The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is expanding its membership.
According to a press release, the organization that hands out Oscars each year at the Academy Awards has extended invitations to join the Academy to 398 artists and executives who have made notable contributions to the motion picture industry.
“The Academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership. They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a joint statement.
Read More: The Academy Announces 2024 Oscars Date As Well As Submission Deadline
There are some big names and familiar faces among the invitees, including musicians Taylor Swift and David Byrne, and numerous actors, ranging from Selma Blair to Keke Palmer to “Elvis” Oscar nominee Austin Butler.
According to a press release, the organization that hands out Oscars each year at the Academy Awards has extended invitations to join the Academy to 398 artists and executives who have made notable contributions to the motion picture industry.
“The Academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership. They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a joint statement.
Read More: The Academy Announces 2024 Oscars Date As Well As Submission Deadline
There are some big names and familiar faces among the invitees, including musicians Taylor Swift and David Byrne, and numerous actors, ranging from Selma Blair to Keke Palmer to “Elvis” Oscar nominee Austin Butler.
- 6/28/2023
- by Brent Furdyk
- ET Canada
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” Oscar winners Ke Huy Quan, Daniel Kwan, and Daniel Scheinert, recent acting nominees Austin Butler, Paul Mescal, and Stephanie Hsu, and bold-face names for the extremely online like Taylor Swift, Abel Tesfaye (a.k.a. The Weeknd), and Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav were among the 398 people announced as new members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday.
“The academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership. They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide,” said academy CEO Bill Kramer and academy president Janet Yang in a joint statement.
This year’s class of new members is heavy on 2022 breakouts, like the aforementioned Kwan and Scheinert – invitees in both the directors’ brand and the producers’ branch. In keeping with academy practice,...
“The academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership. They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide,” said academy CEO Bill Kramer and academy president Janet Yang in a joint statement.
This year’s class of new members is heavy on 2022 breakouts, like the aforementioned Kwan and Scheinert – invitees in both the directors’ brand and the producers’ branch. In keeping with academy practice,...
- 6/28/2023
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
It’s that time of year again — the break between Cannes and the fall festivals, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences makes its membership invitations. The Oscars group said today that it has extended offers to 398 artists and execs — one more than last year — who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to motion pictures.
The list includes actors, directors, writers, producers, musicians, executives, artist reps, publicists and below-the-liners such as casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, production designers and sound pros.
“The Academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in a statement. “They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide.”
As usual, the invitees include newly minted Oscar winners,...
The list includes actors, directors, writers, producers, musicians, executives, artist reps, publicists and below-the-liners such as casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, production designers and sound pros.
“The Academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in a statement. “They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide.”
As usual, the invitees include newly minted Oscar winners,...
- 6/28/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
This story about “Corsage” costume designer Monika Buttinger first appeared in the Below-the-Line issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage” depicts a year in the life of Elisabeth (Vicky Krieps), a 19th-century Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. As she approaches her 40th birthday, Elisabeth mounts an escalating rebellion against rules and expectations, which gives the story a distinctly modern feel.
When costume designer Monika Buttinger first read the script, she knew she wasn’t dealing with a “normal period piece,” but with something that required a different approach. “For me, it was clear that we had to work on a kind of fashionable interpretation for the actual viewers of the film,” she said. Buttinger started tinkering with a “special style” that honored both the character and the historical figure. “Elisabeth was really an influencer at her time,” she said. “She was an icon for decades,...
Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage” depicts a year in the life of Elisabeth (Vicky Krieps), a 19th-century Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. As she approaches her 40th birthday, Elisabeth mounts an escalating rebellion against rules and expectations, which gives the story a distinctly modern feel.
When costume designer Monika Buttinger first read the script, she knew she wasn’t dealing with a “normal period piece,” but with something that required a different approach. “For me, it was clear that we had to work on a kind of fashionable interpretation for the actual viewers of the film,” she said. Buttinger started tinkering with a “special style” that honored both the character and the historical figure. “Elisabeth was really an influencer at her time,” she said. “She was an icon for decades,...
- 1/3/2023
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Austria’s Oscar© 2023 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Corsage’ by Marie Kreutzer;Marie KreutzerA corsage is not a flower but a corset gripping the very guts of Sisi, the Empress of the Hapsburg Empire. Married at 16, by 40, hating aging and gaining weigh, Sisi pines away, never finding a pathway toward life.
