In 1959, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu was living with her family in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, where her father was stationed in the US military. At a party on the base Priscilla meets 24-year-old renowned singer Elvis Presley, who has been drafted into the military at the peak of his fame. Elvis takes an immediate interest in Priscilla, and the two begin casually dating despite her parents’ concerns over their age difference and Elvis’s celebrity status. The man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.
Elvis eventually returns to the United States after his service, and loses contact with Priscilla, leaving her crestfallen.
In 1962, Elvis reconnects with Priscilla, proclaiming his love for her, and asks that she come to the US to live with him at Graceland, his estate in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis purchases Priscilla’s airfare to make a visit and the rest, as they say, is history – or rather her story.
From distributor A24 and director Sofia Coppola, who also wrote and produced, comes Priscilla an adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me. Starring Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley and Jacob Elordi as Elvis, this biopic has received rave reviews from critics following its Venice Film Festival premiere last month with Spaeny winning the Best Actress award and being praised by Rolling Stone as an ‘absolute marvel’ for her performance.
Through Priscilla’s eyes, Academy Award winner Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla’s long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame.
Priscilla is on at Palace Cinemas
