Corsage

Viki Krieps is brilliant. Sissi as a real-life person, in stark contrast to the Romi Schneider fairytales.

Like influencers with filters on Instagram, this the story of a woman realizing she's no longer pretty enough to get away with everything. This semi-biographical movie about Empress Elisabeth (Sissy) of Austria is interesting thanks to its framing of the empress's life with cinematography constructed to look like paintings. Also in the film's favor are the anachronisms: "Help Me Make It through the Night" (Sammi Smith) and the Rolling Stone's "As Tears Go By" are performed as if they were contemporary to the time, the end of the movie isn't historically accurate, and the actors sometimes interact with the modern world (a scene shows Sissy and her entourage entering a building through metal scaffolding covered with plastic)... Is it parsimony? Laziness? Art? Who cares because it's fun and helps keep the period piece interesting. The problem I have with the movie is that it's like an igloo with no doors. It's filmed so coldly that there's no way to get into the movie to care about its protagonist who needs somebody to care about her. Corsage is like Coppola's Marie Antoinette on downers. You'll go for the directing and stay for... the rest, maybe?