Tracker Pixel for Entry

​‘Corsage’: Kreutzer and Krieps Revise History

Cinema | January 22nd, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage” reinterprets the historical biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the Bavarian royal assassinated in 1898. Popularly known as Sisi or Sissi, she married Emperor Franz Joseph I when she was 16 and has attracted ongoing attention in multiple theater, film and television productions over the years, including fiction and nonfiction, animation, operetta, and ballet.

This past September, Netflix released the six-episode series “The Empress.” Ernst Marischka’s 1950s movie trilogy helped launch Romy Schneider to stardom and has been a longtime Christmas viewing staple regularly broadcast on German and Austrian television. Ava Gardner tried on her jewels in “Mayerling.” In Kreutzer’s movie, Vicky Krieps portrays the curious subject.

Unafraid to court controversy, Kreutzer stages a radical alternative to the recorded events surrounding Elisabeth’s life and death. Like any number of the filmmaker’s other choices, the movie’s climax suggests a cocky insouciance regarding careful fidelity to the “real.”

This disregard for the traditional rules of the biopic will enrage some historians but delight fans of material like Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” and Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer.” Despite the overt parallels, Kreutzer has bristled at the frequent comparisons to the former, insisting that she does not like Coppola’s film.

The anachronistic placement of a harp-accompanied performance of “As Tears Go By” and other diegetic music picks – not to mention additional modern touches – align as closely to “Marie Antoinette” as the themes of a woman constrained by the regulations of the patriarchy. The spheres over which Elisabeth exercised any substantive control paled next to the formal obligations and expectations of her station.

Like Diana, Kreutzer’s heroine suffers the whims of a faithless spouse. In one great scene, Elisabeth tracks down the object of her husband’s extramarital attention to encourage an affair.

Krieps, who brought the idea of an Elisabeth movie to an initially skeptical Kreutzer, makes for a compelling rebel. Whether holding her breath under water, cavorting for the motion picture camera of Louis Le Prince, sparring with her grown son or her young daughter, squeezing into a tightly-laced corset, or limiting her dinner to a slice or two of orange, the actor brings her character to vivid and vital life.

Krieps fires up her sophisticated interpretation with all kinds of quirky tics and mannerisms that increase our curiosity. When she bursts out laughing at socially inappropriate moments, we sense that she’s struck by the incomprehensible madness of her circumstances.

As Kreutzer thumbs her nose, or, more accurately, gives the finger to the history books, it becomes evident that the director’s preoccupation with Elisabeth “coming apart” at the age of 40 is the key component of “Corsage” that transcends time to become a commentary on any era. Frustrations and anxieties threaten to erupt each time Elisabeth is silenced by her perpetually imperious husband.

Kreutzer and Krieps leave the viewer to guess at the protagonist’s motivation for raging against her confinement by fencing, horseback riding, and flirting with the possibility of adulterous liaisons of her own. Elisabeth could be driven by forces both internal and external. Either way, she will faint and she will feint. 

Recently in:

Press release Celebrate Dinosaur Day on Thursday, Oct. 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum (612 E Boulevard Ave. in Bismarck). This free, family-friendly program is open to all ages. A…

By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu The Northwest Blade, from Eureka, South Dakota, published a wonderful story in August 2020. It’s called “Granddaughter keeps Grandmother’s precious chamomile seeds,” by Cindy…

Sunday, October 19, 10 a.m.Buffalo River State Park, 565 155th St. S., Glyndon, MNHosted by the Red River Valley Chapter of Herbalists Without Borders at Buffalo River State Park for a fun fall day full of flora. (Say that three…

By John Strandjas@hpr1.com Yes, we know, everywhere you look, the world situation is mental. It’s almost inescapable just how tenuous life’s circumstances are. And how they are mostly — pretty much entirely — out of our…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWill we be banging or whimpering at the end of the American empire?T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men” accurately portrays the end of most empires in his first lines: “We are the hollow men/…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gion and Nichole Hensenrickgion@gmail.com The wait is finally over. Those who have visited Nichole’s Fine Pastry & Cafe lately know about the recent major additions and renovations that have taken place over the past…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com The multiple meanings of the title location in Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s “Bone Lake” cover the sex and death spectrum that will flummox Diego (Marco Pigossi) and Sage (Maddie Hasson) as…

By HPR staffsubmit@hpr1.com Mark the first weekend of October on your calendar. It’s the weekend of the Studio Crawl, which takes us all on a wonderful, metro-wide tour of our talented (and often wacky) arts community. On October…

Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

Press Release As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, Essentia Health is highlighting an innovative — and recently expanded — program that brings early breast cancer detection services to rural communities. Essentia’s mobile…

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson@rocketmail.comMoral accountability and the crisis of leadership  As a recovering person living one day at a time for the last 35 years, I have learned not to judge others because I have not walked in…