Priscilla and the Plight of Women('s Biopics)

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My Priscilla review: The woman's biopic gives us a snapshot into the suffering of famous female figures. But in doing so, does it lock them in a cinematic gilded cage?
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Sources:
Nicholas Barber, “Priscilla review: Sofia Coppola has directed a 'sympathetic tribute' to Elvis's wife” BBC Culture (2023).
Priscilla Beaulieu Presely and Sandra Harmon, Elvis & Me, Blackstone Publishing (1985).
Keaton Bell, “Sofia Coppola Will Now Take You Behind the Scenes of Her Priscilla Presley Biopic” Vogue (2022).
Richard Dyer, “Judy Garland and Gay Men” in Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society, Routledge (1986).
Molly Fischer, “Sympathy for the Schoolgirl”, The New Yorker (2023).
Ben Kenigsberg, “‘Priscilla’ Review: All Shook Up” The New York Times (2023).
Todd Kennedy, “Off with Hollywood’s Head: Sofia Coppola as Feminine Auteur,” Film Criticism, vo.. 35 (1) (2010).
Brian O’Flynn, “'They just wanted to silence her': the dark side of gay stan culture” The Guardian (2018).
Katey Rich, “The Elvis Presley We Didn’t See in Elvis” Vanity Fair (2023).
Jia Tolentino, “Pure Heroines” in Trick Mirror (2019).

[@BroeyDeschanel]

sorry for all the mic issues everybody! my b!

[@thoughtsfromathot]

hi! loved this video. what’s the song playing at 8:42 ?

[@amayaherrera4218]

I loveeee your hair cut!!! And your take on Spencer! Hated that movie

[@saphireblue3563]

First of all, Priscilla was not an underage wife. She was almost 22 when she married Elvis. You say you read Elvis and Me, so you should remember the part where she said that if Elvis had affairs she did not know it. The power imbalanced relationship? Once he married her and had a baby, Priscilla became the one with the power. If there was a divorce, she would be set for life or at least for the next 18 years. When she escaped "to freedom" she escaped taking most of Elvis' money with her. She has never done anything, accomplished anything without using Elvis directly or indirectly. She tried to get into show business after the divorce but got nowhere until Elvis died, and she could do Elvis specials. tv Graceland tours, Elvis books and movies, Elvis interviews, etc. Doing that she got her own face on tv which led to her first show business gig, Those Amazing Animals. She has never accomplished anything without using Elvis, directly or indirectly.

[@TheJamesRedwood]

You make wonderful videos. You are very intelligent and eloquent, and, yes, photogenic. OK you are f'ing gorgeous. That helps, yes, but I wouldn't stay if it were not for your particular insight and your elegant and incisive writing. I have one note, just one: the filter on the shots of you on the couch, it seems to jar with the stills from the normal saturation of the stills and clips form the movies. Oh I really like the irony of the explicitly useless hyperstack of books - clearly not intended to be read.

[@TheJamesRedwood]

He met her when she was 14 and groomed her from then on. Age at marriage is irrelevant to his paedophilia. @@saphireblue3563​

[@hungtotheover3385]

My mom and I saw Priscilla together because she adores Elvis. I brought up to her that she was a child when they met to my mom and she was so upset that people were taking it so seriously and that’s “just how it was back then.” Then I brought up the question what would she do if I brought a mid twenties boy home when I was 14/15. She said she would have shot him.

[@fritzthecat8158]

*totally happened

[@hungtotheover3385]

@@fritzthecat8158what? The conversation? 😂

[@mrRambleGamble]

What if that boy was Elvis. I think it's gross but from what I've heard, Priscilla's parents were also opportunistic

[@hungtotheover3385]

@@mrRambleGamblethat’s what my mom said too! But I thought that would make it worse bc he’s so famous and he’s going after a high schooler it’s insane

[@bubbles4897]

@@hungtotheover3385yeah it does sound like a made up conversation, no offense

[@BryonyClaire]

One thing I've really noticed in biopics is how a woman's life is defined by her relationships, and a man's by his achievements and rising above struggles (whatever they may be). It's pretty telling of our view on women, same as the iconography of them being when they're frozen in time, young and beautiful, just again reinforcing that's the thing we're interested in

[@selalewis9189]

Agreed. I noticed that too in a few Whitney Houston biopics. We could have spent more time with her developing her voice, which was damaged at a young age. We could have seen her rehearse those amazing vocal performances, giving us insight on how someone learns to sing like that. Instead it’s more Bobby Brown, Clive Davis, and her family. One highlights her relationship with Robin Crawford, but even then I was a bit bored. Women in music deserve to be portrayed as artists and musicians, not just plot points in a soap opera.

[@chadberles2056]

As your profile picture is with done up hair 100$ dollars of makeup showing your youth And beauty. Wow yes logically you could be correct accept that's reality men can't rely on our beauty to get respect we have to climb a to the top In a certain field to get respect from men and for woman to want to sleep with us....woman don't they just have to be and stay as beautiful as possible all woman talk about is men on dating sites or their xs husband's babydaddys woman can't stop focusing on men woman don't get together and talk space science theories swords war political argument if woman do talk politics it's only About woman birth control abortion money from a divorce woman only care about woman's rights

[@Jprager]

Makes sense though. Women have not really been a part of the workforce in comparison to men. The WORKFORCE defines a man’s worth. It just seems stupid for woman to make up the statement “A woman defines her own worth” could you imagine the laughing stock a guy would look like making that statement in a job interview

[@elatafalando]

Spot on. See how in Marilyn's biopic, we met any other women and she used to have a lot of female friends. How she decided to create her own film producer late on. It's only focused on her male relationships.

[@K.C-2049]

@@Jprager lol so because women traditionally haven't worked as much (because, you know, men kinda kept them from doing so in very real ways until the last half to three quarter century or so), all they do is wait around and think about men and we couldn't possibly depict them in any other ways? yikes.

[@trinaq]

It's extremely telling that Elvis is in lot more of Priscilla's biopic than she was in his, demonstrating that she seemed to love him more than he did her.

[@ECKohns]

But doesn’t it leave out her 22 year relationship with Marco Garibaldi? Elvis is in most of it because it focuses squarely on her relationship with him, leaving out the parts of her life that weren’t associated with him.

[@Attmay]

What did Marco Garibaldi ever do besides marry her?

[@jamesdean9183]

Because Elvis had a far more interesting life to make a movie out of. Priscilla CONTINUES to make it clear that her entire life is based around the fact that she was married to Elvis. Everything she does she has to make clear that she’s Elvis’s wife. She just got a court order saying she wants to be buried next to Elvis if she wishes despite the fact that she divorced him and he was engaged to someone else at the time of his death. Her entire life STILL revolves around Elvis because she hasn’t been able to do anything super important outside of Elvis and his legacy. Meanwhile Elvis was one of the most influential people in all of music, with a complex career and life that even feels rushed in a 3-hour movie. Elvis was more than just “Priscilla’s husband,” but Priscilla, even 50 years after their divorce and 45 years after his death, refuses to be anything other than “Elvis’s wife” NO HATE MEANT TOWARDS PRISCILLA. She is a great woman and she has done a remarkable job in the handling of his legacy and turned Graceland into one of the most popular tourist attractions in the entire country. She absolutely deserves so much credit for that. However as his ex-wife, she should not have to live her life around the fact that she was married to him 50 years ago. Besides, Priscilla is not really in the Elvis movie because the movie was more based on his career than it was his life. So so so many of Elvis’s personal friends and close family members that had profound influence on his life have little to no screen time at all. Meanwhile Priscilla is specifically about her relationship with Elvis, so obviously Elvis is going to be in the movie a lot.