Quite the opposite of my other favorite films of Cannes where it premiered along with Plus que jamais aka More Than Ever directed by Emily Atef and also starring a luminous Vicky Krieps, Revoir Paris aka ‘Paris Memorie by Alice Winocour and totally forgotten by now, and Un beau matin aka One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Love and starring Lea Seydoux in one of her best roles, where the female protagonists heed their inner voices to lead them on their unique pathways to peace. This film nevertheless features a top performance by Vicky Krieps (The Phantom Thread, Plus que jambs) for which she won the Cannes Award for Best Actress in a modern rendition of celebrity royalty.
Vicky Krieps, Luxembourg’s top star
Recalling Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette with its touches of modernism like in the songs sung for royal entertainment, or recalling the real life Princess Diana’s own futile quest for inner peace, Corsage stands on the brilliant direction by Marie Kreutzer who also wrote the screenplay. Beautiful cinematophy by Judith Kaufmann, striking music by Camille, superb editing by Ulrike Kofler. The costumes by Monika Buttinger are extraordinary! The attractive production design may be by another woman but it is uncredited in IMDb. In all, the crew is comprised of a majority of women.
Elisabeth has gone down in history as an empress of eternal youthfulness and beauty. For more than three decades she was regarded as the most beautiful queen in Europe. When Sisi married at 16, she was carefree and frivolous, and imagined herself in love with Emperor Franz Joseph who was head over heals in love with her.
In this rendition of her story, Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. In 1877 Christmas Empress turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman she starts trying to maintain her public image.
The glamour of her clothes and the portraits and sculptures of her are still intoxicating while in fact, and as shown in the film, to her, they were toxic reminders to her of lost youth.
Today her life is displayed as kitsch; just visit Vienna to see.
She spent hours each day in efforts to preserve her legendary beauty. Her most striking feature was her thick, ankle-length hair, the care of which required enormous expenditure of time. Franziska Feifalik, the empress’s personal hairdresser, skilfully contrived ingenious hairstyles, including the famous braided crown.
She expressed hardly any political opinions in the final decades of her life. Having put immense pressure on the emperor during the negotiations with Hungary for the Compromise by which the lands of the House of Habsburg were reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, a unpopular event, Elisabeth was forbidden by her husband to interfere in politics ever again. The event is eluded to in the course of telling the story of her progressive retreat from public life.
Elisabeth withdrew from the court and began to lead her own life according to her inclinations. This is where the film begins.
Watch the trailer here.
She spent hours on horseback, riding and dressage; she composed verses in the style of the German poet Heinrich Heine and she travelled frequently. In her apartment she had a gymnastic apparatus set up and performed a strenuous daily program of exercises, which scandalized the court.
After the tragic suicide of her son Rudolf in 1889 the empress only appeared in mourning on official occasions in the lands of the Monarchy and retreated into her grief. Black veils and fans completed the image of the grieving, withdrawn woman. In the film, we do not know of Rudolf’s death but we see her dressed in black and may wonder what precipitated that.
A few other questions remain unanswered in the film, like what were her deepest feelings about her husband and what were his about her? He had numerous mistresses, but their love making, when it finally happens, is both seductive and tender, and she chooses a proper mistress for him as if to replace her in his affections.
Most disappointing is her never finding a way of life for herself. Krieps’ depiction of a life with all exits but one cut off is deeply moving until one realizes that given all she had going for her, she was not able to grow in any way.
After its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it went on to play at the Munich International Film Festval, then going to the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and in September to the Toronto International Film Festival.
Isa MK2 has so far sold the film to Ifc for No. America, Ad Vitam for France, Alamode for Germany, Panda Lichtspiele for Austria, Angel for Denmark, Picturehouse for U.K. and Ireland, The Searchers for Benelux, Ascot Elite for Switzerland, Cirko for Hungary, European Film Forum Scanorama for the Baltics, Bim for Italy, Green Narae for So. Korea, Hooray for Taiwan.
From Screen:
The production company behind the film, Germany’s Komplizen Film has become the 10th member of The Creatives, an alliance of independent production companies that work together to co-produce, form strategic partnerships and share information and talent and buyer networks.They are looking at a three-year partnership for developing and funding select series with Fremantle.
