Canadian Premiere
Not so much a companion piece to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis! as its polar opposite, Sofia Coppola’s portrait of the King’s child bride cuts out the razzmatazz to give us an empathetic, gentle, intimate love story… albeit a love story that will end in heartbreak.
Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is just 14 when she meets Presley (Jacob Elordi, Euphoria) on a US military base in Germany, 1959. Courteous, respectful and a little sad, he sweeps her off her feet. He’s Elvis, after all. Next thing she knows she’s living in Graceland with the King of Rock-n-Roll and his daddy Vernon, still finishing her schooling, still a virgin. Her fairy tale romance is eventually consummated, but it’s not before she’s reading about her new husband’s on-set fling with Ann-Margret. And while her domestic situation might be the object of envy for most, Priscilla begins to understand it comes with zero autonomy; she’s a kept woman, a trophy wife, “caught in a trap,” you might say.
Coppola is smart — and generous — enough to show that Elvis was also trapped in his own way, and Priscilla is above all rueful, the bittersweet tale of a teen princess who outgrew her King.
Media Partner
Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Dagmara Dominczyk
USA/Italy
2023
Special Presentations
English
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Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Sofia Coppola, Lorenzo Mieli, Youree Henley
Screenwriter
Sofia Coppola
Cinematography
Philippe Le Sourd
Editor
Sarah Flack
Production Design
Tamara Deverell
Original Music
Phoenix & Randall Poster
Director
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola has written and directed her eighth film Priscilla based on the memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Coppola made history in 2017 as only the second woman to win the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the first woman to win since 1961 for her film, The Beguiled. Coppola’s directorial debut was The Virgin Suicides (1999) which she adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name. Coppola’s next film, Lost in Translation (2003) brought her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.
Filmography: The Virgin Suicides (1999); Lost in Translation (2003); Marie Antoinette (2006); The Beguiled (2017); On The Rocks (2020)
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