Priscilla

{{Infobox_film|rating=|image=Priscilla.jpg|caption=Theatrical release poster|director=Sofia Coppola|producer=|writer=Sofia Coppola|based on=Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley|starring={{Plainlist
* Cailee Spaeny
* Jacob Elordi
}}|music=|cinematography=Philippe Le Sourd|editing=Sarah Flack|studio=|distributor=A24|runtime=114 minutes|country=United States|language=English|budget=$20 million|gross=$32.9 million|released=September 4, 2023 (Venice)October 27, 2023 (United States)}}
Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley (who serves as an executive producer) and Sandra Harmon. It follows the life of Priscilla (played by Cailee Spaeny) and her complicated romantic relationship with Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi).
Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2023, and was released in the United States by A24 in select theaters on October 27, 2023, before expanding wide on November 3. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $32 million worldwide. For her performance, Spaeny received a Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globe Awards.
== Plot ==
Two months before renowned 24-year old singer Elvis Presley leaves Germany in March 1960, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu is residing with her family in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, where her father is stationed in the U.S. Military. At a party on the base, Priscilla meets Elvis, who had been drafted into the US Army in 1958, at the peak of his fame. Elvis takes an immediate interest in Priscilla, and the two begin casually dating despite her parents' concern over their age difference and Elvis's celebrity status. Elvis eventually returns to the United States after his service and loses contact with Priscilla, leaving her crestfallen.
In June 1962, Elvis reconnects with Priscilla, inviting her to visit him in Memphis for a vacation. He then takes her to Las Vegas, but not before leaving behind pre-written postcards to her parents that are to be mailed by his assistant. They enjoy Vegas and she returns to Germany. In 1963, proclaiming his love for her, he asks her parents if she can come live with his dad, Vernon, and his wife, Dee, and attend a private girls' Catholic school in Memphis. Her parents agree and Priscilla moves to the United States to finish her senior year of high school.
While her time spent with Elvis at Graceland is pleasant, Priscilla is lonely while Elvis is away filming in Los Angeles, but is friendly with his paternal grandmother, Dodger, and house staff. After graduating from high school, she visits Elvis in Los Angeles, and he suggests she get caps on her teeth and dye her hair black. Priscilla is not pleased with the highly publicized rumors of Elvis' alleged infidelities with his co-star Ann-Margret. Elvis assures her that the rumors are not true and it's only publicity for the movie, Viva Las Vegas. She lives with Elvis at Graceland from 1963 until he proposes in 1966. Priscilla witnesses bouts of Elvis' explosive temper, followed by remorse and excuses. Over the years, Priscilla tries to entice Elvis to make love to her, but he states she is too young, eventually conceding to “do other things” sexually.
In May 1967, the two marry in Las Vegas then have a family wedding celebration in Memphis. The happiness they share appears very pronounced and authentic, though Elvis' pals, known as the Memphis Mafia, are always around, which stresses the couple's relationship. Priscilla becomes pregnant shortly after the wedding, delighting Elvis, though Priscilla is concerned how soon they will become parents and asks Elvis about their plans for just the two of them to travel, which he says they can do later. Elvis's ongoing prescription drug abuse, his physical absence and frequent affairs further causes strain on their marriage.
During Priscilla’s pregnancy, Elvis unexpectedly suggests they momentarily separate and Priscilla replies indifferently, which Elvis does not expect. As she walks away, acting unaffected, Elvis quickly runs after her apologetically. In February 1968, Priscilla gives birth to their daughter, Lisa Marie, as Elvis is preparing for his NBC 1968 comeback special, broadcast on TV to millions. Priscilla struggles to navigate the relationship as Elvis grows increasingly distant and the two eventually begin leading separate lives.
While visiting Elvis in his hotel room after a performance in 1973, Priscilla finds that Elvis is being sexually aggressive toward her. She later informs him that she is filing for divorce. He asks if she is leaving him for another man, and Priscilla tells him she is leaving to live an independent life. After making a visit to Graceland and saying goodbye to Elvis's housekeepers and grandmother, Priscilla drives away, as a number of Elvis's fans loiter outside the property gates.
== Cast ==
*Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley
*Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley
*Ari Cohen as Captain Beaulieu, Priscilla's stepfather
*Dagmara Domińczyk as Ann Beaulieu, Priscilla's mother
*Tim Post as Vernon Presley, Elvis's father
*Lynne Griffin as Grandma "Dodger", Elvis's grandmother
*Daniel Beirne as Joe Esposito
*Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as Alan "Hog Ears"
*Dan Abramovici as Jerry Schilling
*R. Austin Ball as Larry Geller
*Olivia Barrett as Alberta, the cook
*Stephanie Moore as Dee, Elvis's stepmother
*Luke Humphrey as Terry West
*Evan Annisette as Mike Stone
== Production ==
===Development and casting===
On September 12, 2022, it was announced Sofia Coppola would direct an adaptation of Priscilla Presley's memoir Elvis and Me, starring Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley and Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley. When asked what made her want to adapt Priscilla's memoir for her next feature film, Coppola responded in an interview, "I've had her memoir for years and remember reading it a long time ago. A friend of mine was talking about her recently, and we got around to discussing the book. I read it again and was really moved by her story. I was supposed to start this big Edith Wharton project that was gonna take five months to shoot and felt really daunting. I came up against a few hurdles, so I just decided to pivot to making one film with one idea. I was just so interested in Priscilla's story and her perspective on what it all felt like to grow up as a teenager in Graceland. She was going through all the stages of young womanhood in such an amplified world—kinda similar to Marie Antoinette."
