Corsage

[osprey_archer]

At Heartland Film Festival, it’s become something of a tradition that the audience claps at the end of each feature. I’m not sure how this started - maybe as a courtesy because the filmmakers show up at so many of the features? - but it’s a nice tradition, and I always clap too, even at movies like The Country Club that I didn’t like so much.

It is therefore meaningful that at the end of Corsage, no one in the theater clapped. Possibly we were all shell-shocked.

Corsage is loosely based on the life of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, also known as Sisi, famously one of the most beautiful women in 19th century Europe. She was obsessed with her appearance and practiced an extensive diet and exercise regime long before that was common. She was also accused of tight-lacing her corset; corsage is corset in German, and no, I don’t know why they didn’t translate the title. I personally am not wild about movies that are about women obsessed with the ~horror of growing older~ but at least this part is based on fact.

In the movie, the year is 1878, and Sisi has just turned forty. She fears losing her beauty, she’s bored of court life, and about halfway through she decides that the way out is to kill herself. She jumps out the window of her fencing salon, contemplates how to hang herself, and ultimately trains one of her ladies-in-waiting to impersonate her, while Sisi herself jumps off a ship to her death.

Also, at some point a random guy shows up with a movie camera (ten years before movie cameras were invented) and films Sisi.

In real life, Sisi lived till 1898 and died when she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist. I’m absolutely baffled why the filmmakers had her jump off a boat twenty years early. Why not have her live out her full life span, in which case you could bring in a no-longer-anachronistic movie camera? Or focus the movie on the year Sisi turned forty and just not have her die at the end?

Also absolutely baffled that this movie is apparently getting awards buzz. That’s why I decided to see it, in fact: “I’ll get in on the ground floor, like with Portrait of a Lady on Fire!” Well, I got what I deserved for seeing a movie for such an ignominious reason.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Wow, that's nuts. What did the director/filmmakers think they were doing? Was it supposed to be a commentary on being obsessed with youth and beauty? Because much as I dislike women being obsessed with those things, I dislike criticizing them for it even more, seeing as it was a main way they were valued by society at the time (and, sadly, continue to be even now, though there are other avenues for showing your worth). And so they find a real-life woman who was obsessed with those things, but her life isn't edgy and extreme enough, so they ramp it up with a suicide? COME ON. Make up a person, then. Because it sure does seem significant that in fact this woman ***didn't*** commit suicide. She had to live to the shock-horror old age of 60! So how did she handle that? There's be a more meaningful movie in that.

[osprey_archer]

My perhaps mean-spirited feeling is that the filmmakers share Sisi's horror about women growing old and therefore couldn't bear to make a movie about a sixty-year-old woman. They're trying to comment on being obsessed with youth and beauty but accidentally just replicating those attitudes.

Obsession-with-youth-and-beauty is one of those things that is very hard to comment on directly, anyway. The most effective commentary is a character like Jessica Fletcher who is sixty years old and living her best life.

[asakiyume]

Amen to that about Jessica Fletcher!

I can understand being 24 or 34 and not wanting to ~ ~look like ~ ~ Jessica Fletcher. But a life *doing* things is just so much more full and fun than a life where all you are is an object to be admired.

[osprey_archer]

I think there's definitely something to be said for enjoying each age of your life where it's at! No need to speed-run being Jessica Fletcher when you are 24. But worth thinking about living in a way that your life can be as full and happy as Jessica Fletcher's when you reach that point.

[tamsin]

Thanks for the review, I'll be skipping this one.

I find it disappointing that movies about Sisi always focus on the beauty thing. Yes, that was one aspect of her life, but she was also a passionate reader, wrote poetry herself, was proficient in multiple languages including ancient Greek, highly involved in the politics concerning Hungary, an excellent rider... The way she so often gets reduced to her looks is sad.

[osprey_archer]

The movie does highlight some of her other qualities... but mostly in context of putative love affairs. Like, we get lots of emphasis on Sisi riding, but because people think she's having an affair with her riding instructor. There's some information on Sisi's passionate attachment to Hungary... because she's supposed to be passionately attached to the Hungarian leader. Etc.

[asakiyume]

So disappointing to discover this was created by women. Honestly, this kind of treatment is what I expect from men. A lot of internalized misogyny, seems like.

[osprey_archer]

My experience has been that on average women make better movies about women than men do, but also when women make bad movies about women then by god it is horrid. Intimate acquaintance with misogyny means that you can produce layered, multifaceted, intricate misogyny, I guess.

