Notes on ‘Priscilla’
Directed by Sofia Coppola
- Jacob Elordi brings the same subtlety from his performance in Euphoria. What I mean by that is that he’s a character full of vulnerabilities and softness but something about him just has that twinge of sociopathy that makes you wanna distance yourself from him. This gave a new perspective on how fame had swallowed Elvis Presley whole.
-My favorite soundtrack so far in Sofia Coppola’s filmography. It feels so 60s yet so electronic and new wave. This gave the tone of high eccentricity which you feel from super stardom.
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-This film also distributed Elvis’s fame through the image of the image. The introduction of Elvis’s house in Memphis sticks on an extremely wide shot which captures the entire scale of his home as Priscilla enters it.
-Everyone has given high praise to Cailee Spaney’s performance which is said to use so much complexion as it plays out so many contradicting feelings at once to show how trapped Priscilla must have felt but I didn’t really agree with this take. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen Jeon Do-Yeon in Secret Sunshine (2007) and Setsuko Hara in Ozu’s films do this performance so much better but I didn’t pick up on any of the layers of feelings which everyone claims to be in awe of. If anything, Priscilla only felt distant to me, I never could really get what she truly desired to express as she built a mental barrier for herself. Spaney’s performance should rather be praised for this reason in my opinion.
- The production design feels exactly how I imagined that time period must have felt. It gave a weirdly comfortable feeling to sit in. I think this is effective because it shows how easy it is to let yourself soak into the world and drown in comfort.
- -The editing was heavily-stylized. It loved bragging about its skill of smoothness by jutting around shots together and fumbling around with jump cuts without losing the realistic sense of movement. It gave a sort of surreal effect for the film, jumping through time without acknowledging the recollection of that in the memory. You develop a fear of time. You fear to lose the future as you feel trapped in the ever-moving roller blading of the present.