[@jennah5990]

@@jamesdean9183fully agree

[@chriscody1761]

​@@Attmay Garabaldi never married her, but he did give her a son

[@amberjulia123]

What “Marie Antoinette” has that none of these other “sad girl” films do - is that Marie had flaws too…and she made mistakes…and therefore she became a full human being throughout the film. Her naivety and trauma changed her in certain aspects. We were able to both empathize with her AND question some of her behaviors and motives. That’s what was missing from Priscilla. The film never showed her as anything other than harmless and perfect. There are no layers to her.

[@MCArt25]

Mostly that MA is actually shown to have some amount of agency despite being a kept woman, and actually does stuff by herself instead of being just a victim looking distraught all the time.

[@rachelreale]

definitely... after I saw the movie I decided to read Priscilla's book and was fascinated to find out that she once hit an Elvis superfan and had an affair with a dance teacher. I think including those moments would have made her feel more real.

[@catcat9582]

Well she was a child for a large part

[@starcherry6814]

She hardly had any back and forth dialogue w/ anybody the whole film No matter if it was an argument or a simple conversation. She’s damn near voiceless When she divorced Elvis. I expected at least a monologue; telling how she felt as a wife and mother. But no. Just her quiet mouse voice “I’m leaving” and cut to the next scene. -_-

[@rangoooo2312]

@@Ks-101there was a very short throwaway scene where she says to a classmate “you a fan of elvis? would you like to meet him?” And the girl shows her the test answers That’s it. Priscilla does nothing like it again for the rest of the film.

[@manoladelavegamorales4752]

"An adult life, or a free one, is a life that no longer has meaning - at least to the woman´s biopic" WENT HARDDDD

[@ranniazorya]

This is a really timely and useful critique of how women are investing in grief. What was supposed to be relief has now become the defining characteristic of girlhood: tragedy and misery, which is one of the world’s oldest narrative of femininity. It’s supposed to be wretched. I really hope your intelligence is seen and acknowledged instead of misunderstood. I can already see defensive responses, instead of people meeting you halfway and acknowledging that we’ve circled right back around.

[@laninfapimentel311]

Exactly. And that’s why I hate the “women are born with pain built in” monologue. It’s so reductive and conformist, there’s nothing feminist about it (not to mention it’s indirect exclusion of trans women). There’s a lot of patriarchal sentiment being repackaged as feminism nowadays, like the assumption that swork (especially sugaring) is empowering, or bimbo feminism, which attempts to convince women that dressing for the male gaze is actually feminist.

[@YsabelMusicCt]

women are usually shown with grief which is a pretty debilitating emotion rather than anger or rage that you can move things with. Rage is more active and I would think justified for most women. But pretty girls can never be angry, sad but not angry

[@brendacarabba2752]

PRISCILLA IS A VERY RICH WOMEN BECAUSE OF ELVIS HER ONLY CLAIM TO FAME I REALLY DON'T THINK YOU SHOULD TO SORRY FOR HER

[@silvergust]

​@@brendacarabba2752Whatever girl

[@jessmac58]

I think there's another layer to this convo in that Sofia Coppola is related to Nick Cage who was married to Lisa Marie for a hot moment. Though they are just cousins, there's a closeness to her family (the Coppolas) to the subject's family (the Presleys) that might've made Sofia hesitate to give Priscilla's life the full scope of unbridled observation. They seem very close (almost like an aunt and niece) in interviews too, which makes me think Sofia was always more in awe of her and wanted to admire her in this film adaptation rather than take steps to explore all of Priscilla's flaws in her life, love, and career from the autobiography and beyond.

[@toomuchinformation]

Of course, that’s a very good point. I’d forgotten about that familial link. Nic Cage did a really good job in making us forget that he’s a Coppola.

[@debra2700]

Lisa Marie begged Sofia to stop the movie and that she would do everything in her power to speak out against it. Sofia is a user just like Nick who only married Lisa to get to see Elvis' bedroom and bathroom.

[@carlacruz893]

Omg that’s crazy, totally makes sense to why the movie felt a bit constricted

[@BeYounique...Maryanne]

@@debra2700 100 percent!

[@trainsurfer7593]

Wonderful video. One tiny nitpick though - Elvis didn't want to take I Will Always Love You because he didn't think a woman could make a hit. Dolly herself said that although she would have loved for Elvis to record it, she didn't give permission because Colonel Tom Parker insisted that Elvis be given the publishing copyright to the song, and she wasn't about to do that.

[@brianstorm5488]

To be exact, the practice was that Elvis / The Col. would receive a percentage of the writers publishing rights, not the entire portion; all of it would have been a non-starter for any non-staff writer. The practice was at least supported by some logic in the 50's by the fact that Elvis recording a song would still make more money for the writer than any deal with another performer. It was still a shitheel bully move on Col's part, and though Elvis never liked the practice, he only defied the Col over it a handful of times, not nearly enough. Especially since by the 70's smash sales were far less guaranteed, and singer songwriters like Dolly had great industry cache, unlike the 50's when writers were rarely the performers, and vice versa. (The Beatles and Dylan basically changed that overnight.)

[@debra2700]

@@brianstorm5488 I also read that Elvis wasn't interested in that song, that he wanted Coat of Many Colors because it reminded him of his childhood.

[@brendacarabba2752]

Not true Elvis loved the song but his manager made every singer give over copy rights if Elvis recorded their songs

[@jacpod2046]

This made me think of one of the few biopics in general I've actually loved, Center Stage by Stanley Kwan. It's about China's most famous silent film star, Ruan Lingyu (played amazingly by Maggie Cheung), and it actually constantly shows her confidence, charm, and special skill as an actress, while also showing the circumstances that tragically led to her suicide at 24. Absolutely amazing film that I strongly recommend

[@jamesa.romano8500]

I did a double take when I saw this. Phenomenal movie -- I think somewhere it was said that might be one of the best filmsof the entire 90's? Honestly shocking how on point Maggie Cheung was to the real Ruan - I would say its sad that she's not as well remembered today but that would only apply to the US; apparently she's still a cultural icon in China

[@dillimeinbilli]

Oh man I'm such a nerd for that film! I loved how they showed the real Ruan from whatever surviving clips there are of her + looking at her in her present + reflecting on her. Maggie Cheung is stunning in it.

[@pandyj8]

Thank you!! Have loved Maggie Cheung in the films I've seen her in, but hadn't heard of this one. Will definitely check this out!

[@KernelHughes]

Priscilla showcases only a slice of who she was at that time-- which is someone who didn't know who she was yet because she's been defined by the man she's with (for better and for worse) She needed time to figure herself out and escape Elvis' grasp on her identity. The film showcases sadness and isolation, but it doesn't feel like its doing it "just because." Those feelings are what she really felt at that time. The film isnt't meant to be a sprawling biopic of her entire life, it is meant to show the audience the truth of that time in her life.

