40cm waist circumference. Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898), alias Sisi, was astonished by this, and that happened in the Sisi movie «Corsage» also actress Vicky Krieps. To really feel like Sisi, the beautiful empress who wanted to stay young as long as possible. Addicted to sports and eating disorders, Sisi decided at the age of 40 never to show her face in public again. “Corsage” begins in Sisi’s 40th year.
Marie Kreutzer (director and screenplay) delivers a beautifully filmed, intense and sometimes gruesome fantasy about a complicated woman who wants to escape. She tries to escape her prison of a 19th century pop icon. She has allies, such as the eccentric Bavarian King Ludwig, and others she can subdue at will. Traces of masochism and sadism are ubiquitous, and scenes of a marriage more bizarre than those between Sisi and Franzl are rarely seen. The beautiful haunting soundtrack by Soap & Skin et al makes the whole thing a sad dream.
Switzerland has a girl to offer as a role model, Heidi. Empress Elisabeth of Austria. What was it like for you growing up with Sisi as an Austrian?
To me, Sisi was pure tourist kitsch, she was never influential. I grew up with Heidi, I was allowed to watch very little TV, but I was always allowed to watch Heidi’s cartoons.
That doesn’t exactly sound like you felt called to be a Sisi director.
In 2016 I was on a promotional tour with Vicky Krieps for another movie and she asked me, “Don’t we want to make a movie about Empress Elisabeth?” I just asked, “Why?” That didn’t interest me at all. But somehow the idea stuck in my head.
You chose the years 1877 and 1878. These are not necessarily the years we know from Sisi mythology. In 1877 Sisi turned 40.
It was clear to me that if I’m making a movie with Vicky, it can’t be about 20-year-old Sisi or 60-year-old Sisi. And when I started researching her, I realized that the 40-year-old and her age is the one I know the least about. What fascinated me was that a lot of little rebellion flared up in her then, which finally convinced me. My subject became: a woman’s resistance to expectations. This is timeless. We all know that.
On her 40th birthday, Sisi’s resistance to aging became radical. She no longer showed her face in public and did not allow herself to be portrayed. At that time, she had banned photos for a long time.
For a long time she had submitted herself to the precepts of beauty, she had overtaxed her role as the beautiful empress. After her 40th she went out only veiled, her face was not seen again until twenty years later at her death.
You also wrote the screenplay. How did you deal with facts and fiction?
Much of the film is fictional, much is condensed, part is very close to the story. She actually went on a horseback riding trip to England, she actually did a short while at the military academy, her 40th year must have been an exciting year. And the phrase “a man of forty dissolves” is an original quote. I had to make up a lot because nobody knows: how they all spoke to each other, how they behaved. Sometimes I don’t remember what is historically correct and what I invented.
Her Sisi rejects a potential lover and has very idiosyncratic sex with her husband. How accurate is the portrayal of sexuality in «Corsage»?
I spoke to a historian about Sisi’s alleged affairs and she said something that made a deep impression on me and shaped Sisi’s whole approach to sexuality in my film. She said she didn’t think Sisi was actually having affairs. There were then no contraceptives to rely on and any woman involved in an extramarital affair had to face the possibility of pregnancy. It was unthinkable for an empress to conceive another man. An abortion would also have been very difficult in her position. And at her age, she did not want to expect any more pregnancy within the marriage.
Did you learn in your job to love the woman you were not interested in before?
What runs through all her biographies, her diaries, poems, letters, is this melancholy that she thought a lot about, was very smart and absolutely wanted to know a lot, read a lot. I learned to love her to the extent that she became a complex and unruly person through my work, which really appealed to me. Just repeating the cliches makes you feel like she was an insanely vain person. She was sure of that, but she had her reasons for it too.
In the 19th century there was the simultaneity of Queen Victoria and Empress Elisabeth. One was defined by strength, the other by beauty. Victoria’s body aged in a normal way, she eventually became this chubby matron, but it didn’t really matter because the older she got, the more respect she got. Sisi, on the other hand, was doomed to be beautiful.
