“Triumphing at the hunts brought Elisabeth both an increase in self-confidence - since she shone not as an empress, but as a horsewoman and a beauty - and a freedom from the court obligations that she sought.” ― Brigitte Hamann, The Reluctant Empress
Corsage, a fictional biopic of 19th century’s Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, doesn’t try to romanticize the troubled life of a dynamic but socially-imprisoned royal in times swiftly changing and dangerous. Vick Krieps (of Phantom Thread fame and producer here) takes the legend and makes her vulnerable and quietly charming, albeit as troubled as the real “Sissi” was.
In Corsage, Elisabeth seems to have what any woman would want: prestige as wife of an emperor and leisure to become proficient at horse riding and fencing, to name a few activities her wealth and fame afford her. Because this biopic is mostly fiction, writer/director Marie Kreutzer is free to indulge with figurative episodes to promote a feminist agenda, handled deftly and not militantly.
Corsage, however, does emphasize the imprisoning of a restless woman, who is not at ease with her status from the minute she is married at age 16 and subsequently denied mothering her two daughters. Frequently Kreutzer shows the vain Sissi demanding her corset be even tighter, an easy symbol of her societal entrapment as a beauty and her own vainglorious aim to be eternally youthful—an ambition the real Elisabeth pursued her whole life.
Although purists will object to the imaginative ending, counter to her shocking assassination by an Italian anarchist, those of us sympathetic to the artistic design of the fiction will delight in the imaginative flourish that gives Sissi the power over herself that she was denied in life.
Approach this biopic as a fiction: you will enjoy stunning cinematography, challenging court intrigue, and a lust for freedom and equality still percolating for women a century and a quarter later.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
