In the new film Corsage out today, Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps takes on the role of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, a “woman trapped inside an image of herself”
magazine cover, flipping the bird at viewers.) She is no one’s idea of a ‘feminist ally’ to her courtly retinue, forbidding her closest confidante to marry because “you’re the only one who understands me as I am”. She is also monstrously obsessed with her own image, hence the ‘corsage’ of the title – Elisabeth was famous for wearing painfully tight corsets to maintain her tiny waist.
“It is so beautiful you say that because when we were making the movie they didn’t want to finance it because they said the character is not likeable enough,” says Krieps, who winces at the idea of Elisabeth as a 19th century feminist, and has a natural European’s disregard for ‘girlboss’ caricaturing. “The way I acted [the role] was really the cherry on top; I remember doing so, thinking this is never going to work, but at the same time secretly believing in the audience and that it would work.
But if Elisabeth’s charitable endeavours can be seen as a product of her narcissism as well as her compassion, her suffering is no less real for it, often rooted in past misfortunes which may not always be apparent to those unfamiliar with her story.
Through many of Krieps’ defining roles, there is a sense of wanderlust, of characters figuring out a way to impose themselves on the world they are confronted with. Much of her best work reckons with female agency and toxic masculinity, but is never content with merely pointing the finger; instead, it seems to hint at a way out of our current #MeToo impasse, imagining new ways for people to live together.
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