Director Sofia Coppola’s latest film was released in theaters this Wednesday, January 3. He revisits the relationship between Elvis Presley and his wife through the prism of the latter, who loses her innocence in contact with the King.
After Elvis by Baz Luhrmann released in 2022, another film plunges us into the intimacy of the King this Wednesday, January 3. Or, rather, finally highlights the rock’n’roll star’s wife. Priscillafeature film about the journey of resilience and the end of the innocence of the widow ofElvis Presleyis the first film of the year 2024 not to be missed in cinemas.
Spectators will be able to discover the meeting between Priscilla, then a self-effacing teenager who dreams of a romantic fairy tale, and the 24-year-old American star. They first have a secret romance before getting married. But behind the scenes, life isn’t as glamorous as you might think.
The director Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation…) chose to adapt the memoirs of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, entitled Elvis and me. The goal: to put the King’s widow back in the spotlight, her meeting with Presley. And the critics said they were won over by the angle chosen by the filmmaker, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola: on Allocinated, the feature film received a rating of 3.8/5 from 28 press titles listed. On the site Metacriticthe feature film obtained 79% positive reviews from the press (out of 58 titles).
In France, critics praised a “sensitive, disturbing, masterful” film for Elle and a “portrait of a woman so finely observed and written” for Le Journal du Dimanche. For its part, the newspaper Sud Ouest welcomes “an intimate, delicate, elegant look at the loss of innocence”. According to Les Echos, Priscilla even marks “a return to the top of her art” for the director.
Far from being a romantic comedy, the feature film “marries the sole perspective of Priscilla” (Rolling Stone), locked in the golden prison of Graceland, to tell the phenomenon of control, “in a magnificent gesture of filmmaker and sorority mixed.
Calee Spaeny, an actress to follow
The press said it was won over by “the astonishing performance” (Here) of actress Calee Spaeny. For this performance, the 25-year-old actress won the female performance prize at the last Venice Film Festival, a prize which “is only justice” for La Voix du Nord. Facing her is Jacob Elordi (Euphoria, Saltburn) who plays Elvis Presley in a darker and more toxic version than what Baz Luhrmann painted a year ago.
If some critics have not been entirely convinced, such as Paris Match which deplores “questions asked” which “remain unanswered” and Le Parisien which maintains a “mixed impression” on the merits, Priscilla undoubtedly remains the film not to be missed in cinemas this Wednesday January 3.