CIFF 2022 | ‘Corsage’ review: Fierce, uncompromising feminist discourse unlike any other
Vicki Krieps gives a once-in-a-lifetime performance as an empress out of time in Marie Kreutzer’s feminist fable for the ages.
Vicky Krieps as Sissi in “Corsage.” Photo courtesy of IFC Films.
The year is 1877. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is dominated by middle-aged men sporting formidable mustaches and mutton chops of unbelievable size and panache. At the center of this vortex of masculine gusto is the singular Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps), also known as Sissi, who cannot seem to escape scrutiny in both her public and private life.
To her populace, Sissi is the subject of nationalistic songs that extol qualities about her that are only ephemeral. “Long may she reign,” sings a choir of young boys, “may she stay beautiful.” Guests at her parties are quick to voice their opinions of her straight to her face, from absurd flattery about how she has “a steady breath of a 20-year-old” to bare-facedly uncharitable comments about her gaining weight. Her husband Franz Joseph is no better; cold and distant behind the palace walls unless he is berating her for her happy-go-lucky spontaneity and dismissing her with callous remarks like, “I don’t want you passing on your restlessness to our children.”
On the one hand, she is viewed as an object, a figurehead whose duty is to “merely represent” Austria while her husband does the real governance. On the other hand, as Franz Joseph himself states, “no matter bronchitis or headache, you are the Empress,” a symbol to be revered and feared. Sissi is a woman caught between two dichotomies; stretched thinner and thinner until her mind — and the world around her — begins to fray.
Sissi may have lived in times entirely different to ours, but her problems undoubtedly still ring true for many women and feminine-identifying people today. Marie Kreutzer’s film festival award-sweeper “Corsage” is a film that beautifully and heartbreakingly captures what it means to be subject to patriarchal oppression, swapping finger-wagging and emotional torture porn for subtle, meta-textual nods at how, in some ways, things have not really changed for women even after centuries of progress. By positioning Sissi as a woman out of time, interlacing period drama flourishes with enigmatic modern-day symbolism (from motorboats to tattoo guns to stray phone lines), Kreutzer presents us with a refreshing take on feminist discourse in a way that no other filmmaker has attempted to before.
It should come as no surprise that Vicky Krieps has won almost every major festival circuit award, including the Chicago International Film Festival’s Silver Hugo, for her portrayal of Sissi. Krieps imbues Sissi with equal amounts of despondence and chutzpah, staring daggers at her audience whenever she looks knowingly into the camera; both acknowledging and invalidating our gazes and our judgment. Brought to life almost entirely on the strength of Krieps’s magisterial performance, combined with its inimitable style and magnificent cinematography, “Corsage” is a slow-building but ultimately staggering success; one that will leave audiences with plenty of food for thought long after its breathtaking final shot fades to black.
“Corsage” opens in cinemas on December 23, 2022.
