Red Sea Film Festival 2023 | Priscilla

Despite a varied filmography that spans genres, Sofia Coppola always tackles her work with a clear POV, from her early explorations of loss in The Virgin Suicides to her unvarnished depiction of Elvis via his relationship with Priscilla in Priscilla. This is a very different portrayal of Elvis than Baz Luhrmann’s, which portrayed him as a victim of his power-hungry manager. Here, Elvis is the one with the power, as the film never shies away from the fact that Priscilla was 14 when she met Elvis. He was 24 and serving in the Army at the time. This portrayal shows him controlling every aspect of their relationship and isolating her from her peers and the world, making her dependent on seeking his love and attention.

The film also smartly doesn’t depict their relationship as sexual until they are married. Some may see this as Priscilla herself wanting to seem chaste, since it is based on her memoir and she was involved with the film, or even an attempt to make Elvis look less like a predator, but I think it was another aspect of her showing his control. I think not engaging with her sexually while also being tied romantically with all his co-stars was another way of making her cling to him. This was another depiction in the film of his grooming her.

It’s worth noting that Elvis did meet Priscilla shortly after her recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis, who, not long after their recording, married his 13-year-old first cousin once removed (he claimed she was 15, but that doesn’t make it better) with an even smaller age gap, he was 22. The controversy of their marriage and her age affected his career and how people saw him… So it is not surprising, that Elvis sought to make things appear above board despite pursuing a similar relationship dynamic (minus the familiar relation).

Now, I do think people can have real relationships without an element of grooming or power imbalance with an age gap, even bigger than 10 years. However, context matters with that age gap. The ages of the couple when they met. There is a difference between a couple meeting at 14 and 24 and 34 and 44. There’s even a difference between 24 and 34 because one is in early adulthood firmly an adult. There is nothing wrong with starting a relationship at those ages but, for many, developmentally they are in different places and may still find themselves imbalanced and thus incompatible. By the time you get to 34 and 44, they are both developmentally firmly adults and a 10-year age gap is no longer that great a divide, and the divide shrinks each year you add.

Priscilla isn’t the only film in theatres, or streaming, currently addressing this topic, even if it’s the only one doing it by spotlighting an icon. May December, the latest feature directed by Todd Haynes, is loosely inspired by the infamous story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who initiated a sexual relationship with her 12-year-old student and went on to have two children and marry him. I think it’s great that both these films are out at the same time to create conversation because grooming isn’t something that only happens to one gender. It can happen to anyone in a power imbalance, and age is a major power imbalance.

Priscilla continues Sofia Coppola’s signature anachronistic music pairings that made films like Marie Antoinette a joy to watch. Jacob Elordi’s height was framed at times to great effect to further emphasize the power dynamic between his Elvis and Cailee Spaeny’s Priscilla. However, I will say that this film sometimes seemed to have scenes that drifted into what could be described as “vibes,” with scenes that lingered or repeated on similar beats/themes.

Priscilla screens December 8^th and 9^th at the 3^rd Annual Red Sea International Film Festival as part of the International Spectacular section.

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