When asked what made Cailee Spaeny the right choice to play Priscilla, Coppola stated, "The character goes from the age of 15 to 27 over the course of the film, so she had to be able to act and age across a big span of time. It was really important for me to have the same actress playing Priscilla at those different stages of her life, and I think Cailee can pull it off. She's such a strong actress, and she also looks very young." Of Jacob Elordi's casting as Elvis, Coppola stated, "I thought nobody was gonna look quite like Elvis, but Jacob has that same type of magnetism. He's so charismatic, and girls go crazy around him, so I knew he could pull off playing this type of romantic icon. But we're talking before we've even started filming, so I can't get too deep into it."
Coppola revealed in an interview that Priscilla Presley is an executive producer of Priscilla.
In emails which were exchanged with Coppola on September 2, 2022, and which were later obtained by Variety, Lisa Marie Presley, who died in January 2023, criticized how the film's script portrayed her father, stating in one message that "My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don't read this and see any of my father in this character. I don't read this and see my mother's perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don't understand why?"
===Filming===
Principal photography for Priscilla began in Toronto on October 24, 2022. Filming wrapped in early December.
== Music ==
Priscilla does not have Elvis Presley's music on its soundtrack. Coppola's husband, Thomas Mars, and his band, Phoenix, scored the film. Sons of Raphael wrote original music for the film.
== Release ==
Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2023. It screened as the Centerpiece Selection of the 2023 New York Film Festival on October 6 and had its Canadian premiere as a special presentation at the 42nd Vancouver International Film Festival on October 7. The film was distributed in the United States by A24, and in Italy by Vision Distribution. Originally to be distributed by Stage 6 Films and Sony Pictures Releasing International outside the United States and Italy, Sony later exited the project upon Presley's estate withholding music rights. Mubi later acquired these rights, with its sales company The Match Factory handling international sales and Mubi itself distributing in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Benelux, Turkey and Latin America.
===Home media===
Priscilla was released on digital platforms on December 15, 2023, followed by a Blu-ray release on February 13, 2024. The film was released on Max in the United States on February 23, 2024. It was then released on Mubi in the United Kingdom and Ireland on March 1, 2024.
== Reception ==
===Box office===
The film made $132,149 from four theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $33,034 per venue. Expanding to 1,344 theaters in its second weekend, the film made $5.1 million, finishing in fourth. It then made $4.8 million from 2,361 theaters in its third weekend. It made $2.3 million in its fourth weekend, becoming Coppola's second-highest film domestically in the process with $16.9 million. The film grossed $21 million in the United States on a budget lower than $20 million.
During its first weekend in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the film finished in sixth place. The film grossed £1.4 million during its first full week in theaters, including £643,800 over the weekend.
===Critical response===
 Audiences polled by PostTrak gave it a 71% overall positive score, with 50% saying they would definitely recommend the film.
Positive reviews praised the casting of Spaeny and Elordi, with some commenting that the actors highlight the vast power disparity between Priscilla and Elvis. Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times described Spaeny’s performance as "sensitive" and "protean," while Marlow Stern of Rolling Stone wrote, "Spaeny, who is 25 but makes for a convincing teenager, is an absolute marvel, nailing Priscilla's complicated mélange of emotions — the wide-eyed wonderment and youthful desire, the apprehension and fear — while Elordi’s Elvis feels more grounded in reality than Austin Butler's pouty hip-shaker." Critics also commended the film for its exploration of themes present in Coppola's previous films, such as the isolation of fame, femininity, and "privilege without power".
Stern added, "You couldn’t ask for a better person to handle this material than Coppola, who's no stranger to depicting young female protagonists and the powerful men who enjoy keeping them locked in gilded cages, whether it be the Park Hyatt Tokyo, the Chateau Marmont, the Palace of Versailles or Graceland. As the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, she’s lived it, and is uniquely equipped to show what it's like to put a big, flawed man on a pedestal only to see that pedestal crack." Stern concluded that the film is "a transportive, heartbreaking journey into the dark heart of celebrity, and [is Coppola's] finest film since Lost in Translation".
Alison Willmore of Vulture wrote, "The marvel of Priscilla is in its dual awareness, how it’s able to immerse us in the bubble-bath-balmy perspective of a teenager experiencing an astonishing bout of wish fulfillment and, at the same time, always allow us to appreciate how disturbing what’s happening actually is." Willmore’s review noted, "Priscilla is a teenage fantasy and wouldn’t work without acknowledging the headiness of being romanced by the most famous man in the country, though it’s telling that the film feels thinner and more rushed as its main character tires of her husband’s acting out and compartmentalizing of her within his life and realizes she can push back".