[@mylife72410]

agree 100%. I adored the movie, more so than any bio pic I've seen in the last several years. spaeny deserves an Oscar for her performance, I thought it was brilliant.

[@chasingautumns]

They should have named it 'Priscilla and Elvis', then, right? The title implies this is going to be about her, not just her and him.

[@KernelHughes]

@@chasingautumns that may be a good point, but Coppola's film is still ultimately Priscilla's story and POV

[@meredithgr]

@@chasingautumnsi truthfully think coppola named it “priscilla” because it would then act as a direct foil / response to “elvis” (2022). “elvis and me” is a far more accurate title for the story that’s covered, so priscilla got that right, but we do have to consider the environment and context in which this movie was released. also marketing is part of it im sure.

[@saphireblue3563]

She did not need to get away from Elvis to find out who she was. He was away on tour a lot and she had plenty of time to "find herself". The truth was, she had a plan and she followed through with it. She knew when she married Elvis that he did not want a wife who wanted to go into show business, so she kept her show business ambitions a secret from him. She stayed with him JUST LONG ENOUGH to get the best divorce settlement, left him, got her money and got herself a movie agent. She was a financial predator. Since fans began to catch on to her she has started this 'oh poor little me, victim" campaign to try to justify her leaving Elvis. The movie does not even stick to the book but changes many things to make Elvis look like an abuser.

[@Draqua]

There's a fascinating story to be told about someone who never leaves their cage, long after the aviary master has perished, sure would love to see that one day

[@ciaraskeleton]

You put this so well

[@katiehaley8947]

This was one of my critiques of Priscilla, the movie implies she somehow got a life of her own after her divorce which just is not true. I would have loved a scene of the actress in some aging makeup maybe simply unlocking the door to graceland after Elvis's death or just something to show she in fact could not break free of him. In her book Priscilla even writes about it herself she comments on how Elvis was all she knew, he was God to her. That isn't something that leaves you. I haven't watched this video all the way through yet so hopefully I am not commenting something Broey said.

[@Draqua]

@katiehaley8947 Indeed. - How does it *feel* to live in a space that once was functionally your prison, even if you now control it from a seat of wealth? - How does a complex love and your own aging impact how you contextualize your past? - How does processing, justice, or healing even begin when the perpetrator is absent in the most absolute sense? - How does one digest the aforementioned absence of the material person when their shadow looms so large in world around you? I respect the fact that audiences may be discomforted by the answers presented - but isn't that what art is for? I also respect that Priscilla Presley is a living, breathing person who exists right now, not a fictional character, and someone who might well feel these are not conversations she wants open right now. That's okay - but maybe we need a movie about Coppola's OC Allicsirp Yelserp or something.

[@Turtlee.]

@@DraquaTHIS!!! you put into words everything i wanted from the movie despite liking it

[@summerrose791]

@@Draqua this sums up my feelings on the film completely..I really feel like they played it safe bc Elvis is still very much worshipped and every time Priscilla does or says anything about their marriage it’s heavily scrutinized.

[@elleliteracy]

Priscilla isn’t out here in Ireland til January but I love how you hightlight the foregrounding (maybe… even.. fetishisation?) of female suffering in films that claim to capture the “true” woman. much to think about…

[@KernelHughes]

Her story is more complicated than just her suffering

[@saphireblue3563]

Priscilla was not suffering, Elvis was.

[@Ninamonet]

@@saphireblue3563no he wasn’t. He was a predator.

[@saphireblue3563]

@@Ninamonet And in what way was he a predator? For sex? No, Priscilla said there wasn't any. For money? She didnt have any. For control? No, she stopped dressing the way he liked shortly after Lisa was born and he still loved her. In what way was he a predator? You are one of those people who blab about Elvis when you know nothing.

[@elvis78ale]

​@@Ninamonet😂😂😂😂

[@LanaStanczak]

I don’t know. I can see where a lot of the critique comes from, but I think it’s very purposeful that we don’t see a lot of Priscilla’s individuality because it was completely eroded by Elvis. Ideally we want women who are abused to have moments of levity and confidence too, but it’s just not really accurate to the concepts of grooming and coercive control. Her confidence comes through in the voice of the book because she’s reflecting and no longer inside Graceland. I feel like the song being “I Will ALWAYS Love You” kind of undermines the analysis that it and the scene signifies freedom. Sofia knows the audience already has an understanding of where Priscilla is now. She hasn’t fully escaped Elvis, like you said. It’s not pleasant but I think it’s real.

[@vu-trathechildofhorrors5859]

It’s always a good day when Broey Deschanel uploads

[@vu-trathechildofhorrors5859]

@@tonimashdane33498 can you elaborate

[@fanfaxforever]

such an eloquent video essay, it always felt wrong to me seeing "sad girls phenomenon" in media was being turned into a way to normalize fracturing already maligned women, instead of shedding light upon the grievances and trauma that held them from reaching their greatest, it was turned into an aesthetic that seemed to occupy their entire life in stories, denying the portrayal of their actual brilliance and vigour is not what these girls deserve. again Maia; this is a very rich and well researched video essay, looks like ive got enough reading/watching material for this winter and ruminations for times to come.

[@fynniboi]

To say Priscilla is passive in the movie feels wrong to me bc in the end she is the one that leaves him. She gets denied the physical intimacy she needs from her husband and is defying his rules of dress. She talks back to her husband and suffers the consequences. She asks for the drugs he takes and tells him, when he had too much, and again suffers the consequences. The whole movie is her defying her parents expectations. I agree, that she lives in a guilded cage but what I find fascinating about the movie is, that we see Priscilla grow regardless. I agree about the part of her life not being of interest for the movie once she left Graceland but I also think that we as onlookers in Coppola movie are actively part of the guilded cage and so we have to leave the protagonist once they leave that cage.

[@saphireblue3563]

No way she was passive like the movie makes her appear. She belted an Elvis fan one who called her a name. Not saying she was not justified, only that she was never passive. She was also a karate blackbelt. She also had an argument with Elvis and threw a vase against the wall and broke it. She was never passive.

[@josiefischer9359]

I’m so glad someone finally brought up the fullness of the visuals and the fact that we left the movie still not knowing much abt Priscilla herself

[@saphireblue3563]

One thing about Priscilla--she was pregnant for the first nine months of the marriage and had her first affair only four months after the baby was born. Her excuse was that Elvis would not have sex with her after the baby was born. After telling that lie for 30 year she gave in interview on "Loose Women" and an interview in the Guardian magazine, saying they had been having sex all along. This is typical Priscilla. All you people who think she was a victim don't know her well enough. She is very scheming, conniving and spends most of her time trying to make HERSELF look like the victim and the real star instead of Elvis.

