Vicky Krieps Corsage Nude Scene (2022)

The most famous woman in the empire turns forty, and nobody at court will look her in the eye. So she goes to bed and makes her husband look.

Corsage (2022): Empress Elisabeth in bed, calling her husband over; frank full-frontal nudity (139s)

What happens in Corsage

Marie Kreutzer’s film catches Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the “Sisi” of a thousand chocolate boxes, around her fortieth birthday, semi-estranged from a philandering emperor and dieting obsessively to hold on to the only power anyone lets her have. Kreutzer uses modern music and cheerful anachronisms. Krieps, who also executive produced, uses her face.

About forty minutes in, Elisabeth makes a direct bid for her husband’s attention. She throws off the covers in front of him, fully nude, and asks him to come to bed. What follows is brief, happens mostly under the covers, and is more about her wanting to be wanted than about him. The nudity is frank and unglamorous, which is the point: an empress stripped of the corset is just a woman asking a question and not liking the answer.

The corset is the film’s other co-star. Krieps laced tight for the part and later told Deadline, “I wouldn’t do it again. I really see it as a mistake,” though she allowed that it’s now “part of the movie, and I guess part of the character.” She told Screen Slate that “the corset drained my body,” which is why this scene, the one moment she’s out of it, lands so hard. Filming ran from March to July 2021, when she was 37. The role brought her Cannes’s Un Certain Regard Best Performance Prize (shared that year with Adam Bessa) and Best Actress from the European Film Awards. It’s number one in our Vicky Krieps rankings. The same year brought her swim with Gaspard Ulliel in More Than Ever, which is warmer water altogether.

Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth in bed, Corsage (2022)

Film: Corsage (2022) · Cannes Un Certain Regard, May 20, 2022; U.S.: IFC Films · written and directed by Marie Kreutzer · Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria

All Vicky Krieps scenes

Back to the hub: Vicky Krieps nude: every scene, ranked.