Win tickets to see CORSAGE, opening Friday! Vicky Krieps is superb as Empress Elizabeth of Austria

Vicky Krieps is Superb as Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 'CORSAGE' 

No ordinary period drama: Marie Kreutzer's brilliantly inventive portrait of a royal rebel

By Tara Brady, Irish Times                                              Dec 27, 2022



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One can’t help but hold one’s breath – almost to the point of passing out! – while watching Vicky Krieps getting laced into impossibly rigid leather corsets. It’s not what you think.

In Marie Kreutzer’s innovative and superb historical drama, the Phantom Thread star plays Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the beloved 19th-century monarch whose 1898 assassination – an event transmogrified by Kreutzer’s script – was part of an escalating sequence that led to the first World War.

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With Corsage, we don’t get as far as the ballet-inspiring 1889 murder-suicide of her only son and his lover at Mayerling, or her 44 years on the throne: we instead get a very gilded cage.

Fast approaching 40, an age that, as her physician reminds her, is already above the average life expectancy among her woman subjects, the empress goes to extraordinary lengths to maintain her figure and youthful looks.

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Many moments in Corsage are gleefully anachronistic: a stable hand plays 'Help Me Make It Through The Night' on the ukulele, electric lighting illuminates the dining hall, a rude finger gesture is made in the direction of the Hungarian statesman Gyula Andrássy and the emperor.

The punishing diet and exercise regime favoured by Elisabeth in the movie – gymnastics, fencing, horse riding, meals consisting of a thin slice of orange – are historically accurate.

In a life that is as constricting as its torturous undergarments, keeping her weight under 50kg was one of the only areas over which Elisabeth – or Sissy as she was known – had any control.

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“Your duty is to merely represent,” her husband insists. Her attempts to discuss Sarajevo at the dinner table meet disapproval and anger. A tour around the wards of a mental asylum mirrors the actions of a more recent famously stifled princess.

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Corsage shares some obvious DNA with Pablo Larraín’s Spencer and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, but where those films swoon for their put-upon heroines, Krieps brings an unapologetic flintiness. Kreutzer’s inventive fifth feature is complemented by the cinematographer Judith Kaufman’s original high-angled dinner tables and low-angled horses. This exhilarating, beautiful, inventive film, with its great depth of colour and luminous cinematography by Judith Kaufmann, shows us a woman determined to live, or die, on her own terms.

Take that, The Crown.

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Watch the trailer to win a pair of tickets to see CORSAGE!

Question from the trailer:
What do lions not lose sleep over?

Send your answer to [email protected]. We will notify 2 lucky winners on Friday!

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Opens Jan 6 at the Twin!
NR

A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.

Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. But in 1877, 'Sissi' celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter.

No screenings currently scheduled.

Opens the Twin Jan 20! Get tickets!

14A

An all-star ensemble delivers some of the best performances of the year, in Oscar-nominated writer-director Sarah Polley’s fearless adaptation of Miriam Toews’ acclaimed novel.

WINNER for Oscars 2023 Best Adapted Screenplay! Nominated for Best Picture. 

No screenings currently scheduled.

Tickets going fast!

Sold out! We are thrilled to be welcoming back DAVID FRANCEY to the Original stage!

David Francey is a Scottish-born Canadian carpenter-turned-songwriter, who has become known as “one of Canada’s most revered folk poets and singers” (Toronto Star).

A truly authentic folk singer, Francey had the honour of receiving the prestigious SOCAN Folk Music Award as well as multiple Juno Awards and Canadian Folk Music Awards. 

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