{"id":67217,"date":"2023-12-26T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/?guid=00d554c82e3c7582a2617a5622a45d8d"},"modified":"2023-12-26T10:00:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T10:00:37","slug":"priscilla-review-subtle-and-sensational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/26\/priscilla-review-subtle-and-sensational\/","title":{"rendered":"Priscilla review \u2013 subtle and sensational"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span>n a 2016 interview with Vanity Fair, Jennifer Garner was asked about her marriage to Ben Affleck, which ended the previous year. \u201cHe\u2019s just a complicated guy,\u201d Garner said. \u201cI always say, \u2018When his sun shines on you, you feel it. But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it\u2019s cold.\u2019 He can cast quite a shadow.\u201d This could be equally applied to the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley, as depicted in Sofia Coppola\u2019s biographical drama.<\/p>\n

A filmmaker who has always shown an acute interest in the interiority of teenage girls, and the reality of otherwise picture-perfect romance, Coppola seems uniquely suited to tackle the story of the woman behind the man. As a lonely American teenager living on a US airbase in Germany, Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) meets Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) for the first time at a party.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a tall, charismatic presence, who initially mistakes Priscilla for a high school senior. When she tells him she\u2019s 14, he lets out a low whistle. \u201cYou\u2019re just a baby,\u201d he murmurs. But this doesn\u2019t stop Presley from pursuing Priscilla, and the teenager from falling head over heels. It\u2019s a fairy tale in Priscilla\u2019s eyes; a sweet, handsome man has come to rescue her from her isolation and take her back to America.<\/p>\n

Coppola never tries to justify the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla \u2013 we see Priscilla\u2019s parents agonising over the decision to allow her to leave for Memphis, or forbid it and risk losing her all the same \u2013 but she does underscore the significant age gap between the two. While he\u2019s mulling over career decisions, she\u2019s doing homework. Soon enough Elvis is advising Priscilla how to dress and telling her she should dye her hair and wear more makeup. He creates the perfect rock star\u2019s girlfriend, and Priscilla \u2013 alone in his world \u2013 has little option but to cooperate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She becomes an outlet for him to offload his emotional baggage, confessing his hopes and dreams but never asking what Priscilla\u2019s are. When she enquires about maybe going to work in a boutique part-time, he quickly forbids it, stating she has to be around the house in case he needs her. When Elvis buys Priscilla a puppy after she moves into Graceland, how is she supposed to know she\u2019s expected to walk and to heel too?<\/p>\n

Yet we do see what it was that Priscilla loved about him, even if the film is relatively chaste (a late scene seems to pull its punches about a marital sexual assault which was detailed in Priscilla\u2019s memoir). Elvis is generous and attentive, so long as he\u2019s never questioned. Only as she grows up does Priscilla realise she needs more than he\u2019s willing (or perhaps able) to give.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something comforting about fairytales because we know how they end. I\u2019ve always thought biopics function in a similar way \u2013 they\u2019re often a story we\u2019ve known all along, told slightly differently. The real beauty of Priscilla is its delicate portrayal of the all-consuming fire and flood of first love, and what happens when you grow up, and begin to realise the fairytale doesn\u2019t always have a happy ending. And that\u2019s okay, too. Fairytales are fantasies, after all. The sun goes on shining when you step out of someone else\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n

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