Wrote Lisa Marie Presley to Sofia Coppola, quoted in "Lisa Marie Presley begged Sofia Coppola to change Elvis film/The singer’s late daughter condemned the script of Priscilla, which depicts the early years of her parents’ relationship" (London Times).
The film is based on Priscilla's memoir.
[Elvis] was 24 when he met the 14-year-old Priscilla in postwar Germany.... Priscilla has said that she never had sex with Elvis until their 1967 wedding, when she was 21.... Lisa Marie, who had a strained relationship with her 78-year-old mother, said modern audiences would be unable to accept such an age gap. ...
“I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”... She said she could not understand Coppola’s “need to attempt to take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality.”
I don't know what Elvis actually did, but if a 24-year-old man pays attention to a 14-year-old girl, it may be beautiful and romantic to her, while from an objective standpoint, it may be a "very dark and jaded reality." A movie could show the girl's dream world, but if the idea is to show something like reality, it would put viewers in a position where we will think about and assess what both the man and the girl are doing.
Of course, that is the director's reality. Is it "very dark and jaded" or is it a straightforward presentation of the facts — with us, the present-day audience, put in a position to judge Lisa Marie's father and to brush aside the sentimental feelings of her mother?
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17 comments:
Since I am the author of the Oscar-worthy “Frankenstein, Part II,” I feel it is my duty to weigh in here.
One of the most important elements of a good script is to have tension or a plus and minus in each scene. “Oppenheimer” is a great example. Oppenheimer was fighting the clock, other scientists, his wife, his girlfriend and Strauss.
Sophia and I are on the same wavelength.
The relationship between Elvis and Priscilla has been stripped from the culture of the Deep South where early marriage was not at all uncommon. 14-16;years old regularly got married and no one batted an eye in 1955. In the 1960's there were lots of 18 year old Southern women married in the June they graduated high school. That Elvis waited until Priscilla was 21 speaks well of him and his upbringing. In no was was their relationship anything out of the ordinary or unusual in 1959 Mississippi.
This whole thing needs to be reshot with Elvis played by a black woman.
No one will dare call it “dark” then.
"based on"
That simply means a smidgen of a grain of the original occurrence.
Take "The Aeronauts":
"In 1862, daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) teams up with pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history."
No female pilot at all, relegating that man's (Henry Coxwell) actual heroism and courage (climbing up the outside of the balloon to break free the gas release valve so they could descend) to - of course - a woman. Injecting race into the Royal Society membership for "modern sensibilities". Etc.
With movies, "based on" is a meaningless PR phrase mostly used to steal noteriaty.
When British audiences found out about Jerry Lee Lewis's 13 year old wife, they didn't think it was really beautiful, no matter what she thought.
Publishers give big advances for celebrity tell alls.
If there is not enough to tell, then narrative has to be created.
Whos's that Wolfe guy that gets caught lying in everything he writes? Lies sell books to hungry leftists with an insatiable appetite for dirt.
Jerry Lee Lewis was always resentful that it was a scandal that he married his 13-year-old cousin, while Elvis got a pass for bringing home a 14-year-old girl and keeping her at his house until marrying her when she was 18.
It's a sad story. There's nothing normal about a 24-year-old man falling in love with a 14-year-old girl. What could they possibly have to talk about? It wasn't a deep-South thing; she was an Army brat who'd lived all over, and they met in West Germany. And of course, once he got her, he didn't want her anymore. He didn't want to get married, but Tom Parker set it up for publicity, and then Elvis cheated on her constantly.
Sofia! Sorry. Call me. I’ll let you direct, but the two leads must be Hugh Jackman and Emily Blunt.
Tom T.
That marriage wasn’t about talking.
Hillarywoodlanders do not care about the truth.
Elvis did not "bring home a 14 year old." They met when she was that age but she didn't move to Graceland until several years later (around 17? 18?). They married when she was 21--and had Lisa Marie exactly 9 months later.
"When British audiences found out about Jerry Lee Lewis's 13 year old wife, they didn't think it was really beautiful, no matter what she thought."
I met Jerry Lee once. He was an odd guy but an incredible piano player.
"In the 1960's there were lots of 18 year old Southern women married in the June they graduated high school."
My father was ten years older than my mother. They were married in the '50s after she had graduated high school.
Pretty much every couple on our very blue collar street had one person in their teens or twenties when first married. Very common.
In Elvis’ defense, my partner did the flowers of the stars, in her early 20s, in Las Vegas, running the floral shop at the Hilton, where a lot of big acts played. Most of the stars weren’t nice people. There were two exceptions: Cosby and Elvis. Elvis always wanted to tip her, which she couldn’t accept. They would always squabble over that. He did though give her front row seats to one of his shows, and she went back to his dressing room afterwards, where he gave her the scarf he wore on stage. She kept it for decades. He was the perfect Southern gentleman to her, which was quite the rarity for her. Nothing that could remotely be considered a pass at her. And he was even more charismatic in person, than he was on stage, or on film. Her second ticket went to a friend at work, because if she had given it to her father, an avid Elvis fan, it would have caused strife with his brother, an even more avid fan - who named his daughter Lisa Marie, shortly after Elvis’ daughter was born. And to keep him from doing his Elvis imitation in front of The King. To this day, his is the only music that the two of us agree on, and can listen to together (with her occasional comment that it was better live).
@Bruce Hayden 12:20pm
Great story. I'm not a huge Elvis fan (he has his moments), but the guy could really sing and had off-the-charts charisma.
A good friend's wife was once hit on by Rodney Dangerfield. They still tell that story and laugh : )
Lisa should have told Sofia that her Dad ruined her (and the movie) when he put her in the Godfather 3.
Sofia went into Daddy’s business.
Hollywood nepotism.
Elvis has been dead for 45 years. Lisa Marie is dead.
No one gives a shit about Priscilla Presley.
This movie is going to tank sue to Hollywood nepotism. They just burn money out there.
I might see it just to count how many and varied will be the ways they condescend to Southerners.
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