Sissi

A schmaltzy but moving, lushly produced fairy tale which has nothing to do with the real Elisabeth von Oesterreich, who was, well, a quite complicated woman.

Young Romy Schneider rather sleepwalks thorough the lead but does it well. The pic was enormously successful and Romy quickly became Germany's most popular teenage star, with Heidi Bruehl of 'Immenhof' fame a close second. Though not as beautiful as Christine Kaufmann (shot to fame with the lurid child-in-distress cheapie 'Rosenresli') or as talented as Karin Baal (Germany's reigning bad girl after the runaway success in 'Die Halbstarken') Miss Schneider brought to it all the freshness and sparkle audience had come to expect from Magda Schneider's daughter.

I have seen these films over and over again, probably already more than fifty times. This is the first of a series of three Austrian films, produced in 1954 ("Sissi"), 1955 ("Sissi-die junge Kaiserin") and 1956 ("Sissi-Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin"), directed by Ernst Marishka, and are the epitome of total kitsch and enormously campy. I know that these films are almost unknown outside of continental Europe, but still, they are worth seeing! Played by a very young Romy Schneider - a role that stuck to her, much to her chagrin in later years. The trilogy is about the life of the Austrian Empress and Hungarian Queen Elizabeth (1837-1898) - or "Sissi" - in the first years of her marriage to the Austrian Emperor and 'Apostolic' King of Hungary Franz-Joseph I (1830-1916) - played by Karl-Heinz Böhm. Although the writers did fib frightfully with the historical truths (read for those "Elisabeth", the biography written by Brigitte Hamann), still, the sugar sweetness, the crinolines, the music and the grandeur of the scenes is breathtaking. However, my favourite character in the film is "Sissi's" mother-in-law, archduchess Sophie, played very ably by Vilma Degischer. Sophie is portrayed as a complete bitch of a woman (which in reality she was, after she managed to save the Habsburg monarchy single-handedly from the revolutionary mobs in 1848), something Joan Collins would be able to take lessons from... My most favourite scene is the closing scene of the third movie: "E viva la mama!" - where Sissi is reunited with her daughter on Venice's Piazza San Marco. Watch it, and have lots of handkerchiefs ready for use (if you're a closeted romantic like myself, that is!).

I certainly love the Sissi saga :everytime it's broadcast,I find myself watching for the umpteenth time these three films which the highbrows despise so much.

I read several biographies of the empress and it's stating the obvious to say it's fictionalized history (the right term would be "fairytaled" history for this first episode strongly recalls Cinderella).Romy Schneider did not think much of her part and she used to approve of Visconti's Elisabeth she played in "Ludwig" (1973).

"Sissi" is pure entertainment ;all the characters are endearing :the colonel provides a good comic relief ,Sophie is a perfect villainess,the witch, ,Ludovica the good fairy,Max the bon vivant,the swarm of children a foretaste of the "sound of music" -the Trapp were Austrian,weren't they?-and the lovers ,Franz and Sissi are as close as fairytale prince and princess as they can be.

I certainly love the Sissi saga.Down with the highbrows!

In one of those fictional Mitteleuropean kingdoms that Victorian writers were so fond of -- Graustark, Ruritania, Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, but here called Austria-Hungary -- the Emperor's mother arranges for her son to marry her sister's eldest daughter. When he meets her second daughter wandering in the woods, however, they fall in love.

The charming anti-Cinderella tale of Sissi is based on history, sort of, but it is brought to the screen in its fairy-tale glory with shots of Schonbrunn Castle, Bad Ischl, lavish sets and costumes and 15-year-old Romy Schneider. Its nostalgia for the dead glories of a lavish court life, stuffed-shirt bureaucrats -- Josef Meinrad has a very funny turn as the incompetent major in charge of security -- is certainly fun to look at, so long as we remember that it's just as unreal as any Disney feature cartoon, even if there are no singing mice. If only the characters in this one didn't look so real.....

I know these films are considered by some purported high-brows to be of low popular-art form and saccharine emotions. They have historical inaccuracies and pander to the idea of what should-have-been, rather than perhaps quite what was. But-man oh man-they are extremely well-made and extremely enjoyable. There is nothing wrong with these films on a visceral or visual level.

The production values in the sets and costumes and the magnificent outdoor locales makes these films really spectacular. But the very rich and cohesive performances by the cast are what keep these films alive. Above all Romy Schneider and Vilma Degischer as Sissi and Sofia playing the tension between the young empress and her formidable mother-in-law, are great to watch. Each has their own humanity and, actually, rich human qualities shine through in all of the other characters quite beautifully.

Karl-Heinz Boehm is excellent as the young emperor torn between his love for the fresh and lively Sissi and duty to his by-the-book mother. And Magda Schneider and Gustav Knuth are warm and sympathetic as Sissi's parents.

The restoration, recently performed on these films, has left them looking incredibly beautiful (on par with "Gone With the Wind"). And people are now able to enjoy these films in the U.S., as they have recently been sub-titled in English and given deluxe DVD transfers with bonus features. Apparently there was an assembled version made of all 3 films and dubbed-horribly-into English included in the set. But above all it is great to see them released here with a good translation and anexcellent DVD presentation.