Marie Kreutzer, a director not “Sissi” empress than that

Hardly had the discussion with the Austrian Marie Kreutzer begun, than one can guess a touch of playfulness in her. The director of Bodice recognizes it without boasting: his film, which revisits the tragic destiny of Empress Sissi, raised a beautiful wave of emotion at the last Cannes Film Festival. This does not mean that she defends period films with crinolines and frou-frou dresses. “I’m not a big fan of costume films, she announces immediately. I often find that the creativity of these romantico-historical feature films is drowned in the party favors and the lace.

With her black curly hair, her beige wool sweater with a round neck and her large glasses, Marie Kreutzer, 45, has the charm of those who cannot keep their tongue in their pocket for long. “In fact, it’s Vicky Krieps with whom I had just shot We Used to Be Cool who suggested that I make a film about Empress Sissi, she says. It was in 2015. Initially…