Not that men don't make misogynistic movies too, mind. I just see less of them, because I'm more willing to give movies by women a chance even when the description gives me "misogyny here?" vibes. Whereas something like the recent Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, which has been savaged for portraying her as a two-dimensional victim - I looked at that and went "Eh, not touching that with a ten-foot pole."

[asakiyume]

Intimate acquaintance with misogyny means that you can produce layered, multifaceted, intricate misogyny, I guess. --You're probably right with this analysis. It's extra awful though, because not only do we end up with an awful movie, but you end up feeling bad about a person who's been so twisted around by society that they hate their sex so much :(

[aurumcalendula]

In real life, Sisi lived till 1898 and died when she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist. I’m absolutely baffled why the filmmakers had her jump off a boat twenty years early.

Ugh, that's irritating! Like I knew that about her, and most of my knowledge of her is based on her Royal Diaries book.

I don't know why they didn't just have a fictional character based on her instead.

[osprey_archer]

I also feel that "assassinated by Italian anarchist" is a way more interesting ending AND would have provided a culmination to themes about politics & nationalism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which as it is they touched on... vaguely... How am I supposed to believe that our heroine really wants to have more of a voice in the affairs of her empire when we have only the vaguest idea what those affairs are, let alone what she wants to say in them?

[sovay]

I also feel that "assassinated by Italian anarchist" is a way more interesting ending AND would have provided a culmination to themes about politics & nationalism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which as it is they touched on... vaguely...

I just realized that if this film has her kill herself in 1878, then she misses the entire Mayerling affair, which was a huge part of her emotional life historically, although I guess not as interesting as being driven to suicide.

How am I supposed to believe that our heroine really wants to have more of a voice in the affairs of her empire when we have only the vaguest idea what those affairs are, let alone what she wants to say in them?

I could see that working in a film where the point is that she wants to have something to say, but doesn't know what and doesn't even know enough about the issues under discussion to figure out—a tragic insulation from the realities rather than the ceremonies of politics. If it's meant to be an informed as well as sincere desire on her part, however, then unfortunately the audience needs to be informed, too.

[sovay]

and ultimately trains one of her ladies-in-waiting to impersonate her, while Sisi herself jumps off a ship to her death.

You're supposed to train the doppelgänger so that you can run away and start your life over! Anyone can commit suicide without a substitute!

[osprey_archer]

I mean HONESTLY.

I also can't see the doppelganger lasting for more than three days, because although their bodies are similar their faces and voices aren't. Doppelganger might do for public appearances (where she only has to stand in ceremonial silence) but will NOT fool anyone who knew Sisi.

[sovay]

I also can't see the doppelganger lasting for more than three days, because although their bodies are similar their faces and voices aren't.

Okay, you're not supposed to train a doppelgänger that requires a court-wide conspiracy to maintain, either.

[aurumcalendula]

You're supposed to train the doppelgänger so that you can run away and start your life over!

This!

[tei]

What!?

Just... make up a fictional character... if you want them to have a completely different life than a historical character... please...

[osprey_archer]

This seems very reasonable AND YET. Maybe "Queen Sisi Lizzie?? of Ruritania" didn't have the same ring to it.

[troisoiseaux]

What is UP with this apparently emerging storytelling trend of "canon-divergent or other AU of the real-life historical figure as a launching point to tell a story that really didn't need to be about that historical figure in order to tell the story the author wanted to"??? I can think of a least four books I've read in the past year that have fallen into this category, but this is the first movie I'm aware of. Like, if this is the story they really want to tell, JUST MAKE UP A PERSON.

[osprey_archer]

Re: movie-making, I can only assume it's easier to get funding that way, but given that books are not pre-funded... maybe it's easier to get a book deal once you've written the book, though? It feels like it has to be about money because it's hard to justify it artistically.

[sovay]

I can think of a least four books I've read in the past year that have fallen into this category, but this is the first movie I'm aware of.

I feel it's been an increasing trend in biopics for some time now, to the point where if one comes out and the critical response isn't "a slyly innovative spin taking provocative liberties with history as we know it," it's actually a bit of a standout.

[asakiyume]

"a slyly innovative spin taking provocative liberties with history as we know it," ---LOL, you're acquainted with review-speak, I see. So glad I have your reviews and osprey_archer's in my life, because they are always just acres better than that.

[silverusagi]

Well, that's certainly... an ending.

[osprey_archer]

If a story is going to deviate vastly from history, it ought to at least deviate in a fun way, like The Great!