The stories behind great personalities can inspire and uplift us. In film form, they can enchant us with dazzling images. This results in biopics like Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. But if you look closely, they can also reveal sides that are anything but pretty.
Such stories can reveal the unpleasantness of real history through sheer observational skills. This is how icons of music history become in the hands of cult director Sofia Coppola downright creepy characters – and films like Priscilla send shivers down our spines. You can now stream the masterpiece on Mubi just three months after its theatrical release.
Priscilla at Mubi tells the story of Elvis Presley from a completely new perspective
1959, Bad Nauheim, Germany. An insignificant 24 year old musician by the name of Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) attends a friend’s party. There he meets a woman – no, a girl – who will later become his wife. Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) can hardly believe her luck when a connection develops between the two. She is only 14 years old.
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The hours spent together develop into a relationship, which, however, falls asleep when Elvis returns to the USA. A few years later, however, he brings Priscilla to his estate. And from there you start life together and soon their marriage. Priscilla has achieved what thousands upon thousands of women around the world envy. She’s Mrs. Presley.
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Apparently Priscilla is living every woman’s dream.
But as she soon discovers, she can’t be anything more than that. He’s the big superstar, she’s just his girl. And as the press swarms the two of them and Elvis’ fame continues to grow, Priscilla begins to question her decisions, her partner and herself. The first dream marriage becomes for them Jail.
Priscilla is not a love story, but a horror thriller
The anxiety in Priscilla often arises from completely harmless images that get under your skin. The isolation of a Priscilla, permanently displaced by the hype surrounding Elvis, alone and merely a peripheral figure to the superstar staged at the center. The quiet helplessness and powerlessness of a young woman who is lonely despite constant company has to fight for her own personality.
None of this is over-dramatized, it doesn’t rely on shocking images or glittering colors with contrasting gloom. It creeps subtly into the subconscious, showing in muted colors and lengthening shadows how the illusion of a perfect, happy relationship dissolves into nothing. Hope turns into despair and even fear, but these are smothered by society and partners.
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Priscilla
That’s how it feels everyday, real horror at. Elvis is by no means a super villain. But the naturalness with which the power dynamics of a relationship are expressed in the smallest gestures shows the threat of a changeable partner. It’s the little things in life that make it so beautiful. And it’s the little things in life that can make it absolute hell.
Anyone who would like to experience this unique perspective on one of the great superstars of our history can do so starting today with a streaming subscription on Mubi.