Susan Granger’s review of “Corsage”
Having met Austria’s teenage Empress Elizabeth (1837-1898) when she was just married to Hapsburg’s Emperor Franz Joseph in Netflix’ mini-series “The Empress,” I was intrigued to learn more about her later life in a German film called “Corsage,” released late last year.
Director/screenwriter Marie Kreutzer focuses on Elizabeth (Vicky Krieps) – a.k.a. ‘Sisi’ – who – in 1877- is now middle-aged. Problem is: despite having given birth to several children, she’s still headstrong and rebellious, recklessly riding horses and fencing, traveling around Europe, visiting old friends and former lovers.
Beautiful but obsessively concerned about her appearance, Elizabeth obviously had an (undiagnosed) eating disorder, weighing herself several times a day, consuming only beef broth and orange slices, and often fasting, which caused her to faint.
Her anachronistically fictionalized story depicts a vain, unconventional woman caught in a regimental life that’s filled with society-imposed constrictions. As Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she’s a powerless figurehead, expected to defy time and aging, a concept geared to resonate with female viewers.
Determined to stay eternally young in the eyes of her subjects, Elizabeth refused all portraits and photographs after she turned 40, referring that that milestone as when “a person begins to disperse and fade.”
Elizabeth’s only satisfaction seems to come from being admired by others. She flirts – but only to confirm her desirability. She routinely visits with hospitalized mental patients, distributing superficial sympathy along with cigarettes and candied violets.
FYI: The title does not refer to a small floral bouquet. Instead, it’s the German word for ‘corset,’ the stiff 19th century bodice that’s tightly laced to tightly constrict a woman’s waistline to conform to the fashionable hourglass shape.
In German with English subtitles, on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Corsage” is a strange, suffocating, suitably subtle 6, available to buy/rent on Prime, iTunes, Google Play and Vudu.