[@aly1375]

he was terrible to her ofc she was gonna cheat AND HE CHEATED ON HER YEARS BEFORE EVEN WHEN THEY FIRST STARTING SEEING EACH OTHER 💀

[@saphireblue3563]

​@@aly1375 She was pregnant for the first nine months of the marriage and had her first affair four months after the baby was born. Her excuse at that time was that "Elvis wouldn't have sex with poor little me' after the baby was born. She told that lie for 30 years then went on Loose Women and the Guardian magazine and said they had been having sex all along. I guess she forgot that she still needed that excuse. That is typical Priscilla. She lies every other time she opens her mouth. Usually in a way that makes her look like Elvis' victim. For instance, the "Priscilla" movie has at least two lies in it. In just the trailer. She claims that the movie is taken faithfully from her book. Yet in the movie, there is a scene where Elvis throws a chair at her. In her book, she threw a chair but not at her. There were records on the chair and on flew off and hit her. So Priscilla, being the main PRODUCER of this film let it go out with Elvis throwing a chair at her. Also, in her book she was not left alone in a big house alone, or made to just stay in a room by herself. In fact there were many other people in the house with her, and Elvis even told the other wives to be friends for her. She has turned even this kindness on Elvis' part into a negative by saying "my friends were chosen for me". Of course he asked the others to be friends to her, but there was nothing to keep her from making friends of her own. She was also one of the producers on the "Elvis and Me" movie. In her book, she said that one night she went up to his hotel room in Las Vegas and that Elvis "took me forcefully" (not forcibly). She said, "it was unlike any other time he had ever made love to me. It was uncomfortable." In the movie, this scene turned in to a vicious RAPE. Asked later if Elvis had raped her, she said, "no I guess they put that in for drama". For DRAMA she let Elvis be depicted as a RAPIST. She knows that millions will see that movie and think that Elvis was a RAPIST. Now I don't know what other lies are in the new movie except that he kept her isolated and threw a chair at her, but she knows that in both cases millions will see these movies and think that Elvis was a horrible abuser. The truth is Priscilla was the abuser. How? She knew when she married Elvis that he would never marry a woman who wanted to go into show business. She kept her show business aspirations from him, stayed married to him JUST LONG ENOUGH to get the biggest divorce settlement( five years in California at that time) , left him, got her money and got herself a movie agent. Not to mention the awful things she did to him after the divorce. This woman is the greatest con artist in the history of the world. And of course you newcomers will swallow her propaganda. And by the way the guy she went directly to after she moved out with Elvis was a guy she had shared a secret apartment with for sex for MONTHS before she left Elvis. That man had a small child and a PREGNANT wife. Before you condemn Elvis, learn more about Priscilla.

[@saphireblue3563]

@@aly1375 They had no commitment to be exclusive way back then. They were both dating other people.

[@Ninamonet]

@@saphireblue3563why are you writing this long essay about people you don’t even know and don’t even know you exist. Calm down and get a life.

[@jamesdean9183]

Elvis didn’t think a woman could make a hit???? Some of his favorite singers were female black blues / R&B artists and gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharp, June Carter, the rest of the Carter sisters, and even Dolly herself. Elvis actually sang “I Will Always Love You” to Priscilla when they got divorced. I don’t know where the idea that Elvis didn’t think women could make hits came from but it certainly was not true.

[@brianstorm5488]

Correct. In the 70's, Elvis increasingly covered songs by female artists he loved, especially country songs. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (Dusty Springfield,) I'm Hurt (Timi Yuro,) Help Me Make it Through the Night, Love Letters (Sammi Smith I think?,) and not one but two Olivia Newton John hits he performed live and ultimately released - Let Me Be There, and If You Love Me Let Me Know. He was also friends with Bobbi Gentry and can be heard riffing on "Ode to Billy Joe" in session outtakes. He simply loved Dolly's song, wanting to do it for some random anomalous sexist attitude makes no sense on multiple levels.

[@saphireblue3563]

Why would someone tell a lie like that about Elvis?

[@BeYounique...Maryanne]

@@jillmansfield3843 THANK YOU!! I saw that Piers Morgan video and was like, "WHAT?!" I was only 13 years old when Elvis died and I remember a few weeks later seeing all the articles about Lisa Marie freaking out and calling Linda Thompson for comfort. Lisa Marie was NOT with Priscilla when Elvis died. Does Priscilla have ADD or dementia? I'm serious. She makes no sense.

[@maggyfrog]

probably an unpopular opinion, but it seems to me that the "sad girl" wave of films is an indirect result of framing women in the feminist lens as ultimately under the control of men. if you dare deviate from this narrative, then you're some kind of heretic to the cause and would risk being mislabeled as a traitor to female emancipation. it's like it's inconceivable to certain viewpoints that women from the past actually did have some form of autonomy in their own way and that doesn't contradict their reality of being subjugated in many other ways. the sad girl trope seems to be a by-product of oversimplifying how to "explain" to the viewers that women were "oppressed by the system". very interesting delve into female icon biopics. sadness shouldn't be the standard poster child for depicting female icons.

[@C-uz8md]

This reminds me of the Blonde backlash when people got mad at Joyce Carol Oates for saying Marilyn was partially responsible for the dumb blonde persona she ended up stuck with. It’s too bad people reject any suggestion that women from the past had autonomy because that’s actually the movie I would have liked to see about Marilyn.

[@AthalieM]

@@C-uz8md lol - replying to you again but you should read the book Marilyn in Manhattan! by Elizabeth Winder. It documents the period of time Marilyn fought the studio system, started her own production company, and was a student at the Actor's Studio honing her craft and living amongst all these NYC artists and intellectuals. I would love for that to be a movie.

[@KernelHughes]

Sadness and oppression shouldn't be glossed over either. Not every story should be about #girlboss empowerment which can often feel saccharine and unrealistically positive

[@thenablade858]

@@KernelHughesNobody said it should be glossed over but we have to remember that people go through tragedy, triumph, sadness, joy etc. Portraying someone as all tragedy throughout their life ignores their achievements and all the times they went out to dinner with their friends, watched a film, sailed on a boat etc. Even Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ has times where he makes jokes.

[@maggyfrog]

@@KernelHughes nobody is saying it should all be girlboss. it's as if you didn't watch the video at all. for a biopic to be dominated by sadness is actually very contrived and more a narrative by the film maker than an actual representation of a person, regardless of gender. the life of a person is not a mere "vibe" of gloom just because they experienced oppression. oppression is NOT equal to sadness.

[@evasage14]

“once these women leave their gilded cage thier story ends, the filmic reclosure of adulthood”. wow-that really puts it into perspective for me. in my sociology class one of the discussions we had was on pricella and elvis and someone had asked what was pricellas life after elvis. i couldn’t really answer that question and was really disappointed that i couldn’t. it reaffirmed my desire to see more of pricella after elvis, as she enters a life that’s completely her own, that to me is a story as equally worth telling. i absolutely adore you and the way you masterfully articulate complex topics in an easy and accessible way. i haven’t finished this video yet but i really appreciate the critiques you are giving. the section on transcendence and immanence rlly blew my mind. i have to read the second sex!

[@saphireblue3563]

Well I can tell you. She wanted nothing to do with Elvis and as soon as she left him, she got herself a movie agent, the ambition that she had hidden from Elvis when she married him. She got nowhere until Elvis died, when she started doing tv Graceland tours, Elvis specials, Elvis interviews, wrote a book about Elvis, worked as a consultant on movies about Elvis, and generally got her own face in front of the cameras by using Elvis, resulting in her first tv gig, Those Amazing Animals. She totally used Elvis to get into show business. And by the way, the guy she left him "for" Mike Stone, was a married man with small children and a pregnant wife. Mike said that Priscilla wanted "to be known for who she was, not for whom she was associated". Meantime she became spokesperson for Elvis Presley Enterprises, making 900,000 a year to do interviews, that's right, about Elvis. She has never accomplished anything, made a dime or gotten a movie role without using Elvis, directly or indirectly. She used Elvis and dumped him, and now she paints herself as "his victim".

