BEFORE: OK, this is still kind of a romance film - or is it? We'll get into it in just a bit. But I have to flash back to November 12, 2023, which was during the Oscar campaign season for last year's Oscars. Certain film distribution companies have been known to rent the theater where I work for guild screenings, not just the Oscars but also the DGA, PGA, WGA, SAG, they want all the voters from all the guilds to come out and see their movie the way it was intended, in a dark theater with other people, and sometimes even snacks and food, plus they'll trot out some celebrities to do a Q&A afterwards, anything to curry favor with the voters.
So they don't really tell us, the theater staff working at the screening, who's going to show - sometimes it's a bunch of actors (like the main cast of "Glass Onion") sometimes it's a director (Kenneth Branagh, Paul Thomas Anderson have stopped in) and in the case of "Nosferatu", it was a bunch of hair, make-up and production design people, because the film got no acting nominations. Whatever, I take what I can get, they're all going on my life list, which is at least twice as big as it was before I started this job three years ago. I'm like a bird-watcher, only for celebrities, and much like a bird-watcher I'm not supposed to bother the wildlife, just maybe sneak a photo but NO SELFIES.
Well, for this screening of "Priscilla", back in late 2023 Sofia Coppola was there to be interviewed on stage after the film, and while most people know her as a director, I remember when she was an actor, and she had a bit part as one of the Queen's hand-maidens in "Star Wars: Episode I - the Phantom Menace" and while she once said she has no memory of acting in that film, well, I remember, so this counted as a tick on a different list for me, an interaction with a "Star Wars" actor, and I have had many of those. Well over the average, if I include everything from spotting them across a large convention center down to seeing one walk into a BBQ restaurant in North Carolina while holding a table for my family. I'm serious, like don't even TRY to catch up with me, because you'll only get hurt in the process. I'm at the point where they just come to where I work, I don't have to go looking for them any more. I couldn't get an autograph, but I handed Sofia Coppola a bottle of water, does that count for anything?
Jacob Elordi carries over from "The Kissing Booth 3".
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Elvis" (Movie #4,549)
THE PLOT: When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley, 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.
AFTER: I also should point out that I've been to Graceland, which I've always pronounced with an equal emphasis on both syllables, the "Grace" and the "land", but everyone in this film emphasized the "Grace" more, with the "land" sounding almost like an afterthought, the way we say "Iceland". OK, good to know. But going to Graceland and visiting all the exhibits there - we saw ALL of Elvis' cars, all of his jumpsuits, all of his gold records - we also noticed there was something of a false narrative being presented to the public. Sure, we all want to remember Elvis the way he was when he was alive, singing and performing on stage, and being able to fit into a jumpsuit, but then of course later in life, he dressed a different way and he favored those weird three-wheel motorcycles, out of necessity I think. Of course I didn't expect to see a TV set with bullet holes in it while touring around his house, but there's also artwork on display that shows the good times between Elvis and Priscilla, like I remember a prominent piece of art that shows the family exiting a car outside the mansion at Christmastime, getting ready to head indoors for a big Christmas dinner and probably presents to unwrap and such. The couple had MAYBE two Christmases together after Lisa Marie was born and before they separated, so that's a very specific time in Elvis' life to make a painting about.
There's no mention of the words "divorce" or "separation" in the Graceland exhibits, because that would mess with the story of Elvis being a genuinely swell individual, a devoted husband and father, and certainly not someone with a drug addiction or a drinking problem, or someone liable to shoot at the TV if he didn't like the show. But all that is part of who he was, you have to take in the whole Elvis, you can't just pick and choose the parts you like, say his Grammy awards for Gospel music, and ignore the rest. Elvis and his parents are also buried at Graceland, there's a very lavish display around their graves, you really can't miss it, even if you try. We also toured the handball court that Elvis played on the day he died, but the upper level of Graceland, including the bathroom he died in, is strictly off limits. Because they want you to remember Elvis in a certain way.
