movie
“corsage”
Corset
Where it is screened: Lev Cinema
genre: historical drama
Duration of the movie: 112 min
Direction and script: Marie Kreutzer
Actors: Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katrina Lorenz
language: Hungarian, English, German, French
ticket price: 42-46 shekels
IMDB Score:
6.7/10 (from 5,600 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes Score:
85% – visitors, 58% – audience
“Corsage”, Marie Kreutzer’s film, goes back to Elisabeth, Empress of Austria (1837-1898) known as “Sisi”, and examines her moves and concepts that were decades ahead of their time.
The Luxembourgish actress, Vicky Krieps, who won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in the film, plays Sissy, who is celebrating her fortieth birthday. She is obsessed with the outward appearance that wears down over the years and the preservation of her public image, and as she enters a new decade of her life, she seeks to expand her influence on the kingdom. On a cross-country journey, she visits lovers, family and friends, and breaks the conventions to which she is firmly committed from her high position.
The context for reality
Although her older sister, Helena, was destined to marry the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph, it was Elizabeth who captured his heart, when she was 15. It is said that from her first day in the palace, she became the object of admiration in Austrian society, but felt trapped in a life she did not ask for. The death of her first daughter, Sophie, named after her mother-in-law who molested her, exacerbated her mental condition, and she began to travel more to Hungary and develop hobbies that are not appropriate for an empress such as smoking and riding horses, which made her a symbol of female independence.
Parts of the film’s plot match Sisi’s real story, such as the fact that she was obsessed with her waistline and long hair and suffered from depression and eating disorders. But there are parts that the director changed. The main one is the way in which Elizabeth, who was murdered on the shores of Lake Geneva by an assassin when she was 60 years old, ends her life.
the cinematic context
Empress Elizabeth was the subject of many works in the 20th century. One of the most prominent of them is the trilogy of films created by the Austrian director Ernst Marischke over the years
1955-1957, in which the Austrian actress Romi Schneider played the princess. The fifties also saw the publication of “Sissy”, a novel by Elizabeth Birna, which became a bestseller and was translated into many languages. Last year, Netflix launched the German-speaking mini-series “The Empress”, which unfolds the story of her turbulent life.
2 things you should know
● Florian Teichtmeister, who plays Emperor Franz Joseph in the film, is accused of possessing over 58,000 child pornographic images. Last January his partner found some of the photos on his phone and contacted the police. Following the charges, the oldest chain of cinemas in Austria, Cineplexx, took the film off the screening schedule.
● The star of the film, Vicky Krieps, is the one who suggested Kreutzer make the film about Sissy. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said that at first Kreutzer was not interested, because in Austria, the country of her birth, Sissy is considered an engineered merchandise item. But after their meeting, Kreutzer read about Sissy, and decided to write the script in secret. When she finished it, she sent it to Cripps with a postcard saying “Well, I guess you were right.”
Why did we choose him?
“Corsage” is not another period film. He takes the viewer on a historical journey, while combining modern music with photographs simulating the 19th century. But it seems that the cinematic language in this film is only a shell for Kreips’ acting, which holds the film on her shoulders with genius and manages to convey at every moment the rebellion, pain and complexity of the Austrian empress.
exhibition
“For the Hallucination”
Uri Lifshitz
Place: Uri Lifshitz building
Address: 2 Abarbanal St., Tel Aviv
Activity time: Thursday: 16:00-20:00, Saturday: 10:00-14:00
phone: 052-4268566
site: www.urilifshitz.com
At the end of February, “Bead the Illusion” opened, an exhibition of paintings by Uri Lifshitz (1936-2011), which includes twenty-one works by the artist – large paintings alongside small paper works. His paintings are expressive and dramatic, and they are good at depicting physical and mental struggles, while combining political content. The exhibition opened in the Uri Lifshitz building on Abarbanal Street in Tel Aviv. This is where the artist’s studio was located, and today it serves as a gallery and research center for his work. Lifshitz is one of the most well-known, prominent and influential artists in Israeli art, who exhibited in all the most important galleries and museums, and was active in various artistic settings , including “Ten Plus”, and participated in the Biennale of Sao Paulo in the seventies. Today his paintings are included in the collections of the main art institutions in Israel. The price of his works ranges from 3,000 to 50,000 dollars.
Uri Lifshitz, “Rabinovich”, 1973 / Photo: Elad Sharig
The literary influences on Lifshitz’s works
The exhibition examines the influence of literature on Lifshitz’s work. The portrait of the writer and poet Yotam Reuvani is displayed there
(1949-2021) that the artist painted in 1978, close to the publication of Reuveni’s book “Bead Hezi” from which the name of the exhibition is taken. The novel is considered a breakthrough in Israeli literature due to its direct engagement with LGBT people, at a time when homosexual relations were prohibited by law. In a way reminiscent of the style of the book, also in Lifshitz’s paintings, the body is, at the same time, earthly and heavenly, fleshy and imaginary.