“Corsage” Review!

Director: Marie Kreutzer

Starring: Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz

Phantom Thread star Vicky Criepps gives a stunning performance in director Marie Kreutzer's "Corsage," a devilish film that imagines the private life of Elisabeth of Austria, the eccentric, dark wife of Emperor Franz Joseph between 1854 and 1898. It gives a clue. A brave and reassuring act of rewriting myths, gifting self-determination to a woman who has been beaten and bullied throughout history as she has been in her lifetime.

Vicky Criepps brings a mischievous influence to the queen and her tight-knit world. It's a royal who can smile sweetly at a formal ceremony, as well as give a finger in a room full of high-ranking nobles. Although her public life is outrageously nuanced—she must maintain a frosty silence about her weight in front of open thorn bushes, as well as daily dips in waist measurements—she doesn't hide her rebellious spirit. After her fortieth birthday.

Yet at the heart of Corsairs is a believable puzzle in which Elizabeth simultaneously seeks to hide from the public while being seen by the people around her for who she really is. He orders her to watch him masturbate. She jumps at the chance to be filmed by an early motion picture pioneer, viewing cinema as a sensual activity. She has frequent sex, is hungry, and finds autonomy in the act of enjoying herself. When everyone around her dances to the theme of her old age, all she has to do is look good, she wants a real connection, to be rooted, to be loved.

Clever production design and bleak cinematography give the courses an almost baroque elegance. The scene was no match for the Pre-Raphaelite beauty of the dark crib, with eye-catching dresses of dark silk and pink lace. In this chaotic environment, Kreutzer presents himself as a great genius, unlike in earlier popular Schneider films, where our hero patiently allows his destiny to self-rule over months, countries and suitors. "Sissy" effectively rewrites the myth. Chronological touches in the design and soundtrack further indicate that this is a purely modern interpretation, uninfluenced by historical expectations.

As Elizabeth's digs slowly increase in number, we can almost feel him, the palace, softening all of life's rough nerves, as Elizabeth's digs slowly increase in number, until a quiet fugue involving heroin shots, haircuts, and anxieties about going to the local insane asylum is reached. Cake, sex, drugs and aseptic baths as long as she wants, thank you very much; The result, deconstructed, is very satisfying.

In keeping with the tragic nature of the story, the corsage is quietly wonderful in the way it seems to liberate its subject. The film belongs to Cripps, whose lively performance never falls prey to period drama tropes. With a faint stubble on her cheek and a well-smoked cigarette, she sheds the tired label that stifles her as a major footnote in Habsburg history. Hello to all queens.