Post by Dracula on Feb 19, 2023 14:14:30 GMT -5
Corsage(1/5/2023)
Today the word “Corsage” mostly refers to flowers that get pinned to peoples’ jackets but it can also be used to refer to “the waist or bodice of a dress,” which is what this title refers to and the specific kind of bodice in question is a corset, which the main character wears extensively and is something of a symbol of how her life is restrained and suffocating in the service of looking a certain way in the world. The film looks at the life of Queen Elisabeth of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, a woman married to Emperor Franz Joseph I circa 1871. She’s a very well-known figure in that part of the world but I’ll admit I was largely unfamiliar with the history before seeing the film. The movie’s poster, which features the empress giving the finger, suggested to me that this would be a sort of irreverent costume drama in the vein of something like The Favourite but it sort of plays a bit more reverently than I expected. There are anachronistic moments here including some musical decisions and some fudging about the year that the motion picture camera was invented but it’s not a particularly satiric film and one wouldn’t necessarily know it’s not playing things straight unless you’re paying close attention or know the history. And the movie most definitely is not playing straight, I was pretty surprised upon coming home and looking up the Elisabeth’s Wikipedia page to find that the film changed pretty major aspects of her life and not necessarily in the same “dramatic license” way you would normally expect from a movie, for instance the character’s eventual death in real life was in fact quite a bit more dramatic than what you see in the movie rather than less. I guess what they’re trying to do here is simply use this character to make a larger point about the pressures put on women in the public eye and makes Elisabeth into a sort of late 19th century Marilyn Monroe figure, which is kind of interesting I guess but it didn’t seem as outlandish when I was watching it and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of other movies telling similar stories about tragic women in history a little better. I’m not sure I full “got” this one, but the performances are solid and it kept my interest well enough.
*** out of Five
Today the word “Corsage” mostly refers to flowers that get pinned to peoples’ jackets but it can also be used to refer to “the waist or bodice of a dress,” which is what this title refers to and the specific kind of bodice in question is a corset, which the main character wears extensively and is something of a symbol of how her life is restrained and suffocating in the service of looking a certain way in the world. The film looks at the life of Queen Elisabeth of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, a woman married to Emperor Franz Joseph I circa 1871. She’s a very well-known figure in that part of the world but I’ll admit I was largely unfamiliar with the history before seeing the film. The movie’s poster, which features the empress giving the finger, suggested to me that this would be a sort of irreverent costume drama in the vein of something like The Favourite but it sort of plays a bit more reverently than I expected. There are anachronistic moments here including some musical decisions and some fudging about the year that the motion picture camera was invented but it’s not a particularly satiric film and one wouldn’t necessarily know it’s not playing things straight unless you’re paying close attention or know the history. And the movie most definitely is not playing straight, I was pretty surprised upon coming home and looking up the Elisabeth’s Wikipedia page to find that the film changed pretty major aspects of her life and not necessarily in the same “dramatic license” way you would normally expect from a movie, for instance the character’s eventual death in real life was in fact quite a bit more dramatic than what you see in the movie rather than less. I guess what they’re trying to do here is simply use this character to make a larger point about the pressures put on women in the public eye and makes Elisabeth into a sort of late 19th century Marilyn Monroe figure, which is kind of interesting I guess but it didn’t seem as outlandish when I was watching it and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of other movies telling similar stories about tragic women in history a little better. I’m not sure I full “got” this one, but the performances are solid and it kept my interest well enough.
*** out of Five