Komplizen principals are Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade and Jonas Dornbach. It is one of the key players on the international arthouse film scene, working with directors including Radu Jude, Miguel Gomes, Nadav Lapid, Sonja Heiss and Valeska Griesbach as well as producing Ade’s own three features to date, including her 2016 international hit Toni Erdmann.
Their film was Nicolette Krebitz’s A E I O U — A Quick Alphabet Of Love in the Berlinale Competition in 2022. They have also co-produced Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, with the UK’s Shoebox Films.
In 2019, the company expanded into producing for television with the establishment of Komplizen Serien and went on to make the Frankfurt-based series Skylines for Netflix.
The other companies in The Creatives are Haut et Court (France), Good Chaos (UK), Lemming Film (Netherlands), Maipo Film (Norway), Masha (US), Razor Film (Germany) Spiro (Israel), Unité (France) and Versus Production (Belgium).
“We are happy and proud that our highly esteemed colleagues and also longtime friends from Komplizen Film are going to join the Creatives family,” said Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner, co-CEOs of the other German member Razor Film.
Komplizen Film’s Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach added that they were very much looking forward to joining forces with “a network of exquisite international and independent producers who share our visions in a rapid and dynamic industry.”...
Quite the opposite of my other favorite films of Cannes where it premiered along with Plus que jamais aka More Than Ever directed by Emily Atef and also starring a luminous Vicky Krieps, Revoir Paris aka ‘Paris Memorie by Alice Winocour and totally forgotten by now, and Un beau matin aka One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Love and starring Lea Seydoux in one of her best roles, where the female protagonists heed their inner voices to lead them on their unique pathways to peace. This film nevertheless features a top performance by Vicky Krieps (The Phantom Thread, Plus que jambs) for which she won the Cannes Award for Best Actress in a modern rendition of celebrity royalty.
Vicky Krieps, Luxembourg’s top star
Recalling Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette with its touches of modernism like in the songs sung for royal entertainment, or recalling the real life Princess Diana’s own futile quest for inner peace, Corsage stands on the brilliant direction by Marie Kreutzer who also wrote the screenplay. Beautiful cinematophy by Judith Kaufmann, striking music by Camille, superb editing by Ulrike Kofler. The costumes by Monika Buttinger are extraordinary! The attractive production design may be by another woman but it is uncredited in IMDb. In all, the crew is comprised of a majority of women.
Elisabeth has gone down in history as an empress of eternal youthfulness and beauty. For more than three decades she was regarded as the most beautiful queen in Europe. When Sisi married at 16, she was carefree and frivolous, and imagined herself in love with Emperor Franz Joseph who was head over heals in love with her.
In this rendition of her story, Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. In 1877 Christmas Empress turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman she starts trying to maintain her public image.
The glamour of her clothes and the portraits and sculptures of her are still intoxicating while in fact, and as shown in the film, to her, they were toxic reminders to her of lost youth.
Today her life is displayed as kitsch; just visit Vienna to see.
She spent hours each day in efforts to preserve her legendary beauty. Her most striking feature was her thick, ankle-length hair, the care of which required enormous expenditure of time. Franziska Feifalik, the empress’s personal hairdresser, skilfully contrived ingenious hairstyles, including the famous braided crown.
She expressed hardly any political opinions in the final decades of her life. Having put immense pressure on the emperor during the negotiations with Hungary for the Compromise by which the lands of the House of Habsburg were reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, a unpopular event, Elisabeth was forbidden by her husband to interfere in politics ever again. The event is eluded to in the course of telling the story of her progressive retreat from public life.
Elisabeth withdrew from the court and began to lead her own life according to her inclinations. This is where the film begins.
Watch the trailer here.
She spent hours on horseback, riding and dressage; she composed verses in the style of the German poet Heinrich Heine and she travelled frequently. In her apartment she had a gymnastic apparatus set up and performed a strenuous daily program of exercises, which scandalized the court.
After the tragic suicide of her son Rudolf in 1889 the empress only appeared in mourning on official occasions in the lands of the Monarchy and retreated into her grief. Black veils and fans completed the image of the grieving, withdrawn woman. In the film, we do not know of Rudolf’s death but we see her dressed in black and may wonder what precipitated that.
A few other questions remain unanswered in the film, like what were her deepest feelings about her husband and what were his about her? He had numerous mistresses, but their love making, when it finally happens, is both seductive and tender, and she chooses a proper mistress for him as if to replace her in his affections.