Yes, exactly. She was never given political power. In the film I show how the emperor regretted for the rest of his life that he had allowed her to interfere in relations with Hungary, because after that he was held up forever. That was a lesson for him. All she was allowed to do was represent.
So while you were working on «Corsage», all those other Sisi projects popped up in German-speaking countries. 2021 a Sisi series on RTL, 2022 a Sisi series on Netflix, 2022 the novel “Sisi” by Karen Duve and soon the film “Sisi & I” by Frauke Finsterwalder. Didn’t that make you sick? And how do you explain the Sisi tree?
I can’t answer it yet, there is no Sisi anniversary. The only time I panicked was Frauke Finsterwalder’s project, because I thought two German-Austrian co-productions about the same historical personality would never both be funded. But it went well and I’m looking forward to it.
“The Empress” is the name of the new Sisi series on Netflix. She focuses on the media’s favorite Sisi years, namely the young empress and her young love. Unlike “Corsage”, “The Empress” does not bring a new or inspiring perspective on Sisi, for that the six-part story is told too conventionally and completely lacks the sharp-tongued quality of “The Crown”. The old “Sissi” movies, on the other hand, were more interesting for all their kitsch.
In order not to faint the mental distress of a late teen with no hobby at court in Vienna, a powerfully invented section of “Les Misérables” and “Babylon Berlin” is spiced up. The set and costumes do what they’re supposed to do and lavishly cover up some of the script’s weaknesses, of course it’s something to look at. Devrin Lignau is a formidable Sisi, but when phrases are spoken very, very seriously, such as “I want a man who will feed my soul,” the player wails softly.
It’s not just Sisi, it’s also “The Crown”, the death of the Queen, all the gossip stories about Meghan and Harry, that fascinate the world beyond measure. What exactly are we looking for?
The fascination with an ancient monarchy, the dark side of which we only know from the history books, has to do with the fact that it is something relatively plain and simple that everyone understands. The system is strictly hierarchical and transparent. While in the climate or energy crisis or under Corona we constantly have to ask ourselves the question: where does the power actually lie, who determines what and why? How do certain decisions still come about, why hasn’t something happened already?
There is also the keyhole effect.
Yes. People like to look behind the scenes and say to themselves: they are only people! When I was working on “Corsage”, I often bought tabloids to see what they wrote about Meghan Markle, because she was usually on every cover, always with a different headline, it doesn’t matter, the most important thing is that she appears. Every step, every word was followed, and that also serves this longing for the all too human.
That links Meghan to Sisi very directly, as you show her.
Vicky Krieps always likes to say: Sisi was the first victim of celebrity culture. Because she too cherished this image for a long time. She was an unusual woman, very tall and slim, she was very striking with her waist and haircut. An aura she has cultivated. She was considered a style icon. Whatever her prison was.
She also died a celebrity death. Similar to John Lennon. Both left home and were killed by a man who wanted to do just that.
Yes, exactly.
When I watch your movie, the old “Sissi” movies or the Netflix series, the focus is on women who act at the expense of other women. With you it is Sisi who makes a maidservant her serf. With Netflix and “Sissi,” it’s the eternally evil mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who harasses Sisi. How did this motif come about?
That is what happens in the patriarchy. You can’t put yourself above a man as a woman, you can only put yourself above a woman. As the debate over the term woman shows again. Whether you can still say a woman at all, whether a trans woman is a woman and so on. I like the discussion, which is mainly driven by a younger generation; I believe that all genders should be able to live on an equal footing. But it hasn’t even reached mainstream society that women and men should be able to live on an equal footing. And now the problem is split again: suddenly you have to write “women” with an asterisk, but no one has to write “men” with an asterisk. The discussion must again be conducted among the underprivileged. This is exactly what is shown in the movies.
“The Empress” is now on Netflix.
“Corsage” hits theaters October 6.
Source: Blick
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