Rarely do we see films directed by women, and even rarer do we see films from the perspective of women, but Sofia Coppola is changing that. 

     The director announced her new film ‘Priscilla’ which was a clear indication of Elvis Presley’s famous wife, in September of 2022, with Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi playing the charismatic, fashionable couple. Production started later in October of 2022, with most of the shooting being done in Toronto, Canada. “I felt she could get me,” Priscilla Presley says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in August of 2023. For Priscilla, this life has not been easy. When she first started dating Elvis Presley, she was 14, and he was 24. Not only that, she would find herself overhearing people talking about him, and in turn, her as well. Around the age of 16, she started realizing that she, too, was a celebrity of sorts, and being talked about by the public was just a thing she’d have to get used to.

     The film Priscilla is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me which Coppola picked up a few years prior. While many believe that this film is going to be a glamorous, star-struck, and romantic piece, Sofia Coppola wants to make it more emotional and realistic of how Priscilla felt. When Austin Butler won Best Actor in 2023 for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Coppola felt it was time to tell the other side of the story. For those who haven’t seen Elvis, there are multiple scenes where Elvis Presley is seen kissing and even having affairs in his hotel room with women who are not Priscilla. 

     In Elvis, there is a scene where Priscilla is shown leaving, tired of living the way she is, and tired of Elvis, not for sleeping with other women, but for all the drugs and not being present in their child’s life. “Do you remember the last time we laughed together? Do you remember the last time the three of us sat down and had dinner together? You won’t even make love to me anymore.” Olivia DeJonge, who plays Priscilla in Elvis gives an outstanding, and emotionally driving performance. In the final scene between the two of them, where they are shown on the landing strip in front of Elvis’ plane, they exchange custody of Lisa Marie, who is no older than 7 at the time. An emotional peak is reached when Priscilla is about to get into the car and drive away, she looks back at Elvis, and he mouths the words “I will always love you” and in an ode, “Can’t Help Falling In Love” plays instrumentally in the background. It suggests that they never lost love for one another, but more than that, the song isn’t about falling in love, it’s about falling out of love, and the beauty and sorrow behind two people who can’t give anymore. “I gave you my life, and I have nothing in me left to give you,” Priscilla says, in one of the last scenes of her and Elvis. However, we have to recognize this is all set from the point of view of Baz Lurhmann’s perspective of Elvis’ story, so with Coppola’s upcoming film, we will get a new perspective: Priscilla’s.

     While Coppola is anticipated to direct a grand production of this famous love story, many, including myself, are very excited to see what she cooks up and just how “loving” this love story ends up being.