From the top of these crinolines, 40 centuries of tradition contemplate her.
You have to be up to it.
In 1877, Elisabeth of Austria, who was also Queen of Hungary, celebrated her 40th birthday.
The heart is no longer there.
The sovereign feels her beauty escaping her, her body betraying her.
This exalted soul breaks apnea records in her bathtub, calls a valet a
"big asshole",
suffocates in the rituals of the court.
Her husband François-Joseph is never there.
The couple is falling apart.
The lady takes refuge in her dreams.
This distinguished rider gallops in the early morning, jostling her ladies-in-waiting, whose bulk of the work consists of tightening the cords of her corset.
His waist thickens.
The regimes follow one another.
Respecting propriety becomes an increasingly difficult task for this free and modern woman before the letter.
A very pop Sissi
In
Corsage,
the anachronisms do not frighten Marie Kreutzer who uses songs by Camille for the soundtrack We are dealing here with a very pop Sissi, whose attitude evokes the destiny of a Lady Di.
Read alsoCannes Film Festival: Vicky, Romy, Sissi and the others
These departures from reality are not shocking.
They lead the film on the side of
Martin Eden
version Pietro Marcello, play with the languages, break the starch of the protocol.
The sovereign spoils her children, teaches her cousin Ludwig II of Bavaria how to feign fainting – this is a start: the next step is to give the official the middle finger.
A pinned grenade
Dark circles under the eyes, a slightly devastated face, sanatorium-like pallor, Vicky Krieps brilliantly rediscovers the talent she had revealed in
Phantom Thread
before dispersing it in productions as French as they are random.
We feel a kind of madness rising, revolt bubbling.
It's an unpinned grenade.
Read alsoPhantom Thread: the hero of the stuff
Why is she suddenly talking about Sarajevo?
His torments do not exclude a certain generosity, visits to psychiatric hospitals or to wounded soldiers.
This does not prevent him from harassing domesticity.
One exception: this handsome squire whose charm she does not seem insensitive.
His daughter will nevertheless advise him to be wise.
Red carpets and fine dinners will no longer forever hide the decline of the empire.
This aristocrat ahead of her time discovers the first animated images, snorts on pieces of khaki film.
A rather volcanic temperament
This rather volcanic temperament gives this feature film a strength, an originality that seduces.
Here is the portrait of a heroin addict Sissi, who does not hesitate to sacrifice her abundant hair to defy the rules of a game to which she no longer has the courage or the desire to comply.
Read alsoIn Vienna, in the footsteps of Sissi
Suddenly, we see her on a yacht, at the bow, as in a snapshot stolen by paparazzi.
The shift is one of the virtues of this cheeky biopic.
Similarly, no one is surprised to hear a musician in the park of a castle launch into an
As Tears Go By
on the harp.
Corsage
is a rarity, a curious object, a success.
You have to stay until the end of the end credits.
A surprise awaits you there.
The
Figaro
rating : 3/4.
“Corsage”, drama by Marie Kreutzer, with Vicky Krieps, Katharina Lorenz, Florian Teichtmeister, Jeanne Werner. Duration 1h53.
