‘Priscilla’ Biopic Is a Radical Telling of Elvis’ Abusive Relationship

VENICE, Italy—Sofia Coppola isn’t interested in the commonplace. From the spoiled rich kids of The Bling Ring to the difficulties of being young, rich, white and beautiful in Japan (Lost In Translation)—or the life of actual Marie Antoinette—Coppola’s subjects are usually removed from the lives of normal people to an extent that is comical. Even going by those standards though, the subject of Priscilla—becoming a child-bride to the most famous man on the planet, whose nickname is literally “The Pelvis”—is in a league all of its own. In the film, which premiered Monday at the Venice Film Festival, Coppola displays perhaps more tenderness than ever before, making for a film which, for all its slightness and occasional missteps, is affectingly clear-eyed and candid.

Cailee Spaeny, playing Priscilla as girlish, bored, and ordinary from the get-go, stars as the object of Elvis’s affections from age 14 to 29. She is only a schoolgirl when she first meets Presley, and Coppola is already very nimble, early on in the movie, in the way she depicts this imbalanced romance/courtship—a grounding that will stand her in very good stead later on as she widens her perspective and addresses the abuses that took place within that relationship.

At the start, Coppola shows very well how Priscilla was a more than willing participant, from a very young age, in the relationship with the singer—but she also shows, in a highly nuanced perspective, how obviously green and lacking in experience the girl was. Equally, she depicts Elvis as a childlike naïf who was genuine in his love for Priscilla, as well as a respectful admirer, an unwitting abuser, and a knowing groomer.

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