Priscilla Reminds Of Changes Women Make To Suit The World Of Men They Marry

Sofia Coppola’s film Priscilla is made for women by a woman, which makes this unmissable. It is beautifully shot with shades of pastel colours that wash over the screen, beautiful clothes, and shoes you want to own and the nuances of the Madonna versus the whore syndrome that we know is for real are addressed in the film. The wife must be the Madonna and the other woman is the whore. Both are women. One is worship-worthy because she is maternal, virginal and pretty. The other one is never worshipped, as she sells herself and transacts her morals, the right versus wrong of this, remains the bastion of patriarchy. 

Priscilla is kept on a pedestal by Elvis, as she reminds him of his late mother. The underlying characterisations of the man choosing the woman worthy enough to give birth to his child are blatantly obvious in the unapologetic statements of Elvis choosing Priscilla over the other women he dates or sleeps with. Her insecurities with her place in his life and finding herself stuck in the constant state of her bewilderment and loneliness of being put on the pedestal as his wife. 

The Power Dynamics Addressed

Priscilla played by Cailee Spaeny and Elvis by Jacob Elordi made me reminisce about my days of childhood in Shillong. The clothes  I wore, copying the church-going half-Welsh and half-Khasi girls of this Christian hill station. The internal battle remained the same of who I really am?  Am I the good girl who was raised in a frugal middle-class Bengali home or the girl who wanted to be seen as stylish, open-minded and forward? This too is a battle, never discussed ever. Does the mind ever conquer the heart? 

The film also addressed the power dynamics of men choosing pretty girls. And the thought that pretty girls must be dumb and comely. Therefore, Priscilla was very relatable to me. She was styled in her era of structured clothing. A young school-going girl who couldn’t go out without her parent’s permission. 

Someone who was tender, naive and had no exposure. All of a sudden she becomes the object of desire of Elvis Presley. This doesn’t sit well with the other girls in the school she attends. Making Pricilla pay the price for being the chosen one. She has no friends and is lonely, with Elvis as her only ray of light in her lonely life. 

I travelled with Priscilla as I could relate to the changes women make as they transform themselves to suit the world of the man they love or marry. But what is remarkable is Sofia Coppola delved very subtly into what lay beneath the hair bouffant, the beautiful clothing, the expensive watch, and the jewellery of such women. The price they pay with their lives.

The little poodle that was to become her companion and eventually her pregnancy, bearing Elvis’s child. Her insecurity with her pregnancy weight gain, and the perilous, lonesome journey of motherhood, was captured beautifully by Sofia Coppola.

A sweet little girl got lonelier as she gave herself up to become Mrs Presley. There is a scene in the film when a family photo is being clicked, Priscilla sits on her knees, down on the carpeted floor with Elvis spreading his legs in a very masculine manner on the sofa chair, with their daughter on his arms. This reveals the subservient character of Priscilla that she unknowingly has embraced being the rockstar’s wife. 

At the end without much drama, Priscilla leaves Elvis, while he is half awake after his very successful music tours. It ends with Priscilla hugging the household staff and bidding goodbye to the importance of being Mrs Elvis Presley. 

It was heartbreaking many times in the film when she catches his infidelities and doesn’t have the courage or the know-how of how to deal with the coveted position of being the Madonna in his life or return to her strict and modest life of her parental home. A choice very hard to decide upon. 

We salute Priscilla for asking to be touched by Elvis as she is tired of being the Madonna on a pedestal. Only a woman like Sophia Coppola could make this film, touching upon the complexities of being a woman who must fit into the male gaze of being desirable or discarded, based on the expression of her sexuality. 

Views expressed are the author's own.

Mohua Chinappa is an author and runs a podcast called The Mohua Show.