Movie Review: Vicky Krieps Enters the Oscar Chat with 'Corsage'

Corsage (2022)

Directed by Marie Kreutzer

Written by Marie Kreutzer

Starring Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz

Release Date December 23rd, 2022

Published December 20th, 2022

Corsage stars Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Obsessed with her looks and dismissive of royal duties, Empress Elisabeth cuts a strangely bad ass figure in Corsage. She's not quite punk rock but she's in the rebellious metaphorical realm. She was an Empress but, according to this movie, one who chafed hard against the crown her entire life. She was a devoted mother whose motherhood was taken from her by royal decree and she became disengaged from her children who were essentially brainwashed by royal formality with only a little of their mother's spirit mixed in.

We meet Empress Elisabeth as she is doing her royal duty. This means being trussed up in the tightest corset possible in order to meet a public obsessed with her weight, her looks, and her outfits. We watch with mouths agape as catty fellow royals and richies snarkily comment on her appearance in the most passive aggressive fashion before she steals back a modicum of self worth by faking her way out of the needless, thankless task of glad-handing.

Faking a fainting spell, Empress Elisabeth returns home to the comfort of her gaggle of servants, stylists and sycophantic family members. Most prominent in her circle are Elisabeth's closest friend, Countess Marie Festetics (Katharina Lorenz), Lady in Waiting Ida Ferenczy (Jeanne Werner), and her hairdresser, Fanny (Alma Hasun). With these women and her private servants, Elisabeth expresses her loathing of her royal duties and the various ways she subverts her station.

Corsage unfolds as series of set pieces that give us a glimpse of Elisabeth's agonizing chafing against her station and the few desires she is able to indulge. One specific indulgence is a male friend whom she desires but is more than likely... not her type. Then there is another potential lover, George "Bay" Middleton, the Queen's favorite horse trainer. The two have remarkable chemistry but Bay seems to recognize how dangerous an affair with Elisabeth may be while she obliviously flirts and pouts.

Drama surrounding Elisabeth's children involves the shifting allegiances of her son Rudolf. At once Rudolf warns his mother about indulging her flirtation with Middleton and then he turns around and becomes her biggest supporter, as he also launches a bit of a scandal with his rumored affair. Elisabeth's youngest daughter repeatedly antagonizes her mother over her improprieties in a subplot that doesn't really go anywhere but going nowhere is kind of the heart of Corsage.

Writer-Director Marie Kreutzer is a skilled storyteller with a knack for knowing where to linger and where to surprise the audience. A good example of that can be found in the highly charged scenes between Elisabeth and her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister). The marriage is fraught with various dramas from Elisabeth's desire to be involved in state affairs, to her unwillingness to participate in the boring rituals of royal life. Naturally, both struggle with fidelity even as Elisabeth does make attempts to connect with her husband.

As mentioned earlier, vultures surrounding the royal family consistently made Elisabeth's looks into a topic for scandal and speculation. Corsage examines those issues by not examining them at all. Rather, Kreutzer's script and Vicky Krieps' performance bring these issues forward in how Elisabeth dressed and her remarkably extreme approach to weight loss. The title, Corsage refers to the original use of that word, which described what we came to call a corset, the bodice of a woman's dress. Elisabeth was obsessed with the corsage she wore, wearing it as tightly as possible, painfully tight.

It was an expression of her anxiety over her weight and a message to those in her court who thought to criticize her appearance. By showing off her extremely small waist, she hoped to head off criticism of her appearance. Sadly, then many began to speculate that she was sickly and pale, or even dying due to her extreme vanity. She truly could not win. Elisabeth's diet is another extreme demonstrated in Corsage in a scene where her dinner consists of a thin slice of an orange. Not the whole orange sliced, one thin slice from an orange.

These visual details say more than any dialogue describing Elisabeth's behavior ever could. Corsage is elegantly crafted in that way. It's simply elegant in every way when you get right down to it. The costumes, the period accurate set decoration, the lovely details about Elisabeth having her image captured in the early days of film, lovely visual details add to the overall experience of Corsage and outweigh whatever criticisms may exist regarding the luxurious pace of the film or the looseness of the plot.

The ending of Corsage, which I won't spoil here, is perhaps the most notable aspect of the film. It's a highly speculative ending for a life that is relatively well documented. It appears that Director Kreutzer felt no need to be bound to the historical record. Instead, she takes an approach that reminded me of Luis Bunuel without the whimsy. It's a very sad presentation but one with an air of absurdity to it in the staging of it. It's bold and unexpected and a great reason to experience Corsage for yourself so you can speculate about it in your own way.

Corsage arrives in limited theatrical release on December 23rd, 2022. Star Vicky Krieps could be in the Best Actress conversation at the Academy Awards. Her performance is that good, she certainly warrants discussion among the best performances of 2022. So, if you are an Oscars completist, you should consider adding Corsage to your end of the year watch list.

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