage and melancholic, a little languid, which refers to the filmmaker’s first works, notably Marie-Antoinette. An almost homecoming for a film which questions the condition of women as powerfully as it soberly. Filmmaker of the feminine and of golden and lost youth, Sofia Coppola perhaps always makes the same film but never misses it.
A film that is too sanitized?
For Sylvain P of Club AlloCiné, although the film is beautiful, it nevertheless remains quite hollow. “Sofia Coppola uses the same tools as in her Marie-Antoinette: plunging the viewer into an atmosphere of solitude and madness, luxury and frustration. It is both successful, notably thanks to the superb photography and the beauty lunar of the two performers, but also a little hollow, like the life of this poor trophy girl.”
A24
Priscilla
Avoine M gives it average and regrets that the film is too sanitized: “So, the image is neat, the interpretation excellent, it’s true – all that, Sofia Coppola knows how to do -, but a little daring would not have harmed the whole. As it is, the film is sanitized.”
Finally, for Marc it is a “Uninteresting adaptation of a love story between a star and a student much younger than him… It’s long, indigestible, not to mention the casting: the actress is 1.50m tall, her partner 1.96m , nothing to do with reality, this anachronism reinforcing the artificial, implausible and inconsistent impression of the subject. A complete failure of the director which leads nowhere, except towards boredom. And then this recurring mania when we is lacking inspiration to pose as an activist while eyeing Me Too (see the various interviews with Sofia Coppola).”
But the best thing is to form your own opinion. Priscilla is currently in theaters.