[@lalalizzyy]

I liked how you mentioned in Priscilla and Spencer only depict the women only up until they are free then the film ends. Depicting only their trauma. I think that’s such a shame. I’m looking forward to newer films that break that mold. With that being said. Every review of Priscilla I’ve seen I feel like I’ve watched a completely different film than anyone else. The film I saw had beautiful visuals yes. Great cinematography sure, but I watched an intense nearly two hours of grooming & cyclical abuse. The film was intense for me. I was horrified by the way he treated her. I was aware that their ages together weren’t appropriate but I really really didn’t seeing them in bed together I believe she was depicted to be 16 or 17 at the time. I thought visually laying them together was grotesque. I didn’t see any redeemable qualities of Elvis at all. He was horrible to her based off of the film. She wanted to have a job and a little bit of freedom and he forbid her. He gave her drugs when she was underaged. He was verbally and physically abusive whenever he felt socially threatened or one up’d. She was pregnant and married to him he was thrilled to show off to his friends he was going to be a dad then he turns around to say he wanted to leave her and take space and he told her “hey things aren’t working out right now” like what the f*ck???¿ Super horrific. I was happy to see her finally leave at the end but I felt bad for her the whole time. I think it’s cool that Priscilla was actually involved. That’s cool and all but it was hard to watch for me. You got all this expensive stuff but this guy doesn’t seem to care about you.. Girl run!!

[@anna2731]

Women can have autonomy even in sexist opressive societies. This sad girl trend feels like it's flateing and simplifying the experiences women went through. Women are complicated, but in this biobics we gez one kind of story over and over again.

[@isabear478]

and sometimes takes away the privilege some of these people have

[@harsh3948]

Can you show me a society that isn’t sexist and oppressive?

[@isabear478]

@@harsh3948 what's that to say

[@harsh3948]

@@isabear478 like I said, can you show me a society which isn’t “sexist and oppressive”? Why is female victimhood so popular? (Even if there’s no actual evidence of their supposed damsel in distress status)?

[@isabear478]

@harsh3948 so that just means we can't complain and we should shut up and take it

[@withfireandmusic]

Those visuals look so disappointing I’m so glad you said something about the aesthetics. Really feel like Copps is trying to stay away from anything remotely FUN looking ever since Marie-A bc she’s prob sick of being called vapid. Even tho she’s still heavily aesthetic herself. AESTHETICS AS CONTENT/ENTERTAINMENT for goodness sakes please colour our eyeballs in some magic somebody

[@tvsonicserbia5140]

Idk I found The Beguiled more fun that Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides

[@elatafalando]

Diana's portrayal in The Crown was so much better than in Spencer. Diana was a rockstar at the time and there was a reason why.

[@emmy8526]

The actress in The Crown, Elizabeth Debicki, is incredible. Aside from being much slimmer than Diana was at that stage (to be fair, all the Charles actors have been far too handsome and charming), it’s amazing how she captures her movements, mannerisms and voice. Didn’t think anyone could do it but she did.

[@RonnieRocket55]

Damn, how you always come up with these interesting topics is insane and Actually interesting. I feel like many video essays on KZbin copy each other, but you know how to make something of it and discuss things that weren’t discussed before

[@stakochan]

I would love to see you do an analysis of the film Saltburn and Emerald Fennell as a director.

[@jayess8714]

Haha, now that it's out - what did you think?

[@juju10683]

As a writer this is very helpful. In fiction women are often Defined by their trauma whereas men are defined by their mistakes.

[@evren5642]

Highly recommend reading “The Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain” by Leslie Jamison. It gets into that exhaustion of seeing how we play out female suffering and trauma onscreen, while cognizant of the need to represent the ongoing *reality* of women’s pain… And the way it can be difficult to reach a true balance in those respects

[@francostrong202]

Spencer is not a bio-pic. The most common reason people didn't enjoy it is because they came to the film assuming it would be more of a traditional bio-pic. The director, Pablo Larrain, has a long history of subverting those expectations in his films. Check out his other work, and it'll be more apparent what his aims and goals are when filmmaking.

[@olympiaelda1121]

I think you just missed the point. Maybe there is a bigger trend out there, but the movie Priscilla is the other side of the coin to the movie Elvis. Coppola is telling the story of Priscilla when she was together with Elvis. It is about that time of her life. And the movie ends on a liberating note of Priscilla leaving Elvis and setting out to find herself. Could have the movie linger more on the what happened since? Sure. But I find it important to tell the other side of their marriage story, as so many young girls tend to idolize it. Not everything has to be a movement or a statement. I like it how Coppola just tells a story and therefore fleshes out a bigger picture, the other side of the reality that was sold to the masses.

[@shanecasebeer1364]

It's interesting to end the movie with I Will Always Love You, because Dolly Parton said Priscilla told her Elvis sang it to her on the day they divorced. So: using Parton's original version adds an (unintended) layer, because Dolly doesn't exactly come off as a passive observer or sad girl. Instead, Parton's lived experience with IWALY comes off as an example of drive and determination in blending emotion, art, and commerce. The song comes off as Parton's statement of emancipation, and leaving the past behind to bravely follow her dreams , and achieve massive success on her own terms. In a world of sad girls, be a Dolly!

[@elvis78ale]

But the song came out in 1974 😂 how could Elvis sing it to her in 1973....please

[@shanecasebeer1364]

@@elvis78ale it was written in 1973, and possibly their divorce wasn't finalized till later. Shrug

[@elvis78ale]

@@shanecasebeer1364 yes but they were in Santa Monica in front of the judge October 9, 1973.

[@shanecasebeer1364]

@@elvis78ale ha, OK

[@Talia778]

In all the pictures and videos you show of the real life Pricilla in this video, she seems so confident, full of energy and excited to be where she is. Not to say she wasn’t obviously getting abused. But I think I would have loved to see her more confident side in the film. She seems so different in the movie. Edit: you said exactly what I mean at 13:30 😅

[@saphireblue3563]

Oh she was not being abused. Nonsense.

[@elvis78ale]

She is so fake

[@saphireblue3563]

She was not being abused.

[@Giulia-lv8ws]

@@saphireblue3563a grown man who was a famous musician picked her up when she was 14?? That’s the definition of abuse freakazoid

[@nxgan1088]

@@saphireblue3563You were there, were you?

[@Sharpe1502]

In Spencer’s defense, I haven’t read Dianna’s biography/autobiography, but my sister did. And apparently Dianna was a little bit of sad girl and was on the verge of psychosis much of the time.

[@gabrielribeiro499]

You always create a new curve with your critics. A way of viewing the comment the production you're talking about with such a socially abundant relevance and care of the group the comment may be directed to. I love how carefully and strongfully you make your points.

[@the_fressno]

Omg we and the girls love rehash. We repeat the episodes over and over I totally recommend

[@Nomoredrama2000]

I for one absolutely LOVED Spencer. It captures the horror of being stuck with terrible in laws amidst a crumbling, toxic marriage. I can't believe it didn't win more awards, especially Stewart.

