Film Forum

(1994, Stephan Elliott) “This brash, liberating and poignant road movie follows two drag queens and a trans woman as they travel in a silver bus - 'Priscilla' - from Sydney to a gig in Alice Springs. 'Les Girls' are Bernadette, an aging trans woman (Terence Stamp), sharp-tongued Felicia (Guy Pearce) and sensitive-flower Mitzi (Hugo Weaving), and this celebration of camp takes them where no lip-syncing divas have ever been before. Unlike the bus, the film never gets bogged down, driven forward inexorably by naff disco tunes and crackling dialogue. Most impressive is the Fellini-esque panache writer/director Elliott brings to the visuals, isolating the extravagantly dressed figures in astonishing, orange-tinted landscapes and staging the production numbers like a frustrated director of musicals. Excellent, anchoring performances - it's hard not to be swept along.” – Nigel Floyd, Time Out. DCP. Approx. 102 min.

Presented with support from the R.G. Rifkind Foundation Endowment for Queer Cinema

Reviews

“…Presents a defiant culture clash in generous, warmly entertaining ways. For all its glitter, this is the sort of film in which everyone becomes happier and nicer by the final reel.”
– Janet Maslin, New York Times