"I need a woman who understands that things like this might happen. Are you gonna be here or not?"
— Elvis Presley
Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film directed by Sofia Coppola about Priscilla Presley (played here by Cailee Spaeny), the wife of Elvis. It is adapted from the memoir Elvis and Me.
Initially a young teen swept up in a whirlwind romance with Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), Priscilla finds that marriage to "The King" is not the dream it seemed it would be.
Following a September 4 debut at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, the movie was theatrically released by A24 on October 27 2023 in the US, before receiving a wider release on November 3, 2023.
Priscilla contains examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: As in real life, Priscilla is ten years younger than Elvis, with he being 24 and she just 14 when they first meet. They casually date until Elvis returns to the States, resulting in them losing touch, then rekindle their romance a few years later, with 18-year-old Priscilla switching high schools in her senior year to move in with Elvis. They marry in 1967, with Priscilla being 22 and Elvis 32. Some people, including Priscilla's parents, are wary of their relationship because of the huge age gap, but Priscilla initially insists there's nothing wrong. However, the film ultimately deconstructs this and Priscilla herself becomes disillusioned, as their age gap and Priscilla's relative lack of life experience is one of many unbalanced things in the relationship.
- Brick Joke: Early on, Priscilla is shown daydreaming during a math exam. Later, she plays blackjack with Elvis and counts her hand incorrectly.
- Bridal Carry: Elvis picks up Priscilla and carries her in this manner at their wedding.
- Career Versus Man: Exaggerated. Elvis forbids Priscilla from working, or doing pretty much anything that doesn't involve him, because he wants to be her sole focus of attention. When discussing the actresses that he has affairs with, he expresses annoyance at how much they focus on their careers.
- Central Theme: Teenage angst, social and celebrity status, and the dangers of moving too fast too young, especially in a life where you are dating a famous star.
- Chick Magnet: Elvis is every bit as much of one here as he was in real life. Much to Priscilla's chagrin, it doesn't stop once they become a couple, with Elvis being romantically linked to Nancy Sinatra, Ann-Margret, and others.
- Changing Yourself for Love: Priscilla starts the movie as a teenage girl who dresses rather modestly. Under Elvis' influence, she begins to dress more like the Priscilla of the public image. This is ultimately deconstructed, as it illustrates the sheer difference in power dynamic between the two.
- Control Freak: Elvis controls Priscilla over big things (her decision whether to get a job of any kind) and tiny things (the types of clothes she wears, even down to the colors). It's suggested to be a result of The Chain of Harm: because Elvis's life is tightly controlled, he responds by being controlling over tiny details of Priscilla's life.
- Everyone Has Standards: While the Memphis Mafia are mostly depicted as a bunch of brown-nosing yes-men who go along with anything Elvis does, even they're horrified when he throws a chair at Prisicilla.
- Feet-First Introduction: Literally the first shot of the movie is Priscilla's bare feet walking across shag carpet.
- Gilded Cage: Priscilla becomes trapped in her relationship with the super-wealthy Elvis, spending long periods of time doing almost nothing in his lavish mansion.
- Greater-Scope Villain: "Villain" is probably too dramatic a word for this context, but a lot (though not all) of Elvis' behaviour in this film is implied to be because of his treatment at the hands of Colonel Tom Parker, who never appears on screen.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Many people who knew Elvis said he had a short temper and it shows in this film. In one scene, he throws a chair at Priscilla when she tells him that she doesn’t like one of his records.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: In this film, Priscilla is portrayed as loyal, devoted and sympathetic. The film leaves out her own infidelity, including her affair with Mike Stone, a married karate instructor. Priscilla’s parents are also portrayed as being caring and overprotective. In real life, they pressured Elvis into marrying Priscilla by threatening to get him arrested. Also, Priscilla’s school friends have revealed that Priscilla’s parents strongly encouraged her to date him and opposed her relationships with teenage boys. note
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Priscilla is played by the 5'1" Cailee Spaeny, and Elvis is played by the 6'5" Jacob Elordi, exaggerating the size difference between the two and using it to reinforce the imbalance of power in their relationship.
- It's All About Me: Elvis's primary characterization is his self-centeredness. He constantly ignores Priscilla's feelings and insists that she always be at his beck and call.
- Lets Wait Awhile: Elvis tells Priscilla that he doesn't want to have sex when she's in Graceland because it's "sacred" to him. It's left ambiguous if this is out of genuine decency or if he fetishizes her virginity.
- Manchild: Elvis is rich, famous and, most importantly, lives a sheltered and micromanaged life leading to him being an emotionally stunted and mercurial man.
- Messy Hair: Priscilla's hair is messed up and unkempt following her first time having sex with Elvis. Much to her parents' chagrin.
- Mononymous Biopic Title: This Priscilla Presley biopic is titled Priscilla, which keeps the focus on her and not her famous husband.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Elvis is polite, means well, and does love Priscilla dearly However, his life of being a music icon - which includes fame, women, drugs, alcohol, etc. - does damage his own well-being as well effect how he treats Priscilla and what he expects from her.
- Safety in Indifference: It becomes clear that at least part of Elvis's goal with his anger and controlling nature is to elicit emotional reactions from Priscilla. She's portrayed as evading his demand for a separation while she's heavily pregnant with Lisa-Marie by being extremely stoic about it. As a result, Elvis caves almost immediately and begs her to stay with him.
- Sex Dressed: After Priscilla and Elvis had sex for the first time together as a couple, she appears at the airport to be picked up by her parents sporting wild messy hair that contrasts with her neat outfit. Her parents are not pleased.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: When Priscilla loses her virginity to Elvis, there's a shot of them sharing an embrace and looking longingly into one another's eyes. The next shot shows her exiting the airport well dressed but sporting very disheveled hair.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Priscilla starts dressing rather modestly, with dresses, sweaters, and skirts typical of a teenage girl in the 1950s. After she and Elvis begin dating and she moves to Graceland, she begins dressing in a more risqué style that shows more skin at his insistence. When she finally gets the courage to leave Elvis and head for Los Angeles, she adopts a modest style again, but one that's decidedly more modern, trading dresses in for blouses and jeans.
- Spiritual Antithesis: Priscilla positions itself as the counterbalance to Elvis (2022) (down to a similar title). Where one is Elvis-focused and a highly stylized, almost fantasy-like look into his myth and legend, the other is a very down-to-earth and mundane look at the life of the woman who stood by him. One film is Elvis as we (want to) remember him, the other is how he actually was.
- Stern Nun: Subverted. Elvis tells Priscilla's father that he will enrol her in a Catholic high school, reassuring him that there will be some discipline in her life. But the school is no more strict than the average high school, and Elvis even ends up having a meet-and-greet with a bunch of starstruck nuns.
- The Stoic: Due to the imbalance of power, Priscilla must tolerate Elvis's mercurial whims. When he announces out of nowhere to the heavily pregnant Priscilla that they should take a break, she is clearly crushed but simply asks him to let her know when she should leave.
- Troubled Abuser: It's shown that Elvis is constantly run ragged and has his image tightly controlled both by his father and Colonel Parker, causing him great anguish, which he then takes out on Priscilla. The film doesn't justify Elvis' behaviour but it does show how he's as much a victim as he is a perpetrator of abuse.
- Unequal Pairing: The film goes out of its way to show the sheer power imbalance between Priscilla and Elvis. Besides the large gap in age between them, Elvis is a renowned superstar adored by millions while Priscilla starts out as nothing more than a modest high school girl.
- Yes-Man: The Memphis Mafia follow Elvis wherever he goes, backing up whatever Elvis says or does.
