Sissi y su destino

The last of the three Sissi movies continues with the idealized version of her story. Just like in Disneyland, no one ever ages and all ends well. This third film shows events that probably did happen sometime during her 45 years on the Austrian throne, but by now the overall story can only be called fiction. The second movie ended with the coronation of Sissi and Franz Josef as King and Queen of Hungary. That happened in 1867. By that time, Sissi gave birth to three children - Sophie in 1855, Gisela in 1856, and Rudolf in 1858. Her firstborn Sophie died in 1857. A fourth child, a daughter, was born in 1868. Yet this third film, presumably a continuation of the second film, shows the imperial couple visiting Venice, which happened in 1856, and shows only one child, a girl, who appears to be about 4. So the chronology is obviously all wrong here. While the illness she suffers from in this movie is based on fact, Sissie should have aged in the movie about two decades by the time these events were presented. I gave this movie a relatively low mark because of the many historical inaccuracies and omissions. In spite of these shortcomings, I still enjoyed the movie. This third movie includes some breathtaking scenery of the Mediterranean coastline, and the Venice visits appears to have been shot on location. One almost feels like a part of the crowd. Franz Josef likewise seems to be forever young and is not shown with the facial hair that distinguished him for most of his reign. He already sported the beard and mustache by the time he was crowned King of Hungary in 1867, so he should have had the facial hair already by the end of the second movie and throughout the entire third movie. But that would probably spoil the Prince Charming image the film makers were aiming for. This movie should be viewed more as a fairy tale that is loosely based on the life of the imperial Austrian family. It is not an historically accurate portrayal of their life story.

The final film in the Sissi trilogy - The Fateful Years of the Empress -- again stars Romy Schneider as Empress Elisabeth of Austria. These films are beloved by the European public, just as some of the Disney films we saw as children are to us.

As far as history goes, the movies are not very accurate, though they do show real events. Sissi and her husband are portrayed as very much in love, a very romantic couple, although that was not true. Also, for the purposes of this film, their daughter Sophie actually lives, and there aren't any other children. Actually the whole end of this film in Venice, in history, took place much later in Sissi's life, and her son Ludwig was present.

One interesting fact is that, as in the film, Sissi's brother married the actress Henriette Mendel, and she was made a Baroness. Their illegitimate daughter, who appears as a character in the movie, becomes Marie Larish. Marie Larish was the go-between for Elisabeth's son Ludwig and his fiancé Mary. After the Mayerling scandal, when Ludwig shoots Mary and then himself, it was learned that Marie served as go-between, and the family, including her close companion Sissi, completely disowned her.

During the time that Sissi spends in Hungary, there were rumors that Count Andrassy was her lover, but this was never proved. The film is so whitewashed that a liaison would never have occurred to Sissi. Sissi does become very ill -- they suspect tuberculosis -- and is sent to Madeira to recover. However, it is believed that her condition was very much psychosomatic -- she really didn't like being at the palace -- because, unlike in the film, when she arrived in Madeira, she had a miraculous recovery. In the film, she remains ill until her mother arrives and gets her walking, etc.

This film ends with the Emperor and Empress' triumphant appearance in Venice. Marischka planned on doing a fourth film, but Romy Schneider refused, turning down one million Deutschemarks. Schneider would become Elisabeth once more, in 1972, in the film Ludwig, playing the character closer to the real Sissi.

The costumes, the scenery, the pageantry in this film is spectacular. Romy Schneider is fresh and beautiful and luminous as Empress Elisabeth, not at all the dark, anorexic character described in history as time went on.

Sissi's end was tragic, as was Schneider's, but Europeans, so beaten down by war, were in the mood for something beautiful, and they got it with the Sissi films. She is such a beloved character there, like Princess Diana, audiences loved this view of her life.

To be enjoyed as a real feast for the eyes.

Like the first two Marischka movies ,and although nobody sings in these movies,they are closer to operetta than to cinema.Maudlin and syrupy to a fault,they nonetheless retain a kitsch charm.I must confess I love this exponentional schmaltz.History is given a rough ride,this is an euphemism,although most of the events that are depicted here did happen: Sissi's brother did marry an actress, a misalliance,and the adorable little girl whom Sissi's mother pampers would later be Marie Larish who would play a despicable prominent part in the Mayerling tragedy.The Hungarian part would occur later in Sissi's life,(her son Rudolf was present) and Andrassy's flame was purely fictional.

While watching such candid pictures ,listening to lessons in wisdom and kindness,we almost forget that Sissi's fate was in fact a very dark one,and that her husband was still here when WW1 broke out.Afgacolor pictures are delightful and the ending is guaranteed to make the impressionable use two boxes of Kleenex.

Romy Schneider made a volte face after Sissi the third.She turned down a one million marks offer,and despite her mother Magda -who plays her fictional mother and who was the star of Max Ophuls's "liebelei",left for broader horizons:she was to meet Visconti and Welles at the beginning of the sixties.A far cry from Sissi.She played "Sissi " again in 1972 in Viconti's "Ludwig" and she used to say that the Italian master was the only one who showed Elizabeth as she was.

But Sissi is a dear memory ,particularly if you saw it when you were a child.You remember it like some kind of fairy tale in some faraway magic kingdom where every dream can come true.Or something like that.

What a film: full colour (from Agfa), all those typical Austrian names and characters, beautiful and young Romy Schneider, but it is "Kitsch". The movie has nothing in common with real history, but served in the 50s an audience which tried to forget the war and nazism. They took the most wonderful scenes in Venice, when Sissis little daughter welcomes her mother arriving by gondola. Kitsch as kitsch can!

Pigeons spell out the Empress' nickname. 19-year-old Romy Schneider polishes off the last of the Hungarian resistance to her rule, and heads back to Vienna. However Dread Movie Disease strikes and it is only when she overhears her husband the Emperor saying he cares for nothing but her, that her back stiffens. This gives her the will to go to Madeira (actually Campania) for her health, but to no avail; it is only when her mother shows up and makes her climb mountains and go to Corfu that she recovers. Then it's back to Vienna, and the diplomatic grind.

(In reality, the Empress Elisabeth was a health nut who had gyms installed everywhere, and may have been bulimic. However, can't let that interfere with such beautiful nonsense.) Anyway, it's off to northern Italy, where they turn every snub to triumph in glorious Technicolor.

My reviews of this and the two earlier movies in this trilogy have been cynical, but that has been impelled by the utterly simple-minded fairy-tale nature of the movies. To look at a serious drama that considers real problems in some fashion commands my respect; to look at a comedy that mocks its subjects, even as it offers us reasons to love them, gives my ironic eye no crevice to slip a knife in. To look at these movies, which attempt to dazzle us with bright colors and easily proved lies, no matter how much I may wish for simple, nostalgic answers, offends my sensibilities, and always has. A sword's stroke may cut a Gordian knot, but it destroys the useful rope. That is something I understood even as a child. As much as we may wish it, there are no simple answers to complex questions. The illusion that there was a bright, shining Golden Age exists only in the minds of those who did not have to struggle with the problems of those ages.

Certainly Romy Schneider felt this, or something like this. Director Ernst Marischka wanted to make a fourth Sissi movie, but despite being offered a huge salary, Miss Schneider turned him down. She was anxious to get on to other, more interesting work.

This movie, like the previous two, is a lovely bit of fluff, full of bright colors, beautiful people in beautiful clothes in beautiful settings, doing things that must have had the folks in Vienna, out for a bit of strudel with some schlag after the show sighing for the good old days. Nowadays, of course, we sigh for that era.