[@urgeintheicebox]

I really appreciated it's portrayal of the institution of monarchy; the inauthenticity of marriage in monarchy and Diana's determination to face down the horrors of control--I appreciate the take from BD above, nonetheless.

[@dakotabrook6885]

I completely agree. Spencer captured the weekend where everything was crumbling down for Diana and the royals, ultimately leading her to leave. I loved it so much. I don’t think it took away from Diana’s humanitarian work/portrayal as the people’s princess or anything; it was an intimate depiction of her relationship to Charles and the family when things were coming to an end. Kristen’s performance was stunning as well

[@witchy.business]

Spencer is probably the only “biopic” I love because it’s not actually a biopic to me in the same way. Instead of trying to cover decades of her life and inevitably losing complexities (I hate biopics for this reason) it’s this focused, surrealist character study taking place over three days.

[@stevenstevenson5303]

It was only good for showcasing Stewart. I legit forgot she was a great actress... That's the only good thing about that bag of trash

[@Angel-ts8rc]

Have you seen Corsage? It’s about Austria’s empress sisi. It’s not a biopic or entirely accurate. Its sad but there’s no constant dreadful whining, which comes down to Vicky’s performance. It’s dreamy and sisi is a strong/cold character with a balance of light and dark moments in her story. It has some Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola similarities but less aesthetic or feminine. She’s also 40 so it’s a different view of a “aging” woman of that time and status with serval relevant and universal points in the film.

[@WhenIsItUs]

Haven't watched it yet but I do love Coppola's work. I definitely find it a systemic problem to be sure with roots within our cultures, but also an issue with our storytelling ability. So many stories end with revolution but do not carry on with what that world might look like, as in the case of something like V for Vendetta. It makes me wonder if we, as storytellers, cannot vividly imagine such a new world or, as viewers, are we not interested in seeing it.

[@noellebelle24]

This is VERY interesting and definitely should be explored more. Writing a revolution against an oppressive system may be inspiring, but we get so few stories about the steps after: what it takes to rebuild a system, when people actually have to come together and put in the work. I can definitely see how it's much harder to write about, but I wish more creatives would try.

[@alessandral8582]

This is not a new concept. A criticism of literature and the poor treatment of female characters has always been there. Films and their treatment of women's pain is no stranger to this critique. Obviously, you are not claiming this to be a new concept, but this issue is not something that is relatively new by any stretch of the imagination. The "Sad Girl" its not a Sofia Coppola invention, but rather has it its origins as far back as classical poetry. The tragic heroine, fallen women and so on and so forth, women have always been treated terribly by male writers/poets/etc. The fetishization of women's pain is a cultural issue that doesn't quite originate with Sofia Coppola or any of these movies. Basically, I don't think this is an issue that originates or is bound to women's biopics but rather an more pervasive aspect of our culture. All this to say, I think it's unfair to posit Sofia Coppola with these biopics and accuse her upholding these ideas when she has deliberately worked against these expectations. When never see the Lisbon girls commit suicide, we see glimpses of the outcome, but we don't exploit or linger on their bodies. We never see Marie Antoinette's head get chopped off or relish on her mistreatment in jail. We don't see Priscilla in tears, crying beautifully to some pretty melody. She never relishes in these images like perhaps Spencer or Jackie or even Blonde (which I'll never see). She doesn't play with iconoclastic images of these women, but rather strips them off and reveals the interiority. I think your argument is fair and it's good to talk about the biopic's use of women's pain, I just don't think Priscilla, as a film, fits with your argument.

[@cherubmius]

Love this response

[@citrus_sweet]

TBF the main characters don't see the Lisbon girls commit because the story isn't about them, it's about how the boys viewed them and they weren't there when they did it. Also, that part of the story wasn't Coppola's decision since it's based off of a book.

[@marimiranda7425]

I was going to make some version of this comment, but I'm glad I scrolled down and saw yours first. You said, with great eloquence, exactly what I was thinking :)

[@AllieEstepa]

absolutely agree with this! i think female filmmakers get an extreme amount of pressure placed on them to tell stories of girlhood or womanhood in the ‘right way’ when there really is no ‘right way’ - coppola has always explored stories of young girls and women of a certain level of privilege who, despite their advantages, still feel entrapped by the standards of femininity. this is something that clearly has some personal significance to her and therefore comes through in her art and the stories she chooses to tell. her characters, like the lisbon sisters and priscilla herself are shown to have interests, wants and desires of their own and are shown asserting themselves in the small ways that they can. these stories are centered around their plights and struggles because whether it’s a woman’s story or otherwise, conflict and struggle are core pieces of a film. while critical analysis of popular media is something i will always support, it is frustrating to me that the way women choose to tell their stories continue to be unfairly policed. much of this criticism should be redirected to the issues within the larger filmmaking and storytelling industries themselves, as these are the entities which place huge limitations on the types of stories women are given the resources to tell. hopefully the space of female-centric storytelling can be expanded so we can see greater diversity in depictions of femininity and we can all find art that speaks to our own specific experiences.

[@DavidB75311]

I like video essays like this because your enthusiasm for a subject inspires me! And I feel like I learned how to see things differently too! Thank you for your work

[@gabriellaberman]

I think what this movie did so well was it explored how off the power dynamic was in this relationship. I felt that it was a really sincere exploration of a relationship that was doomed due to their ages, his gender and his power. It could’ve been about so many relationships from this time, not just Elvis and Priscilla

[@LeiLeiPhD]

Omg this is what I’ve been waiting to see! So amazing!!!

[@arizonamartinez2654]

ur videos r my fav thing in the world fr so insightful

[@adeladam2325]

Great video, as usual. I like how much depth and accessibilty your criticism has.

[@ashmeadowphoenix]

I think to a certain extent these sad girls films are in conversation the weight pain is given to the necessity to change rather than joy. If you think about most civil rights movements, their emphasis is on how the current circumstances are unsatisfactory, or painful, and so the dominant group cannot content themselves with saying that the harm is minimal or ignorable. But the truth is that people often find joy and autonomy in oppression, and that this might be a way we survive it and the fear is that if you depict someone as finding joy in oppression the dominant group will justify the oppression on those grounds. the "well you liked it" defense. It's a hard middle line to take when you have a society so willing to ignore your pain and also willing to see your joy as acceptance, but frankly i haven't seen many pieces of art that really manage to get at those nuances, including cinema, and many many responses that do in fact justify pain with the enjoyment also depicted.

[@Locke_the_cat]

great video. i like these kinds of films a lot, and this has left me with something to think about and perhaps a better lens through which to view them

[@laurencorcoran2783]

GOD DAMN!!! INCREDIBLE the way you would end ur thoughts 🙏 the way you supported your argument 🤲 my queen

[@OGseoulite]

5 minutes in and I already am so invested in your narration & thoughts. Yeeeeeeessss to everything in this video. Just ✨chefs kiss✨

[@a.d.4069]

rehash was my top podcast this year on spotify🎉

[@KH-zr6pt]

I was having a hard time verbalizing the issues I had with Priscilla but you hit the nail on the head - with this film being poised as a reaction to Elvis' biopic, I expected to get a look into Priscilla's inner life and what her life was like before and after him. But instead it just immediately shoots into her meeting him and then it's primarily just her looking forlorn because she misses him, then looking forlornly at him even when he's home because she seemingly feels insecure about her place in his life. I was even startled when it immediately ended when she left Graceland. I do understand that the book it's based on IS about her life with Elvis, but I was disappointed that you never even get a sense of who she was, even when she was alone

[@alylight1899]

I think the fact that these stories tend to end at the point when the woman drives away/escapes is supposed to evoke the idea that now, outside of the gilded cage, the future is open and unwritten. The protagonist is no longe being controlled by the writer/director-- total freedom, but also complete uncertainty. I will give you that this maybe works better for fictional characters, where the audience can invent any ending for the protagonist, compared to biopics, where there actually are real stories to tell about their life. But that's I think how that trope has been applied in other media, and so it gets used in these cases.