Most disappointing is her never finding a way of life for herself. Krieps’ depiction of a life with all exits but one cut off is deeply moving until one realizes that given all she had going for her, she was not able to grow in any way.
After its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it went on to play at the Munich International Film Festval, then going to the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and in September to the Toronto International Film Festival.
Isa MK2 has so far sold the film to Ifc for No. America, Ad Vitam for France, Alamode for Germany, Panda Lichtspiele for Austria, Angel for Denmark, Picturehouse for U.K. and Ireland, The Searchers for Benelux, Ascot Elite for Switzerland, Cirko for Hungary, European Film Forum Scanorama for the Baltics, Bim for Italy, Green Narae for So. Korea, Hooray for Taiwan.
From Screen:
The production company behind the film, Germany’s Komplizen Film has become the 10th member of The Creatives, an alliance of independent production companies that work together to co-produce, form strategic partnerships and share information and talent and buyer networks.They are looking at a three-year partnership for developing and funding select series with Fremantle.
Komplizen principals are Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade and Jonas Dornbach. It is one of the key players on the international arthouse film scene, working with directors including Radu Jude, Miguel Gomes, Nadav Lapid, Sonja Heiss and Valeska Griesbach as well as producing Ade’s own three features to date, including her 2016 international hit Toni Erdmann.
Their film was Nicolette Krebitz’s A E I O U — A Quick Alphabet Of Love in the Berlinale Competition in 2022. They have also co-produced Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, with the UK’s Shoebox Films.
In 2019, the company expanded into producing for television with the establishment of Komplizen Serien and went on to make the Frankfurt-based series Skylines for Netflix.
The other companies in The Creatives are Haut et Court (France), Good Chaos (UK), Lemming Film (Netherlands), Maipo Film (Norway), Masha (US), Razor Film (Germany) Spiro (Israel), Unité (France) and Versus Production (Belgium).
“We are happy and proud that our highly esteemed colleagues and also longtime friends from Komplizen Film are going to join the Creatives family,” said Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner, co-CEOs of the other German member Razor Film.
Komplizen Film’s Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach added that they were very much looking forward to joining forces with “a network of exquisite international and independent producers who share our visions in a rapid and dynamic industry.”...
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Corsage director/screenwriter Marie Kreutzer on the interactions between Sisi (Vicky Krieps), Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister), and King Ludwig II (Manuel Rubey): “Control is a big thing in the whole story for me.” Photo: Robert M Brandstaetter, courtesy IFC Films Release
Marie Kreutzer’s laser focus in Corsage is on Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria turning 40 years old. Vicky Krieps (Best Actress European Film Awards and Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Best Performance Award shared with Adam Bessa for Lotfy Nathan’s Harka) is in excellent form and up to the task of presenting to us the icon in all her idiosyncrasies.
Marie Kreutzer with Anne-Katrin Titze: “It was very important for me that the costumes as well as the production design would not just be romantic and luxurious …”
In the first instalment with Marie Kreutzer, we discuss her use of Camille’s song, She Was, her...
Marie Kreutzer’s laser focus in Corsage is on Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria turning 40 years old. Vicky Krieps (Best Actress European Film Awards and Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Best Performance Award shared with Adam Bessa for Lotfy Nathan’s Harka) is in excellent form and up to the task of presenting to us the icon in all her idiosyncrasies.
Marie Kreutzer with Anne-Katrin Titze: “It was very important for me that the costumes as well as the production design would not just be romantic and luxurious …”
In the first instalment with Marie Kreutzer, we discuss her use of Camille’s song, She Was, her...
- 12/14/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
After winning the 1998 Thalberg Award, Norman Jewison told the press backstage: “The broader the Academy reaches for artistic excellence in filmmaking, the more important it becomes. Hollywood can’t isolate itself. We’re not the only talented people in the world.”
It’s taken a long time, but Academy voters and the U.S. film industry are heeding Jewison’s advice.
This year, dozens of countries have submitted entries for the international film competition. A few of them have gone beyond that, looking for (deserved) recognition in other races.
That includes several international film entries, such as Austria’s “Corsage”; Belgium’s “Close”; Cambodia’s “Return to Seoul”; Denmark’s “Holy Spider”; Germany’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”; India’s “The Last Film Show”; Mexico’s “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”; Poland’s “Eo”; and South Korea’s “Decision to Leave.”
