Corsage achieved an overall appreciation score of 62%. Many members found this enjoyable and thought provoking, while others found the film long and confusing. Some of the comments submitted:
- Shades of Peter Greenaway and a great central performance.
- I found this to be an excellent portrayal of a troubled and difficult, privileged character, who could not find her way in life, despite her wealth and status. She was always seeking for something, which she eventually found by giving herself to the sea, which she had stated to her cousin, was her preference for drowning. Even though in real life she was assassinated. Brilliant, intense acting from all characters. Especially Elizabeth. Fabulous insight into that royal existence at that time. Very enjoyable and thought provoking.
- Although not a factual retelling of Elizabeth’s story but perhaps because it was anachronistic and not wedded to the historical facts, it was both illuminating and fascinating with its take on feminity and celebrity. What a talent Vicky Krieps is!
- Quirky, funny, interesting twist to an enjoyable film.
- Subtly intricate storyline with a range of emotions. Funny and tragic, it conveyed a real sense of what it must feel like to be ‘corseted’ in all senses of the word.
- Not as good as I anticipated but a good film all the same, kept me engaged & some fine acting as well as lovely scenery.
- I knew nothing about this empress and found it quite difficult to sort out the different people at the start of the film. A lot of the sequences were overexposed, and and I did not see any reason for this. I was also surprised that many of the locations were rather shabby; I would have expected them to be pristine.
- Fascinating film. Wonderful settings, costumes, photography. Interesting to have a woman’s (the director) view of this historical figure. Not sure why she took such a liberty with the historical facts on the ending of her life though.
- Superbly performed and shot with delightful anachronisms and much implied rather than explicit meaning – to the point of occasionally seeming slow, under-written and even puzzling. The product of a very female sensibility.
- The theme of female imprisonment and restriction was hammered home so bluntly and so often, that it left the film feeling a touch one-note. That said, I enjoyed this insight into an imperial environment I knew little about, the cinematography was superb and, above all, Vicky Krieps’ central performance was brave, complex and utterly compelling.
- Overlong and thus a little dull at times. An interesting portrait of the lady.
- Didn’t find this particularly gripping and I’m not sure what it was trying to achieve with an awful lot of fiction in amongst a few snippets of truth.
- Beautifully put together but not comfortable with the creative liberties taken with an historical story. For me it didn’t convey the essence of Sissi, real or imagined, who was an aristo behaving as she pleased without any sense of purpose, so felt unable to empathise. A missed opportunity to tell a story in a fascinating period.
- Would have rated this film as poor but the sumptuous costumes and settings were great. The plot with its feminist undertones was very weak, in my opinion, and the mixing up of historical fact with whimsical additions from a modern era was pointless and annoying.
- Boring, too long what was it about? Weird use of pop music in a period drama. Ending reminded me of the scene from Titanic. A mishmash of stuff, signifying nothing.
- A silly, self-regarding piece of pretentious twaddle. A hymn of self-love to the writer/director/star, of no worth whatever either as entertainment or art.