NZIFF Film Review: "Corsage" (2022).

From the director of The Ground Beneath My Feet comes Corsage. This period drama film written and directed by Marie Kreutzer. Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. But in 1877, ‘Sissi’ celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter. While Elizabeth’s role has been reduced against her wishes to purely performative, her hunger for knowledge and zest for life makes her more and more restless in Vienna. She travels to England and Bavaria, visiting former lovers and old friends, seeking the excitement and purpose of her youth. With a future of strictly ceremonial duties laid out in front of her, Elizabeth rebels against the hyperbolised image of herself and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.

By early March 2021, Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz, Jeanne Werner, Alma Hasun, Manuel Rubey, Finnegan Oldfield, Aaron Friesz, Rosa Hajjaj, Lilly Marie Tschörtner, and Colin Morgan were cast in a period drama with Kreutzer as director, who also penned the script. At the same time, with a budget of €7.5 million ($8.1 million), principal photography commenced and wrapped in early July. Filming took place in Vienna, Austria; Schifflange, Luxembourg; and Ethe, Belgium. When asked how much of the film was real and how much was fiction, Kreutzer, said she could not tell in percent because she could not even remember exactly, but that some parts were made up, such as the ending.

The film stars Krieps, Teichtmeister, Lorenz, Werner, Hasun, Rubey, Oldfield, Friesz, Hajjaj, Tschörtner, and Morgan. The performances are strong and it has a melancholic, existential way of moving along the story that is effective. The film benefits from a compelling performance from Krieps, but even that can't stop it from slowly falling apart when it engages with topics such as alienation, loneliness, and the stressful life of postmodernity. Nonetheless, the film consistently serves as a powerful showcase for the talented Pachner, who manages a performance that is both distant and achingly vulnerable.

Here director Marie Kreutzer examines the femininity. The tragic side. While giving it the look and tone of a drama. Though it isn't just. The film is Kreutzer's take on Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It's a jarring confrontation, a mirror placed in front of the audience to show how a woman like Elisabeth back then is like any woman today. Kreutzer paints a nuanced portrait of the dehumanizing effects of the aesthetically-sterile, male-dominated world. The film thus raises the age-old and sadly still relevant question: can a woman ever be truly free when living in the patriarchy? In the superbly calibrated new feature from Kreutzer, the clash between the two sides of Empress Elisabeth is interpreted as an ambivalent psychological drama enriched with searing social commentary. While it sometimes dons the characteristics of a psychological drama, the film eventually unfolds a powerful, metaphor-driven fable, one full of sorrow and anger about the way we live now.

Simon says Corsage receives:

Also, see my NZIFF review for Flux Gourmet.