Countries outside the U.
It’s taken a long time, but Academy voters and the U.S. film industry are heeding Jewison’s advice.
This year, dozens of countries have submitted entries for the international film competition. A few of them have gone beyond that, looking for (deserved) recognition in other races.
That includes several international film entries, such as Austria’s “Corsage”; Belgium’s “Close”; Cambodia’s “Return to Seoul”; Denmark’s “Holy Spider”; Germany’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”; India’s “The Last Film Show”; Mexico’s “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”; Poland’s “Eo”; and South Korea’s “Decision to Leave.”
Countries outside the U.
- 12/8/2022
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
‘Corsage’ Plays Cannes 2022A corsage is not a flower but a corset gripping the very guts of Sisi, the Empress of the Hapsburg Empire. Married at 16, by 40, hating aging and gaining weigh, Sisi pines away, never finding a pathway toward life. Quite the opposite of my other favorite films of Cannes, ‘Plus que jamais’/ ‘More Than Ever’, ‘Revoir Paris’ / ‘Paris Memories’ and ‘Un beau matin’/ ‘One Fine Morning’, where the female portagonists heed their inner voices to lead them on their unique pathways to peace, this film nevertheless features a top performance of Vicky Krieps (‘Plus que jamais’, ‘The Phantom Thread’) in a modern rendition of celebrity royalty.
Recalling Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette with its touches of modernism like the songs sung for royal entertainment, or recalling the real life Princess Diana’s own futile quest for inner peace, Corsage stands on its own brilliant direction by Marie Kreutzer, cinematophy by…, set design, costume design, screen writing and music.
When Sisi married at 16, she was carefree and frivolous, and imagined herself in love with Emperor Franz Joseph who was head over heals in love with him.
Elisabeth has gone down in history as an empress of eternal youthfulness and beauty. For more than three decades she was regarded as the most beautiful queen in Europe. She expressed hardly any political opinions in the final decades of her life, and she had withdrawn almost entirely from public life.
Her life today is displayed as kitsch; just visit Vienna to see. The glamour of her clothes and the portraits and sculptures of her still are still intoxicating while in fact, and as shown in the film, they were toxic.
In this rendition of her story, Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. In 1877 Christmas Empress turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman she starts trying to maintain her public image.
Watch the trailer here.
Having put immense pressure on the emperor during the negotiations with Hungary for the Compromise by which the lands of the House of Habsburg were reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, a unpopular event, Elisabeth was forbidden by her husband to interfere in politics ever again.
Consequently Elisabeth withdrew from the court and began to lead her own life according to her inclinations. This is where the film begins. She spent hours on riding and dressage, composed verses in the style of the German poet Heinrich Heine and travelled frequently. In her apartment she had gymnastic apparatus set up and performed a strenuous daily program of exercises, which scandalized the court.
She spent hours each day in efforts to preserve her legendary beauty. Her most striking feature was her thick, ankle-length hair, the care of which required enormous expenditure of time. Franziska Feifalik, the empress’s personal hairdresser, skilfully contrived ingenious hairstyles, including the famous braided crown.
After the tragic suicide of her son Rudolf in 1889 the empress only appeared in mourning on official occasions in the lands of the Monarchy and retreated into her grief. Black veils and fans completed the image of the grieving, withdrawn woman. In the film, we do not know of Rudolf’s death but we see her dressed in black and may wonder what precipitated that.
A few other questions remain unanswered in the film, like what were her deepest feelings about her husband and what were his about her? He had numerous mistresses, but their love making, when it finally happens, is both seductive and tender, and she chooses a proper mistress for him as if to replace her in his affections.
Most disappointing is her never finding a way of life for herself. Krieps’ depiction of a life with all exits but one cut off is deeply moving until one realizes that given all she had, she was not able to grow in any way. The costumes by Monika Buttinger are extraordinary!
After its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it went on to play at the Munich International Film Festval, then going to the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and in September to the Toronto International Film Festival.
Isa MK2 has so far sold the film to Ifc for No. America, Ad Vitam for France, Alamode for Germany, Panda Lichtspiele for Austria, Angel for Denmark, Picturehouse for U.K. and Ireland, The Searchers for Benelux, Ascot Elite for Switzerland, Cirko for Hungary, European Film Forum Scanorama for the Baltics, Bim for Italy, Green Narae for So. Korea, Hooray for Taiwan.