[@saphireblue3563]

In this case Priscilla was a comlete phony to Elvis until she could get her claws into his money, so when she left the "gilded cage" she left with most of his money. What she did to him led to his death.

[@gorehound3414]

@@saphireblue3563this is not true

[@saphireblue3563]

@@gorehound3414 She hid her show business ambitions from Elvis because she knew that if she told him he would not marry her. She stayed with him JUST LONG ENOUGH to get the biggest divorce settlement, left him, got her money and got herself a movie agent. Then she took him back to court for a second time, and got such a big settlement that he had to sell the rights to his old hits to pay her, which made him have to live off just what he got by touring. Out of that, he had to support himself, his own family, all the families who worked for him, and keep paying Priscilla enormous amounts of money every month. Then when he didn't pay her fast enough, Priscilla put a lien on Graceland. She made his life miserable in the last four years of his life. His health began to deteriorate, he went down and down, took more drugs, and died.

[@gorehound3414]

@@saphireblue3563 karma

[@saphireblue3563]

@@gorehound3414 Karma for WHAT??? Falling in love with her???

[@bees1064]

Excuse me but your new hair cut absolutely slays. Incredibly insightful video as always! thank you

[@PlanR]

Mostly accurate, but weird little lie to tell about Elvis' supposed quote about Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You. Elvis had a deep respect for Dolly and loved that song. Priscilla has told Dolly that he used to sing it to her, and that it was very special to them, which is also partly why it's used the way it is in the film. So it is still a reference to Priscilla, their relationship, and her bittersweet sentiments to him even as she's leaving to that song at the end of the film. Elvis wanted to record the song, but Col. Parker's business practices were to always guarantee that him and Elvis got full rights and royalties for any song he records and releases commercially. Dolly smartly kept the rights to her song, but there was no beef between Elvis and Dolly and nowhere is it indicated that "in his opinion" "women can't make a hit." By all accounts Elvis and Dolly, in what little interaction they had while he was alive, had a fine professional relationship and mutual respect. Dolly today still reveres him and has detailed her grief over not giving him that song, saying how badly she would have loved to hear his version. Dolly is obviously simultaneously happy for herself that she didn't give it to him though, since between her and Whitney's version that song has been one of the most massive hits of her career and earned her an insane amount of money and recognition. Dolly is a genius songwriter and businesswoman, and Elvis and Parker were just as aware of that as everyone else is today.

[@lizchesley6028]

I’m glad somebody said this. She said that, and I had to pause for a second to make sure I heard that right.

[@elvis78ale]

But unfortunately Elvis heard that song on the radio when it came out in 1974. So it was unlikely for him to sing it to Priscilla in October 1973 😂😂😂😂. Another Priscilla's lie, I suppose. I doubt Elvis had the privilege to listen to that song months prior.

[@PlanR]

@@elvis78ale Priscilla had stated somewhere that he sang it to her. They still saw each other and had a relatively close relationship after their divorce, so it's possible it could have been after 1973 or 74 when the song came out.

[@elvis78ale]

@@PlanR She told he sang the song to her the day of the divorce so I hardly doubt, sorry, as everything she says because she always changes her versions. Like in her last interview when she told she went to Graceland with Lisa when Elvis died. Lisa was there and knew about his death earlier than her mother. Her mind is a total mess.

[@Andy-ne5qi]

I totally get what you're saying and agree. But personally i love these kinds of films because i think that it's still a new perspective in pop culture. I think we're still in a stage of trying to expose the hardships of womanhood that we've been gaslit for so long into believing dont exist. Society uses the excuse of "that's just the way it was," or victim-blaming, to make this suffering the status quo and therefore ignorable. I think that by zooming into the cage of that the patriarchy imposed on women, we ad a society gain an avenue to empathize and humanize these women. And as women watching these other women, we can relate to their pain and this in turn can help us unify.

[@kategoode7705]

my fav film critic is at it again

[@uhhhh_bo]

hell yeah i was waiting for this video 🙏🙏 bless

[@trendy4tmrw]

Dickinson on AppleTV was one of my favorites bc it focused so much more on the joys and necessary toughness of being a creative woman in a time of such inequality. That’s what draws me to feminst historical retellings! You totally hit it on the nail with this vid.

[@libelulaojo]

BroeyDechanel, Well Done. Az per uje. Gratitude.

[@Boywhocriedrainbow]

thank you for another great vid

[@kendallane6028]

Loooove this video. Your style of writing is so clear but beautiful. Super random but I’ve also been looking for a bookshelf like the one you have. Where did you get it if you don’t mind my asking?

[@andribxxx]

Loved this, thank you

[@denisefreitas6727]

Love your videos! ❤

[@celine_marie]

I find myself unattracted to female biopics and this video summarizes why. It's too often one dimensional and reductive in an ironic attempt to do the opposite. I just recently watched Jeanne du Barry, and this was amazing! Did her justice while capturing the complex guilded cage she operated within.

[@user-fm1hj9nf6l]

Aww which font did you use for the Introduction? It's so lovely!

[@teadrinker214]

this video made me think of the new-yorker essay about the trauma plot, how it flattens the personality of the character and makes it all about the trauma. its become a lazier way of feigning character depth without actually creating a character. all that's left is a story about their trauma, not who they were. almost all of the woman's biopics (especially spencer) fall into this trap. i was also weirdly surprised when the credits rolled, i was somewhat expecting us to see a version of priscilla that is fully developed. even at the end, i felt distant from her, and i wasn't sure why

[@Thatwinebloke]

I've been trying to listen to rehash, hopefully I'll like it like your youtube eventually.

[@ayanna6327]

Ironically, another biopic starring Kristen Stewart, "The Runaways" breaks from this trope. Granted, that movie is about Joan Jet and other female rockstars, but yeah.

[@angelorossowrites]

Great vid. Thanks. ✌

[@HughGuiney]

Excellent analysis, but I implore you to grade your log footage! I.e. the shots of you on the couch - I’m not sure if the flat look was an intentional choice meant to mimic the drab colors found in “Priscilla” but it is jarring to look at, especially in juxtaposition with so many contrasty images from other films. The footage of you in the Nebula promo is perfectly graded - more like that please!

[@anastasiaamling4797]

this is really well made

[@sunnycheong2786]

really interesting comparison between priscilla and spencer! enjoyed this essay a lot :)

[@countnu4166]

I loved the film personally but I don't think it deserves the title of biopic. I like calling it a biographical snapshot of her life because if it really were a biopic we would have seen a lot more of who she was as a person and gotten to see a lot more. I genuinely loved the shots and how intimate it all felt (the tiny moments where she seems to realise that her life wasn't really hers anymore) but could there have been a better depiction of her as a person? Absolutely. I like the fact that there was a little emphasis on her as a person, but it could've been highlighted more.

