It’s hard not to contrast Priscilla, Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic, with 2022’s Elvis extravaganza from the king of showbiz, Baz Luhrmann. At every turn, they are striking counterpoints.
Where Luhrmann's movie was glitzy, vibrant, dynamic and focused on Elvis the icon, Coppola’s movie is meditative and dreamy, its colors are muted and the pacing is slow (sometimes tediously so). And, of course, its focus isn’t on Elvis and showbiz, well not directly, but on the limited, suffocating, domestic space that Priscilla Beaulieu — eventually Presley — gets to inhabit. And then there’s the real-life contrast in that Luhrmann’s film came with the blessing of The Presley Foundation (set up by the late Lisa Marie Presley). Coppola’s production, which is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, was slammed by Lisa Marie Presley, according to reports in Variety, and was refused the right to use any Elvis songs.
