Canadian Premiere
Not so much a companion piece to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis! as its polar opposite, Sofia Coppola’s portrait of the King’s child bride cuts out the razzmatazz to give us an empathetic, gentle, intimate love story… albeit a love story that will end in heartbreak.
Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is just 14 when she meets Presley (Jacob Elordi, Euphoria) on a US military base in Germany, 1959. Courteous, respectful and a little sad, he sweeps her off her feet. He’s Elvis, after all. Next thing she knows she’s living in Graceland with the King of Rock-n-Roll and his daddy Vernon, still finishing her schooling, still a virgin. Her fairy tale romance is eventually consummated, but it’s not before she’s reading about her new husband’s on-set fling with Ann-Margret. And while her domestic situation might be the object of envy for most, Priscilla begins to understand it comes with zero autonomy; she’s a kept woman, a trophy wife, “caught in a trap,” you might say.
Coppola is smart — and generous — enough to show that Elvis was also trapped in his own way, and Priscilla is above all rueful, the bittersweet tale of a teen princess who outgrew her King.
Media Partner
Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Dagmara Dominczyk
USA/Italy
2023
Special Presentations
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Sofia Coppola, Lorenzo Mieli, Youree Henley
Screenwriter
Sofia Coppola
Cinematography
Philippe Le Sourd
Editor
Sarah Flack
Production Design
Tamara Deverell
Original Music
Phoenix & Randall Poster
Director
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola has written and directed her eighth film Priscilla based on the memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Coppola made history in 2017 as only the second woman to win the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the first woman to win since 1961 for her film, The Beguiled. Coppola’s directorial debut was The Virgin Suicides (1999) which she adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name. Coppola’s next film, Lost in Translation (2003) brought her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.
Filmography: The Virgin Suicides (1999); Lost in Translation (2003); Marie Antoinette (2006); The Beguiled (2017); On The Rocks (2020)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All We Imagine as Light
What Wong Kar-wai did for Hong Kong, Payal Kapadia does for Mumbai: the Cannes Grand Prix winner is a romantic heartbreaker about three nurses at different stages of life. It's a future classic.
Let's Get Lost
One of the essential jazz films, this is an achingly tender record of jazz icon Chet Baker shortly before he died, still playing beautiful music and looking back on a life of might-have-beens. A love letter to a lost soul.
Bird
In Andrea Arnold's latest, 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives in a squat near the English seaside. Neglected by her chaotic father (Barry Keoghan), she pursues an adventure with a magnetic stranger named Bird (Franz Rogowski).
Ghost Cat Anzu
When fifth grader Karin is deposited with her grandfather for the summer she takes out her unhappiness on his giant talking cat, Anzu -- who looks out for her even so. This wildly original anime riffs on Spirited Away with pleasing irreverence. Rated: PG.
Memoir of a Snail
A stellar Australian cast voice this charming and emotional animated feature by Adam Elliot, the tale of a lonely foster kid befriended by an eccentric elderly woman who turns her life around. (Not for kids!)