Priscilla

Priscilla Beaulieu is 14 years old when she meets Elvis Presley, 24-year-old global superstar stationed in Germany on military service. This unlikely meeting quickly escalates into a secret, unhealthy obsession that will shape her adolescence and identity.

Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla is no rock-and-roll fantasy. Instead, it is a story about growing up disguised as fame, control and silent rebellion. Graceland invites Priscilla to the Presley household where she becomes their prisoner. Leaving behind her family and friends for Elvis’ carefully managed world means leaving behind the typical teenage years of any girl—where he dresses, shapes and shelters her under his eyesight.

They form their love on contradictions: closeness and distance; luxury and seclusion; power and affection. Elvis can be equally charming and unpredictable — a man who always seems like slipping away through her fingers but tightens his grip instead. Previously unassertive, Priscilla starts to awaken. Over time of loneliness, manipulation, silence endurance she begins to see herself not as a supporting actress in his narrative but as the author of her own life story.

Her departure was not a great escape, it was just her choice of defiance. It is the closing door that opens another into the unknown.

👥 Main Cast

Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Beaulieu – A nuanced performance. She captures the transition from a gullible girl to a quietly defiant woman with a raw vulnerability.

Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley – He stands tall and his charisma shines through, he brings an intense brooding presence to Elvis who is not a villain but a much loved and feared man at once.

Dagmara Dominczyk as Ann Beaulieu – At first cautious, she gets carried away by Elvis’ allure and promises forgetting all about her care for Priscilla.

Ari Cohen as Captain Beaulieu – Military-disciplined father to Priscilla who does not trust Elvis’s influence on him/her.

🎥 Direction & Style

Sofia Coppola directs Priscilla with dreamlike restraint, focusing not on spectacle, but sensation — memory, mood, and what remains unsaid.

Muted, pastel tones – The visual haze mirrors how surreal life could be at Graceland for Priscilla.

Intimate cinematography – Close-ups frame Priscilla alone thus visually emphasizing her alienation and surveillance in this movie.

Sparse dialogue – Slowly unfolding in memory-like fashion; Coppola prefers silence, long takes, glances rather than exposition.

Elvis does not appear in the film: Priscilla’s perspective is central here.

Theme & Symbolism

Control Disguised as Love

Priscilla is supposed to be still point while Elvis fame and drug addiction grows – beautiful, obedient and silent at all time.

Loss of Youth

With her school uniform, plush bedrooms and hours spent waiting for Elvis in the house, Priscilla’s teenage years fade away.

Performance & Persona

Everyone has a role to play- Elvis as the untouchable idol, Priscilla as the perfect partner. But underneath it all is an ache for something real which both are slowly coming to realize might not exist here.

Femininity & Isolation

Through makeup tutorials and dressing up scenes, the movie explores womanhood as socially constructed by others. And yet Priscilla’s beauty becomes a mask that she learns how to take off.

Freedom as a Whisper

Priscilla “escaped” from Elvis’ control but this isn’t shown through any huge dramatics like most biopics would have done. A suitcase. A corridor.A farewell. In this silence is where the film finds its potency- love can exist without submission.

Priscilla had a very good reception at the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered. It was widely acclaimed for its subtle power and striking viewpoint.

Cailee Spaeny receives Volpi Cup as the best actress

Sofia Coppola’s filmography got a new emotionally precise highlight

Critics have praised Priscilla as an essential counter-narrative to Elvis (2022), giving voice and agency back to the marginalized woman

The beauty in quiet strength that many audiences celebrated in this film came from reclaiming space instead of loud resistance.

It is Still Relevant Today because…

Priscilla is not about Elvis Presley – it is about the girl behind the locked doors of Graceland. It’s about love that feels like worship until it turns into control. It’s about identity eroding into nothingness under the shadow of someone greater than life itself.