The only other music celebrity on his income level is probably Michael Jackson, someone who also had his own mansion, complete with an amusement park and petting zoo and whatever the hell else he wanted. Maybe we thought a little about Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, who also came into a ton of money when they were young, and so yeah, probably went a little wild with it. My wife's opinion of Graceland was "This is what happens when you give a 20-year-old like a billion dollars, they buy and build and collect whatever they want." And this also affects their relationships, Elvis' affairs with his co-stars like Ann-Margret are well-known, but then at the same time, he had Priscilla living at Graceland long before anyone ever knew about her. He met her when he was serving in the army in Germany, she was the daughter of an Air Force officer stationed there, and she was one of probably many girls recruited to keep Elvis company while he served. He apparently had a house not far from the base, because him living in the barracks with normal soldiers, how would that work, exactly?
When they met, he was 24 and she was 14. FOURTEEN! Now, I'm not saying that anything happened between them that shouldn't have happened, there were chaperones and military personnel were involved with finding girls to bring to parties at Elvis' place, so who knows, maybe this was all above board. But after his time in the army was over, Elvis negotiated with Priscilla Beaulieu's parents to let her live at Graceland in Memphis, she had to finish high-school and age a few years before she could "date" Elvis, but this is what happened. We have a word for this now, it's "grooming", but back in the day, it was just called "Elvis gets whatever he wants, even if that's a 14-year-old girl. And she was encouraged to never leave the house, especially if Elvis was out of town, I mean, how would THAT look? It was a different time, sure, but one might also consider that if she spent all her time with Elvis when he was in Memphis, and she couldn't leave the house when he was on tour, that sounds like a form of captivity.
Plus he used his money to buy her extravagant gifts, and his influence to keep her from disagreeing with him, and then if she should have an opinion, he would throw a chair against the wall or something, it's a form of psychological abuse. Combined with him being the biggest recording star in the whole world, which is a position of power, and he is the biggest bread-winner of all time and the alpha male, and whatever he said was what was going to happen. His girlfriend (and later wife) was just supposed to stay home and wait for him to come back from the concert, see to his needs, take drugs with him and then have breakfast in bed with him the next morning. Sure, it was a different time, the early 1960's, but meanwhile he was jetting off to Hollywood to make movies, probably sleeping with his co-stars and who knows HOW many other girls, and that hardly seems fair, does it?
But sure, having a child together will probably fix everything, right? Well, that's when Elvis' career was suddenly hot again, with his 1968 TV comeback special, so then he was constantly touring while she was at home raising their young daughter. She had an affair, too, with her dance instructor, and he had a staggering number of affairs while playing in Vegas. This was still a recipe for an unhealthy relationship, no matter how many magazine articles were written about how solid their relationship was. So they split up in 1972 and got divorced in 1973. The "Elvis" movie glossed over a lot of this, obviously the focus of that film was on HIM, not HER, but it did have that scene near the end when they exchanged words in that car. What I did was put both films back-to-back on one DVD, so I can watch both sides of the story in the future.
What a shocker, Elvis Presley Enterprises did not approve of this film, and would not allow the Elvis versions of songs to be licensed. See, that just tells me that the director may have been hitting pretty close to the mark. If the Elvis corporation had nothing to hide, then they wouldn't deny access to his songs.
Directed by Sofia Coppola (director of "The Bling Ring")
Also starring Cailee Spaeny (last seen in "Civil War"), Ari Cohen (last seen in "It: Chapter Two"), Dagmara Dominczyk (last seen in "The Lost Daughter"), Tim Post (last seen in "Nightmare Alley"), Lynne Griffin (last seen in "Fahrenheit 451"), Daniel Beirne (last seen in "On the Road"), Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll (last seen in "Little Italy"), Dan Abramovici, Matthew Shaw, Tim Dowler-Coltman, R. Austin Ball, Olivia Barrett, Stephanie Moore (last seen in "Angel Eyes"), Luke Humphrey, Deanna Jarvis, Jorja Cadence, Josette Halpert (last seen in "Flash of Genius"), Evan Annisette, Daniel Lipka, Raine Monroe Boland, Emily Mitchell (last seen in "Women Talking"), Gwynne Phillips, Conni Miu, Megan Dallan, Tonia Venneri, Erin Mackinnon, Sarah Dodd, Alanis Peart, Kelaiah Guiel, Andrew Mackay, Kelly Irene Whyte, Fegan DeCordova, Kelly Penner, Preston Galli
with archive footage of Humphrey Bogart (last seen in "Call Me Kate"), Peter Lorre (last seen in "Silk Stockings"), Robert Morley (last seen in "The Trouble with Spies"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love")
RATING: 6 out of 10 karate lessons
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