Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sissi, celebrated her 40th birthday on December 24, 1877. Wife of Emperor Franz Joseph 1er, she is unhappy in her marriage. She is obsessed with her weight and her beauty. She hardly eats anymore, and tightens her corset until she hurts herself and faints.
She does not like the strict protocol of the Viennese court, prefers to ride a horse and travel, forgetting this image of perfection. She wishes for a life where her opinion would be asked, but silence, constraints and the care of her long hair and hairstyle made up of braids, which made her fame, are imposed on her.
For nearly two hours, the Austrian director Marie Kreutzer shows us this woman through her melancholy, her travels, her visits to hospitals. We also follow her in her intimacy, in her difficult relationships with her husband, her children and her companions, with whom she is frankly not pleasant. The actress Vicky Krieps carries the film on her shoulders, she also won the interpretation prize at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un certain regard section, in 2022. She is simply masterful.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY IFC FILMS
scene of Bodice
We are very far from the young Sissi by Romy Schneider who made an impression in Ernst Marischka’s fictional trilogy, produced in the 1950s. Netflix launched the series last fall The Empress where Elisabeth of Austria is darker and more rebellious.
Marie Kreutzer directs a tragic film, with a delightfully modern soundtrack signed by the singer and musician Camille. The director allows herself a few anachronisms and liberties, a bit like Sofia Coppola with her Marie Antoinettebut in a much more austere way.
Despite some small lengths, Bodice is a moving film, depressing even, but captivating.
Bodice is presented in the original multilingual version with French or English subtitles.
Indoors
Bodice
Marie Kreutzer
With Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz
1:53 a.m.
Indoors