‘Corsage’: homage to a royal of the distant past

Above : Vicky Krieps stars as the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in the film “Corsage,” which opens Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. (Photo/IFC Films)

Every generation exhibits its fascination with the notion of royalty. Just look at today’s headlines involving the British royals, both those who still wear crowns and those who have separated themselves so as to live a more “normal” life.

The former, of course, refers to King Charles, Prince William and their respective families. Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle comprise the latter.

In the 19th century, royals were much more in fashion. One in particular, the Bavarian-born Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie , served as the Empress of Austria for a total of 44 years. Because of her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I, she also was Queen of Hungary.

It is Elizabeth who is the focus of “Corsage,” a movie that is scheduled to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. Written and directed by the Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer (“The Ground Beneath My Feet”), the film stars Vicky Krieps as the empress.

Tara Brady of the Irish Times wrote, “‘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.”

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Overall, ‘Corsage’ shows a tantalizing way forward for the hopelessly staid biopic genre: honoring, provoking and upending with verve and humor as it liberates a complex woman from iconography’s deadening glamour.”

Nell Minnow of RogerEbert.com wrote, “The sumptuous settings, elegiac tone, and Krieps’ layered performance bring us into the world of this woman caught between the expectations of her culture and her own desires.”

Wow. It’s almost as if Elizabeth and her crowd, including the Britroyals, were appointed by some deity or something.

And by “deity” I mean, of course, the media.