Corsage

Corsage

A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.

  • Released: 2022-07-07
  • Runtime: 113 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, History
  • Stars: Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz, Jeanne Werner, Alma Hasun, Finnegan Oldfield, Manuel Rubey, Aaron Friesz, Tamás Lengyel, Ivana Urban, Alexander Pschill, Raphael Nicholas, Rosa Hajjaj, Lilly Marie Tschörtner, May Garzon, Norman Hacker, Marlene Hauser, Adrien Papritz, Oliver Rosskopf, Peter Faerber
  • Director: Marie Kreutzer
 Comments
  • SnoopyStyle - 14 March 2024
    great lead
    It is 1877. Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) is turning 40. Her beauty is considered fading and she is being sidelined by the royal court. Her husband is sidelining her from his royal bed. She, on the other hand, refuses to fade away.

    It is an intriguing biopic powered by the enigmatic Vicky Krieps although I don't know how much of this is real. It's an interesting if somewhat meandering. The story does need a more cohesive journey to give it more drama and I didn't see the ending coming. There seems to be more drama behind the scenes. Most of all, Krieps gives a great performance.
  • PK_71 - 16 July 2023
    This is 40 - for an empress in the 1870s.
    There are several different ways to watch this movie.

    You could analyze its historical accuracy, and you would find grounds for criticism.

    You could be bothered by the fact that we're expected to sympathize with an empress, and you would find her personal struggles tiny, even pathetic, compared to the realities of her people.

    But you could also decide to enjoy the acting, the script and the beautiful settings. And I did. The brilliantly understated acting by Vicky Krieps forms the core of this movie, and she is supported by great performances by almost the entire cast. All in all, writer/director Marie Kreutzer and the actors make this story believable, even surprisingly relatable.
  • gortx - 20 January 2023
    Cheeky if mixed with a good Krieps performance
    Writer-Director Marie Kreutzer's somewhat cheeky if undernourished costume drama features the ever fascinating Vicky Krieps as the Empress of Austria in the late 1870s. Kreutzer's take intentionally deviates from history to create it's portrait of a woman stuck in a loveless marriage with the Emperor (Florian Teichtmeister).

    From the outset, this Empress flaunts her dislike of proper protocol and behavior, to the point of flipping off her guests at a state dinner party. She even offends her own son and daughter for her immaturity. The emperor allows her to take leave of the palace on journeys to Hungary, England, Luxembourg and Italy (the locations are grand, but the cinematography disappoints). The Empress isn't always flighty and takes a special interest in the sick and infirmed; Clearly this fascination is intended to be commenting on the Empress' own state.

    Kreutzer's flippant approach can be distancing and would be even more so without Krieps who keeps the character from being unsympathtic. There is a wonderful 'love scene' which involves Krieps and a handsome man merely leaning into one another's eyes, fully clothed. It's in these moments when CORSAGE engages.

    Kreutzer's film contains intentional anachronisms and modern songs on the soundtrack, somewhat reminiscent of Sofia Coppola's tale of another unhappy monarch, MARIE ANTOINETTE. The irreverence is occassionally effective and masks the sting of the sadness at the movie's heart. None of it would work without Krieps, but, it's only somewhat successful regardless.
  • rustybarkeeper - 3 January 2023
    This star shot her film in the knee
    Watching the commercial between YouTube videos, I became aware of a loose cannon star spending valuable time whining about her corset.

    Number one? Their costumers had to be out for this person. Well made corsets fit. Whoever was driving the corset bus didn't know what they were doing.

    So, all the time they could have demonstrated the emotion and character experiences- they let the star rant.

    If the mute individual next to the star had said: I wrote the character's corset misfit as a metaphor for the character- well that could be a wee bit fascinating. Instead the person looked like she didn't understand a word the woman was saying.

    Will I watch this costume drama? Probably not.
  • lasttimeisaw - 21 December 2022
    Cinema Omnivore - Corsage (2022) 7.4/10
    "Uncharacteristically applying anachronism (like chanteuse Camille's empyrean soundtrack bonanza, so disengaged from the period but superbly attuned to Elisabeth's quandary) and presentism to the period drama, Kreutzer doesn't delimit her film in the 19th century, the emptiness of Elisabeth's consort role can be efficaciously likened to the similar dread of trophy girlfriends/wives whose beauty has sailed past the sell-by date in the modern era, and the mental toll it takes. The gist is if a woman has no anchor in her life, the consequence will be rather grave. Sifting out nuggets from past history, which can edify today's viewers, at the very least, CORSAGE strikes home on that front."

    read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, please google it, thanks.
  • dawnfades - 1 December 2022
    As close as it gets
    I have been a so-called "Sissi-enthusiast" for as long as I can remember. Every movie or series based on her life are a surprise and something to really look forward to me.

    This being said, I have to highlight the fact that this one movie is closest to the Sissi one can read about. She was eccentric, she was ahead of her time (which has gracefully been depicted through some very modern gestures, that gave the movie and the character some colour, but didn't look too absurd or too modern) and she was indeed a bird locked in a golden cage.

    My Sissi is complex, my Sissi can be Romy Schneider at times, but she definitely is Vicky Krieps as well. I can only think of this movie as a compliment to her and to what she has endured during her life. Her faith has been decided by so many others, while she kept fighting to regain as much control as possible in her situation.

    This is definitely a film worth watching, because it was not produced with the sole aim to please the audience, but it manages to tell a story, a story based on a real person.

    Bravo!