Photo: Philippe Le Sourd/AP
It's hard to imagine two films more different from each other than Elvis and Priscilla. The first, directed by Baz Luhrmann and released in 2022, charts the rise and fall of Elvis Presley at an operatic level, delving into his complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and portraying him as little less than the greatest martyr of pop music. The latter, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on Priscilla Presley's memoir and released in Britain this week, is dreamy and intimate and focuses on Priscilla's life in relation to Elvis, her partner of 14 years during highlight of his career. career. But who came closer to the facts?
The wonder of you: images of the king
Three Elvis experts I spoke with generally agree that Austin Butler, who played Elvis in Luhrmann's film, better captured the king's mannerisms. Jeff Schrembs, owner of one of the largest private Elvis collections in the world, says Butler "got a lot of Elvis' dance and hand movements right," while Suzanne Finstad, author of Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, says Butler summarized the feeling that Elvis was "complicated, charismatic yet compassionate, sometimes tender, but always conflicted."
Finstad and Schrembs believe that Elvis, as played by Jacob Elordi in Priscilla, was more thinly drawn overall. "The character as written was very Hans-like to me," says Finstad. "I thought the whole Presley family in Priscilla almost came across as the Beverly Hillbillies, with Elvis as a kind of predatory Jethro Bodine. I didn't feel the magic, the electricity and the sensitivity of Elvis."
Alanna Nash, author of four books about Elvis, including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley and Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him, says Butler was "a great stage performer." but "didn't have the refined beauty of Elvis and never really got the speaking voice". Elordi, on the other hand, although distractingly tall, "was uncannily good with Elvis's low murmur - the only actor to ever capture that correctly".
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Are you lonely tonight: images of Priscilla
Nash says that while Olivia DeJonge, who played Priscilla in Elvis, was "charming," she ultimately "wasn't very convincing as the young Priscilla." On the other hand, Coppola's star, Cailee Spaeny, was "great at capturing that young girl's wide eyes, and also at telegraphing the boredom of being 'locked' in Graceland as the woman who was always waiting for her" .
However, Finstad points out that while Spaeny was "perfect" in her portrayal of Priscilla once she arrives at Graceland - after she begins styling herself with a beehive and layers upon layers of fake eyelashes - Coppola's portrayal of pre-Elvis Priscilla, as a relatively meek girl with mousy hair, which Elvis later changed in his own image, does not match the facts. "Priscilla was really into makeup and had very dark hair when she met Elvis - it's not like he took a little brown wren and put all this makeup on her and teased her hair and turned her into a different person, she says. Although Priscilla got a makeover at Graceland to better resemble the look Elvis liked, Finstad says she "doesn't think this can just be laid at Elvis's feet - it was something Priscilla was complicit in on", and that Coppola's version of events "distorts reality and contributes to the feeling that something is not right in the relationship".
Can't resist falling in love: Elvis and Priscilla's first meeting
While Luhrmann only briefly depicts the first meeting between Elvis and Priscilla - perhaps to avoid having to deal with the fact that Priscilla was 14 at the time - Coppola's film does, showing the moment when one of Elvis' friends approaches her in a restaurant and asks her to attend a party at Elvis's house, an idea that Priscilla's parents strongly oppose.
Finstad says that according to her research, Priscilla's parents were actually "really excited" about their daughter's relationship with Elvis. "Her mother was an Elvis fan before the family was moved to Germany and she was ecstatic that Priscilla was in a relationship with him," she says. "She had no problem at all with Priscilla spending nights in Elvis' bedroom until midnight, 1am."
Elvis's entourage - the "Memphis Mafia" - expresses no concern about Priscilla's age in either film, which Nash also claims was fiction. "The guys around Elvis were terrified," she says, pointing to a passage in her book Elvis and the Memphis Mafia in which the singer's production manager, Lamar Fike, recalls telling Elvis, "We're going to end up in prison for life. "
Finstad also says that Priscilla's Elvis fandom at the time is greatly downplayed in Coppola's film. "She wanted to meet Elvis more than anything when she arrived in Germany. "I found a newspaper article from the 1950s and it quotes Priscilla saying that she told her cousin that her goal, when she was in Germany, was to meet Elvis Presley," she says. "All of that has been ignored [the film Priscilla]and it seems like a fairy tale where a nameless person just appears out of the ether and asks this young girl if she wants to meet Elvis.
A little less conversational: the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla
Both films portray the couple's relationship as toxic and deeply fractured, although given that it focuses on Priscilla, Coppola's film understandably delves deeper into their dynamic. Schrembs says that in addition to its volatility, the second film also rightly contained 'some soft moments'. "There was a lot of that in their marriage - the way Elvis doted on her," he says. "There was no doubt that he loved her, especially when she was pregnant with Lisa Marie."
Nash says that Coppola's portrayal of Elvis as someone with a host of relative sexual pathologies - in the film he largely puts sex aside in favor of pillow fights and photo shoots with Priscilla - "is true, according to Priscilla's previous accounts, but he lost interest in her sexually only after Lisa was born. That said, he has never been faithful to any woman."
Finstad says Elvis' spirituality is largely glossed over or mocked in Coppola's film, which diminishes its seriousness. "At one point in his career, when he was extremely famous, Elvis seriously considered becoming a monk," she says. "He was trying to deal with fame and a lifestyle that was so different from his humble upbringing - and the way it's presented in Priscilla has been minimized. The part that is correct is that Priscilla had no interest whatsoever in listening to Elvis discuss this."
Luhrmann's film, on the other hand, "understands that Elvis was really influenced by black music and gospel music - that was in his soul. That is completely missing from Priscilla and as a result we get a superficial version of Elvis and Priscilla."
Suspicious Ghosts: Final Thoughts
According to Nash, neither film strikes the right balance when it comes to portraying the complexities of the Presleys' world. "Coppola's film doesn't show us any of their good times after Germany - the second half draws on all the negativity, to the point where it seems like she had no fun at all, with or without Elvis," she says. "If the Luhrmann film is unfair to Colonel Parker, the Coppola is unfair to Elvis - by omission. Surely there is a middle ground between the blandness of Priscilla and the phantasmagoria of Elvis.
Finstad says that while you leave Luhrmann's film "feeling like you've met Elvis Presley," Coppola's effort "feels a little hollow, because the Elvis character is so one-dimensional that you don't get a real sense of who the man is." used to be." ".
"[Priscilla portrayed] the inappropriateness of the relationship between a 14-year-old and an adult man, and how as a young girl she was in over her head trying to compete with Ann-Margret and Juliet Prowse," Finstad adds. "I think that part is correct."