In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane wrote, "To point out that Priscilla is superficial, even more so than Coppola’s other films, is no derogation, because surfaces are her subject. She examines the skin of the observable world without presuming to seek the flesh beneath, and this latest work is an agglomeration of things—purchases, ornaments, and textures. We see an array of outfits, chosen by Elvis for his wife, each one lovingly accessorized with a handgun. Closeups tell the tale: bare toes, at the start, sinking deep into the nap of a carpet; false eyelashes and china knickknacks; a single pill (the first of many) that Elvis lays on Priscilla’s palm, as if it were a Communion wafer; and a mini-sphinx, gilded and ridiculous, that we glimpse as she eventually flees from Graceland. If she stays there any longer, being Mrs. Presley, she, too, will shrink into a thing."
Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times reviewed the film positively, writing, "There is much more to Priscilla Presley's story left untold here: motherhood (Lisa Marie appears briefly here, at different ages), her own infidelity, her future romances, her friendship with Elvis until his death in 1977, her film career, The Naked Gun movies...But with piercing matter-of-factness, Coppola ends this movie, her strongest in more than a decade, at just the right moment: when a dream finally dies, and the thrill is well and truly gone."
BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber found it an "understated, non-judgemental portrait" of Priscilla, which was in stark contrast to the tone of Baz Luhrmann's telling of Elvis's story in Elvis (2022). Commenting on Priscilla and Luhrmann's film, Lane said, "We need both movies, I would argue: last year’s frenzied act of worship and now this irreverent response, all the more potent for being so still and small."
Filmmaker Jane Campion praised the film, saying "Don't be fooled by the apparent softness of Sofia Coppola's vision or the gentle sensitivity of her gaze, it's just that Sofia plays soft to deliver tough. There is so much dare, risk and rigor in Sofia's filmmaking, so much radical trust that it scares the pants off lesser filmmakers."
===Awards and nominations===
Awards and nominations for Priscilla
Award 	Date of ceremony 	Category 	Recipient(s) 	Result	
Venice Film Festival 	September 9, 2023	Golden Lion 	Sofia Coppola 	 	
Venice Film Festival 	September 9, 2023	Volpi Cup for Best Actress 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Mill Valley Film Festival 	October 16, 2023 	Filmmaking 	Sofia Coppola 	 	
Middleburg Film Festival 	October 22, 2023 	Variety Collaborators Award 	Sofia Coppola and Stacey Battat 	 	
Gotham Independent Film Awards 	November 27, 2023	Outstanding Lead Performance 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Chicago Film Critics Association 	December 12, 2023	Best Costume Design 	Stacey Battat 	 	
St. Louis Film Critics Association 	December 17, 2023	Best Costume Design 	Stacey Battat 	 	
Dublin Film Critics' Circle 	December 18, 2023	Best Film 	Priscilla 	 	
North Texas Film Critics Association	December 18, 2023	Best Actress 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards 	December 21, 2023	Breakout Award 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Alliance of Women Film Journalists 	January 3, 2024 	Best Woman's Breakthrough Performance 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Golden Globe Awards 	January 7, 2024 	Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Seattle Film Critics Society Awards 	January 8, 2024 	Best Costume Design 	Stacey Battat 	 	
Critics' Choice Awards 	January 14, 2024 	Best Hair and Makeup 	Priscilla 	 	
AARP Movies for Grownups Awards 	January 17, 2024 	Best Time Capsule 	Priscilla 	 	
London Film Critics' Circle 	February 4, 2024 	Breakthrough Performer of the Year 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
Satellite Awards 	March 3, 2024 	Best Actress in Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical 	Cailee Spaeny 	 	
People's Choice Awards 	February 18, 2024	The Drama Movie Star of the Year 	Jacob Elordi 	 	
Artios Awards 	March 7, 2024 	Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Feature Studio or Independent (Drama)	Nicole Daniels, Courtney Bright, John Buchan, Jason Knight	 	
== External links ==
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== References ==
Category:2023 biographical drama films
Category:2023 independent films
Category:2023 films
Category:2020s American films
Category:2020s English-language films
Category:2020s teen drama films
Category:American biographical drama films
Category:American teen drama films
Category:American Zoetrope films
Category:Films about Elvis Presley
Category:Films about marriage
Category:Films based on memoirs
Category:Films directed by Sofia Coppola
Category:Films set in West Germany
Category:Films set in the Las Vegas Valley
Category:Films set in Memphis, Tennessee
Category:Films set in 1959
Category:Films set in the 1960s
Category:Films set in the 1970s
Category:Films shot in Toronto
Category:Films with screenplays by Sofia Coppola
Category:A24 films
Category:A24 (company) films
Category:Priscilla Presley
Category:Films based on non-fiction books