Sissi

A very young and innocent girl marries the powerful ruler of the most powerful empire on earth. Why? Because she loves him dearly. If that is not sweet. And it is also not far from the truth. Of course it helps that she was a little princess - only of Bavaria but of royal blood (I think). Of course everybody loved her - well, she got killed by someone eventually, but that is not in the film and it does not prove anything anyway. If you know Romy Schneider only from her later (mostly French) films do not even try to imagine how beautiful and charming, well sweet she was. She made two sequels. All three films will be valued as the highest art in the million years to come by anyone who can enjoy a fairy tale.

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!).

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.

Maybe because this isn't an american film, there were so few comments and votes, and there isn't a photograph. But this is one of the greatest bavarian classics for all time, and maybe is the sweetest and famous films for all the family of the golden period (forget little women or Gigi. If this movie was made in America maybe today will be even more famous than the wizard of Oz). Even that this movie today is too cursi and all fashion, Romy Schneider beauty and precoz talent still shine (she was 16 when she made SISSI). She had chemistry with her the emperor.the movie has three sequels, Magda Schenider shines in the third part (with an excellent chemistry with her daughter in film and real life), but in this are the "battle scenes" between Sissi and her mother in Law that are grate to see again Too sweet but a classic

I am well familiar with the story of the Empress Elizabeth. While the basic facts are all here, the story may have been both simplified and sweetened to present it in a movie. However, the end result is a thoroughly delightful and strongly idealized version of historical events. Both Sissi and the emperor are presented as extremely likable, visually appealing characters, interacting in a fairly-like story. The entire movie plays like a fairy tale and is visually very appealing. The majestic beauty of the Bavarian scenery contrasts with the opulent setting of the Viennese court. The costumes, manners, music, dances - all true to the period. I did not expect to like it as much as I did and would recommend it to all lovers of historical drama and 19th century Austrian history in particular.