Recalling Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette with its touches of modernism like the songs sung for royal entertainment, or recalling the real life Princess Diana’s own futile quest for inner peace, Corsage stands on its own brilliant direction by Marie Kreutzer, cinematophy by…, set design, costume design, screen writing and music.
When Sisi married at 16, she was carefree and frivolous, and imagined herself in love with Emperor Franz Joseph who was head over heals in love with him.
Elisabeth has gone down in history as an empress of eternal youthfulness and beauty. For more than three decades she was regarded as the most beautiful queen in Europe. She expressed hardly any political opinions in the final decades of her life, and she had withdrawn almost entirely from public life.
Her life today is displayed as kitsch; just visit Vienna to see. The glamour of her clothes and the portraits and sculptures of her still are still intoxicating while in fact, and as shown in the film, they were toxic.
In this rendition of her story, Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. In 1877 Christmas Empress turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman she starts trying to maintain her public image.
Watch the trailer here.
Having put immense pressure on the emperor during the negotiations with Hungary for the Compromise by which the lands of the House of Habsburg were reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, a unpopular event, Elisabeth was forbidden by her husband to interfere in politics ever again.
Consequently Elisabeth withdrew from the court and began to lead her own life according to her inclinations. This is where the film begins. She spent hours on riding and dressage, composed verses in the style of the German poet Heinrich Heine and travelled frequently. In her apartment she had gymnastic apparatus set up and performed a strenuous daily program of exercises, which scandalized the court.
She spent hours each day in efforts to preserve her legendary beauty. Her most striking feature was her thick, ankle-length hair, the care of which required enormous expenditure of time. Franziska Feifalik, the empress’s personal hairdresser, skilfully contrived ingenious hairstyles, including the famous braided crown.
After the tragic suicide of her son Rudolf in 1889 the empress only appeared in mourning on official occasions in the lands of the Monarchy and retreated into her grief. Black veils and fans completed the image of the grieving, withdrawn woman. In the film, we do not know of Rudolf’s death but we see her dressed in black and may wonder what precipitated that.
A few other questions remain unanswered in the film, like what were her deepest feelings about her husband and what were his about her? He had numerous mistresses, but their love making, when it finally happens, is both seductive and tender, and she chooses a proper mistress for him as if to replace her in his affections.
Most disappointing is her never finding a way of life for herself. Krieps’ depiction of a life with all exits but one cut off is deeply moving until one realizes that given all she had, she was not able to grow in any way. The costumes by Monika Buttinger are extraordinary!
After its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it went on to play at the Munich International Film Festval, then going to the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and in September to the Toronto International Film Festival.
Isa MK2 has so far sold the film to Ifc for No. America, Ad Vitam for France, Alamode for Germany, Panda Lichtspiele for Austria, Angel for Denmark, Picturehouse for U.K. and Ireland, The Searchers for Benelux, Ascot Elite for Switzerland, Cirko for Hungary, European Film Forum Scanorama for the Baltics, Bim for Italy, Green Narae for So. Korea, Hooray for Taiwan.
- 11/11/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Austria, World premiere, Competition, directed by Marie Kreutzer (fourth feature) and starring slim, austerely sexy, Valerie Pachner in a lesbian tale disguised as a workaholic drama that grinds the viewer down into submission, little by little.Director and cast on the Red Carpet
It would have been better placed in the Lgbt Teddy section although it is as strong overall as many other competition entries. If you’ve wondered how lesbians get it on one of the bedroom scenes demonstrates that the Missionary Position is at least one favored technique. The two lovers, both slim blondes, look so much alike I couldn’t quite tell who was on top but it was definitely a hot scene that ended in a screaming orgasm for the supine member that looked totally authentic and not the least bit faked (as it were).
Of course there is lots more to this movie than the all female sex but,...
It would have been better placed in the Lgbt Teddy section although it is as strong overall as many other competition entries. If you’ve wondered how lesbians get it on one of the bedroom scenes demonstrates that the Missionary Position is at least one favored technique. The two lovers, both slim blondes, look so much alike I couldn’t quite tell who was on top but it was definitely a hot scene that ended in a screaming orgasm for the supine member that looked totally authentic and not the least bit faked (as it were).
Of course there is lots more to this movie than the all female sex but,...
- 2/18/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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