Corsage

Empress Elisabeth is semi-estranged from Emperor Franz Joseph and marks her 40th birthday unhappily. She embarks on an obsessive routine of weight management as a way to reclaim agency over her life and appearance.

Elisabeth takes her daughter Marie Valerie on a nighttime ride, but Valerie falls ill afterward, straining the relationship between Elisabeth and Franz. The incident underscores the fragility of family harmony and Elisabeth's fraught dependence on her daughters for meaning.

Rudolf joins Elisabeth and Marie Valerie on a trip, giving Elisabeth a chance to escape the palace but also exposing her to new social temptations. The journey sets the stage for flirtations and vanity to surface more openly.

During the trip, Elisabeth amuses herself with a flirtation with her riding instructor Bay and enjoys a jaunt with aspiring filmmaker Louis Le Prince. The interactions reveal her vanity and craving for attention beyond her role as empress.

Bay rejects Elisabeth after recognizing her vanity, leaving her momentarily humiliated. The rejection deepens Elisabeth's sense of isolation and her need for external validation.

Elisabeth returns to Vienna and tries to physically reconnect with Franz Joseph, but she fails to rekindle their intimate life. The failed attempt widens the emotional distance between them and intensifies Elisabeth's loneliness.

Elisabeth hears rumors of Franz's affair with a much younger woman, fueling her insecurities and sense of political and personal vulnerability. The whispers compound her existing sense of exclusion from the emperor's life.

Rudolf leaves Vienna for Prague to begin his military education, creating further distance within the imperial family. Elisabeth's world narrows as the next generation prepares for its own paths.

Elisabeth expresses a desire to depart with Valerie, angering Franz. In the heated aftermath, she jumps from a window and survives with minor injuries, a dramatic act signaling her desperation.

She spends time with her cousin Ludwig II in Bavaria, seeking kinship and solace. The visit fails to lift her mood or alter the course of her discontent, highlighting the limits of personal escapes.

Franz finances an extension of the mental ward she frequently visits, a practical but uneasy gesture that underscores the strain in their marriage. Elisabeth's private struggles receive a public echo in imperial policy and care.

Elisabeth is prescribed heroin to ease her health woes, and she impulsively cuts her hair, a symbolic act of shedding the old constraints on her identity. The drug and the haircut reflect her pursuit of personal freedom despite medical risks.

Her lady-in-waiting Marie Festetics stands in for her in public, and Elisabeth commands Marie to restrict her diet as part of controlling her image. The arrangement shows how Elisabeth remains controlling even in absence of full presence.

Elisabeth invites Franz's rumored mistress to entertain the emperor regularly, blurring lines between personal life and political theater. The arrangement demonstrates Elisabeth's willingness to manipulate the dynastic public image for her own sense of power.

Elisabeth travels to Ancona with her ladies, including a veiled Marie, during which she jumps into the sea. The act epitomizes her ongoing defiance and search for liberation from constraints.