Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe

This mini TV-serial is a dramatic retelling of the life and death of Kronprinz Rudolf von Habsburg, who committed suicide together with his love, Baroness Mary Vetsera, in the infamous small castle at Mayerling. There have been various films about this subject, even a Hollywood production starring Catherine Deneuve and Omar Sharif as Rudolf, who is also part of this recent production as a painter and friend of Rudolf, but they all stressed the romantic subtext of the events and largely ignored the political and personal conflicts which made Rudolf do what he did. But this new film version of the story really does include quite a lot of Rudolf's personal and political background and in the end portrays him as one of the first to imagine an united and peaceful Europe, an idea his time and age wasn't yet ready for.

Direction and photography of the lavish sets are very well done considering this is just a TV production. The cast consists of mostly well known Austrian or German actors who all do a great job, but also includes Omar Sharif and Sandra Ceccarelli as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who possibly (next to the actor playing Rudolf) gives the best performance of this movie. Being cast as Elisabeth of Austria always involves carrying the heavy burden of Romy Schneider's great performance in Viscontis "Ludwig II", but Ms. Ceccarelli not only has the very well done script which portrays Elisabeth as a multi-faceted person on her side, but also her interesting face and her talent.

All in all it's funny to compare this Austrian TV-event with its recent German counterpart, the mini TV-serial "Störtebeker", which was big fun to watch but not only lacked good direction and photography, but also the depth and talent behind it that "Kronprinz Rudolf" obviously has.

Basically a Hallmark version of a tragic story of royal mental illness during the 19th century. The lead male is pretty to look at. Sets and costumes are good. Ride with inaccuracies.

Basically a Hallmark version of a tragic story of royal mental illness during the 19th century. The lead male is pretty to look at. Sets and costumes are good. Ride with inaccuracies.

Basically a Hallmark version of a tragic story of royal mental illness during the 19th century. The lead male is pretty to look at. Sets and costumes are good. Ride with inaccuracies.

Basically a Hallmark version of a tragic story of royal mental illness during the 19th century. The lead male is pretty to look at. Sets and costumes are good. Ride with inaccuracies.

Mary Vetsera was merely a child, 17 years old, at the time of the Mayerling incident. Could they really not find a more suitable actress to portray her, than a 27 years old Vittoria Puccini? She was much older than Daniela Golpashin, who portrayed Rudolf's wife, for chrissake.

Especially because of Sandra Ceccarelli we - my wife as a long year Sisi collector and Sisi-researcher and co-author with me for a book about the Empress - awarded nine stars. In our opinion, she is the best actress of the elderly Empress Elisabeth of Austria of all films ever made about her. There were also some good actresses - for example Daniela Ziegler. But Sandra Ceccarelli comes very close to the Empress in her appearance. She is also slim and slightly taller than the Emperor in the film, which is historically correct. Very well presented by Klaus Maria Brandauer. Marie was married to Count Larisch from 1877 to 1897 and was consequently a Countess Larisch at the time of the Mayerling tragedy. She played a bigger role in the affair than shown in the film. There was a heated conversation between Rudolf and Marie shortly before the double suicide. Rudolf wanted to send Mary away in Mayerling. He already had a carriage prepared for them. But Mary really wanted to stay. But Robert Dornhelm has made again a good historically movie. The movie is supposed to be an example for a good new film about the Empress Elisabeth, which nobody has managed to do since the Marischka trilogy "Sissi".

Post scriptum: There has also not been a film about Countess Larisch, born as Mendel, ennobled as Wallersee. She was Empress Elisabeth's favorite niece but fell out of favor with her because of the Mayerling affair and she rejected her.

In trying to spin a script around Rudolf's vague attempts to carve out a role for himself in some kind of grandiose "one world" escape from the Dual Monarchy, the script writers reveal the truth about Rudolf.

He was exactly as his father's ministers thought he was and his father Franz Josef feared he was, a weak, indecisive, self-indulgent nitwit, who hadn't the courage of his convictions or the ones he so easily adopted in lieu of his own thinking.

Von Thun as Rudolf does a lovely job of conveying all this. In a nutshell an heir to the throne who can't have children because he passed on his VD to his wife and made her sterile, while having affairs with a mother and her daughter... and rewarding the familial devotion by taking the star-struck daughter along in his suicide.

If you love costumes and Viennese architecture and interior design enough, you may wish to endure the show (or you can sneak back and watch the Sissi trilogy which is now up on Netflix Roku). And there is some very nice acting by some of the minor characters.

This is about as dramatic and predictable as watching sand run through an hour glass.