Film Review - Corsage
Images courtesy of Vendetta Films.
Vicky Krieps delivers her most achingly beautiful performance yet, as Empress Elizabeth of Austria, a figure endowed with all the spirit and boundless curiosity of woman, yet forced to undermine and erase herself amongst a culture, time and country that has little use for such traits in women. The film is Corsage, named after the French word that refers to the bodice of a dress, a symbol of both desire and entrapment that director Marie Kreutzer so effortlessly oscillates between. The film begins in 1877, just as Empress Elizabeth is about to turn 40, and we are immediately made privy to her hesitations about this; “at the age of 40, a person begins to disperse and fade”. Kreutzer takes the time however, to illuminate to the audience the progenitors of Elizabeth’s anxieties, as almost all of the rules and standards to which Elizabeth holds herself, stem from a vain and gossip-ridden public that wish to see their Elizabeth remain forever, as the pinnacle of beauty and grace that she has come to be known for. As such, the corsage to which we see Elizabeth stuffed into, tightened to its maximum capacity, becomes both a signifier for her desire to placate the public, as well as a symbol of the manacles under which Elizabeth is constantly trappedMuch of the pain of the film then comes from watching the unabashedly spirited and zealous Elizabeth simultaneously fall victim to the social mores and governing ideas that she has been indoctrinated by.
The mastery of Krieps is however her ability to let both facets of Elizabeth shine through in her performance. Elizabeth is undoubtedly a victim of time, place and circumstance, and yet she is also a renegade of her time. A maverick that dares to cut her hair, express her sexuality, smoke, ride horses faster than the men, and embrace burgeoning new enterprises and technologies like the motion picture camera. Kreutzer dots her piece with many visual references that are able to capture more poetically how progressive and expansive Elizabeth really was, and how miniature and archaic her surroundings were by comparison. Kreutzer places some intentionally anachronistic elements within her film such as a modern day bucket and mop, a telephone, a French press coffee pot and emergency exit signs, to surround Elizabeth in a halo of modernity. As these items are out of place within this time period, so too is she. A particularly stunning shot of the film that too conveys Elizabeth’s grandiosity comes towards the end of the film: we see Elizabeth, shot from the waist up, standing on top of a piece of furniture, so that her head is nearly grazing the ceiling. So as not to hit her head, Elizabeth stands, staring out the window, with her head cocked to one side, with the ceiling just hovering millimetres above her, threatening to block her should she fully stand upright.
To me, this was the ultimate visual metaphor of the film, and of Elizabeth’s struggle. All she ever wanted was to be able to stand proudly, to exist on her own terms and be free to age naturally. As such, Corsage exists as a masterful exercise into critique that does not simultaneously come at the expense of poetry and art.
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Corsage is screening in cinemas from Thursday February 9th. For tickets and more info, click here.