[@feeling.cognition]

Excelent points!

[@macyd1708]

Unsure if you’ll see this or find any value of it, but I’m curious what you’d think of the movie Gia from the late 90s. It’s not specifically a biopic as much as it’s a mock-documentary of a “Sad Girl” story, but it shapes the protagonist in a more developed and well rounded lens. Gia has a life outside of famous relationships, so I’m not sure if it could compare to this film, yet I’m still curious what you think of it when magnifying it through the lens of this video. Your perspectives put my potential thoughts into words far better than I can

[@cardboard2night]

Damn, really upsetting how some commenters justified Elvis going after 14 old, saying she had already had boyfriends and lost her virginity... A lot of them from parents. Horrible shit, but then again I heard these justifications in real life too...

[@ThereAre4Lights]

Incredible video as always!! ❤

[@daneckabargas6690]

wonderful interpretation

[@Attmay]

Do you have any thoughts on the earlier TV movie based on the same source material?

[@IRosamelia]

At first I thought this was about the movie "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert". That would have been amusing with all the drag queens etc. 😅

[@francoarocha7287]

Make a video about Promising Young Woman! I would like to hear your opinion

[@jacobscardino4330]

16:46 where did you get this info? According to Dolly, she said Elvis wanted to cover the song but that she wouldn’t agree to Colonel Tom’s publishing demands.

[@xz5685]

how does ur stack of books stay up like that

[@riverAmazonNZ]

It’s a bookshelf with hidden shelves

[@lu-vu3xk]

When I was a kid I loved Peter Rabbit and Friends, I just loved the watercolor visuals and the chill vibes

[@CheyenneLin]

"martys for this current cultural uprising" what a great line! cant wait to see priscilla but sad to know the stylism of coppola's other works isnt there

[@julianaaxis]

I don’t think there is any other creator I would be more excited to hear talk about Priscilla! Broey + Sofia Coppola are the perfect combination~ 😊

[@saphireblue3563]

Copola is a liar along with Priscilla. The movie didn't stick to the book but added and left out things to make Elvis look like an abusere.

[@iheartcoffee195]

yes! I've had a lot of the same thoughts around books lately too. When I was a kid/teen I read so many books about different kinds of female characters just living their lives. I have a harder time finding books with an adult female protagonists (that aren't genre fiction or romance books) that isn't about a sad housewife or like surface level exploration of trauma at the hands of some guy where the protagonist is just monotonously sad. Not saying that these books in particular shouldn't be published, just that I'd like there to be more options since there's only so many times I can read the same sad story.

[@nitsugazemag]

I disagree with the Spencer dig. I felt that it, through fiction, reveals the claustrophobic binds to the crown. I feel, if anything, Blonde was an insufferable indictment of Marylin Monroe’s entire life, not a Christmas stay with the royals being the proverbial breaking point of her behind-the-scenes entrapment of her circumstance. I do, however, wish they would give more breathing room in the film before leading into the gilded prison of Princess Diana’s fictional Christmas/Boxing Day Weekend with the royal family. The ending was a fictional way to give her a peaceful and happy end that she couldn’t in life. Unlike the one made of the fictionalized tear down of Marylin Monroe in Blonde, while both Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of Wolfe and Stewart’s portrayal of Princess Diana are not birth-to-death looks at their lives, but moments in them. In the Hours, Virginia’s story is toward the end of her life. In Spencer, Princess Diana’s story is but a few days wedged somewhere in her life as a royal. I do hope that they stop making the “sad girl” trend. I do believe that all these women deserve more expansive portrayals of their lives, but guess that’s what documentaries are for 🤷‍♂️.

[@KernelHughes]

Nor should we have to downplay sadness or trauma just because we find it uncomfortable or inconvenient. Those women aren't solely defined by sadness BTW. I found that The Hours and Priscilla were more balanced portrails of sad women than the others you mentioned.

[@nitsugazemag]

@@KernelHughes I’d agreed that Spencer should have been more balanced when I said that the film needed more room to breathe. Blonde was an example of the “sad girl” story swinging so far that it’s unbearable to sit through. It’s not that I wanted to minimize their trauma, but that the filmmaker and the author of which the movie was adapted from invented trauma to warp her entire life whereas Spencer is upfront that it is a fiction, Blonde mixes in real details but fills in the context with a cruel series of salaciousness. One is a character study and the other a character assassination. Spencer tells a lie that brings up truths about her trauma apart of the royal family and Blonde is more of a tabloid, the ones that relish in tearing people down. I just didn’t agree completely with her assessment and simplification of the movie Spencer. The comparison I was drawing between Spencer and The Hours was that each story is about women at specific points in their lives. Neither follow the convention of birth-to-death examination about any of their lives. I do, however, feel that there is more than mere dithering and trauma that makes them who they are.

[@raissasuwardhono]

love this

[@anapaulaperrotta5518]

IM SORRY BUT "The only way out is dead by credits" GOOSEBUMPS

[@ondine3335]

I would argue that although they don't have the gilded cage element, a focus on trauma and iconography to the exclusion of personality is also a trend in biopics about men. I don't think we really get to know Elvis in luhrmann's movie either, and Bohemian Rhapsody definitely turned Freddie Mercury into a Sad Boy.

[@meghano560]

such a good video

[@starseer73]

i liked priscilla but your thesis is absolutely right. wow!

[@gooderambles]

Considering the biopic trend of depicting controversial and put upon women becoming increasingly popular, I'm genuinely curious how a studio would handle such a movie about Monica Lewinsky.

[@gooderambles]

@Ks-101 He did WHAT??? He does *not* have a good track record for handling dramatizations of delicate real life history with grace or tact. (His OJ Simpson miniseries was the only historical fiction project of his that had any subtlety to it. Dahmer, Bette Vs Joan, multiple seasons of American Horror Story, and the Versace miniseries have all being careless at best and hostile to the real life survivors at worst.) So... Eww! Why Ryan? Why?

[@Charlotte_Sometimes836]

I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to Priscilla, and what you said about these "sad girl" movies also explains so well why I never found them relatable. After seeing Priscilla, I rewatched The Virgin Suicides, which I havent seen since probably high school, and it hit me that despite how much Sofia Coppola focuses on her female characters, she still portrays them as just Sad and Beautiful(tm), picture-perfect even when they're supposed to be going through traumatic emotions. Where are my ugly and angry heroines, who could seem, at least the tiniest bit, like real people?

[@johngleason1776]

Sofia Coppola really did create a genre.

[@Scarlett59319]

Anyone else have the song Sad Girl by LDR stuck in their head now?😅

[@jobu3094]

Pleaseee talk about Poor Things

[@myriamdb]

🍏 love all the recipes

[@bethmnorris616]

I think this is why I liked the film Corsage (2022) so much, it definitely isn't entirely detached from the Coppola Marie Antoinette/ Priscilla sad girl but it distorts the iconic image of Sisi so much that it has spawned a whole heap of other older famous movies (for example she cuts off all of her famous hair), it allows her to have fun! She still has her gilded cage and the ending is quite similar to the whole woman driving away thing but I think she breathes more as a character, it just felt really refreshing by comparison to the usual films of this genre