Austria/Luxembourg/Germany/France – Biography, Drama – Year: 2022 – Running time: 114 mins
Languages: German, French, English, Hungarian, Italian
Audience Response: (13 slips returned)
- ‘Excellent’: 1 vote
- ‘Very Good’: 6 votes
- ‘Good’: 5 votes
- ‘Satisfactory’: 1 vote
- ‘Poor’: 0 votes
Read the comments here or visit our “Corsage” discussion page
Synopsis:
In this historical drama, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who is estranged from her philandering husband, begins to act oddly as she approaches her 40th birthday. Renowned for her beauty, her obsessive behaviour takes its toll.
With Vicky Krieps, the actor seen in Phantom Thread
This exhilarating, beautiful, inventive film, with its great depth of colour and luminous cinematography by Judith Kaufmann, shows us a woman determined to live, or die, on her own terms.
Markie Robson-Scott (The Arts Desk)
Director/Writer: Marie Kreutzer
Main Cast:
| Vicky Krieps | Empress Elisabeth |
| Colin Morgan | Bay Middleton |
| Finnegan Oldfield | Louis Le Prince |
| Tamás Lengyel | Gyula Andrássy |
| Manuel Rubey | Ludwig II, King of Bavaria |
| Jeanne Werner | Ida Ferenczy |
(for full cast list, reviews and more information, see IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes)
Chelmsford Film Club Notes:
Focusing on one year – 1878, with constant reminders/references to it throughout the film – Corsage sets out to tell the story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837 – 1898), known as Sissi, a name not used in the film. On Christmas Eve 1877 Elisabeth, once idolised for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed ‘an old woman’. She starts to maintain her public image. Although estranged from her husband, she is not allowed to travel or gain weight or have much to do with the raising of her children.
Director Marie Kreutzer liberally blends fact and fiction: she is reported to have said that she could not remember, exactly, how much of each was in the film. Parts, like the ending (watch it to the very end!) are clearly inventions: note the electric floor lamps and the intentionally anachronistic music choices – ‘As Tears Go By’ played on the harp).
Look Corsage up on the internet and the bulk of its reviews focus more on the controversy surrounding one of the leading male actors rather than any aesthetic concerns. Last year Florian Teichtmeister, who plays the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. In the face of a great deal of damning evidence, Teichtmeister’s lawyer has said that his client will plead guilty to what he described as “a purely digital crime”. Can there be such a thing, one might ask? Corsage was withdrawn from Austrian cinemas but other countries agreed with the various production and distribution companies, and with Kreutzer herself, that the film will not be withdrawn “because of the actions of one person.” This is now of some interest as there is a current debate in parts of the UK media about whether ‘art’ should not be ‘on show’ or even ‘consumed’, if the creator of that art is deemed to be ‘not a very nice person’, to put it mildly.
Names such as Eric Gill and Pablo Picasso have featured in the debate, even David Herbert Lawrence being accused of being a ‘misogynist’ and therefore his works not to be read. Lawrence himself once wrote, incidentally, that “we should judge the art, not the artist”. In recent memory, a once darling of the CFC, Woody Allen, came under scrutiny in this context when his personal life was constantly in the news. I would still watch one of his films, however, if I needed ‘cheering up’ with a good laugh by watching some magical cinema. On 9 January this year Vicky Krieps, a lead actor in Corsage, is quoted as saying “So, a feminist film, made by two women, should be discarded because of the misconduct of a male colleague… Who exactly is being harmed by this?” To some, the answer might be obvious: the exploited child victims of pornography?
To put this all to one side for a moment, it has been some time since CFC screened a historically based costume drama (can you think of one?) and I hope you enjoy Corsage. They are mostly the bread and butter of Sunday night entertainment on TV. Dare I mention Great Expectations, arguably as little to do with the story by Charles Dickens as this film is to do with the life of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria? Discuss…