#Sissi Fateful Years of an Empress

[wardrobeoftime]

The Sissi Trilogy + Costumes

Ludovika, The Duchess in Bavaria's white & purple dress in Sissi - The Young Empress (1956) & Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (1957).

// requested by @thatmawe

[kdram-chjh]

Movies: Sissi (1955); Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin (1956) & Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) | dir. by Ernst Marischka

Sissi #classiccinema #romyschneider

Watch this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N4x_LbBx9A

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Sissi — Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) [Sissi — Fateful Years of an Empress]

This was a good one! I was worried that it would end with Elisabeth's assassination and that I would have trouble writing a review in light of a certain unprecedented event which completely threw me off my groove, but it didnt, so that was good i guess

The plot was pretty all over the place, it starts with Elisabeth hanging out in Hungary with Gyula Andrássy and asking him to invite Count Batthyani (who swore to never give the imperial family the time of day because the emperor gave the order to execute his father) to his house so that she can talk to him on neutral ground and make peace with him. And she does! Kind of? Idk, she starts having some weird pains so she returns to Vienna pretty much immediately after that to have a doctor check up on her. Turns out that she has some kind of lung disease, oh nooooo, the doctor advises her to go to Madeira, both because she needs a change of air to help with her disease but also because she's contagious and should be away from Franz Joseph and her daughter. In Madeira, she spends the first weeks being depressed and not getting any better but then Ludovika comes by to cheer her up and get her moving again and they travel a bit and Elisabeth ends up making a full recovery. When Franz Joseph hears about this, he obviously wants to go to her as quickly as possible, he wants to meet her in Venice but his advisors are like "You need a political reason to go to Venice because shits been going and all of italy hates us and if you go there just for personal reasons, something bad might happen", so they decide to hold an opera gala with a big reception in Milan and they invite a bunch of italian nobles. But uh-oh, the italian nobles dont like austria so they all passive-agressively send their servants over in their stead and then to add insult to injury, the orchestra and singers start performing some opera-song about freedom and all the servants in the audience join in. But Elisabeth claps anyway, either showing that their attempt to insult just slid right off her or that she's supporting them, Im not really sure. At the reception, she and Franz Joseph passive-aggressively receive all the servants as though theyre the actual nobility, I dont know how this is helping them politically. But whatever, later on they get on a boat and drive (? whats the word you use for boats) to a church to meet the pope, but there are no adoring citizens cheering for them on their way, its a complete ghost town and the few people that are there just glare at them, so thats really humiliating. But then they arrive at the church and Elisabeth's daughter runs up to greet her after all these months/maybe years and all the people standing next to the church cheer and the pope loves her so its all good.

So that was a pretty underwhelming finale, both to the trilogy and just this film as a standalone. Like, the previous films both ended on these big victories ignore the fact that the wedding did not feel like a victory when I saw it that felt like they mattered and had been built up, but I think the troubles with Italy only got brought up like 25 minutes before the end so I found it hard to care about all that.

But idk, I still liked it overall, although writing out a summary of the plot really made me realize how messy it is. Honestly, I find it kinda hard to describe what exactly I even liked about this film specifically that isnt just all the stuff I liked about the previous ones (the acting, the sets, the costuming etc). I think Ive just gotten to a point where Im attached enough to (this version of) Elisabeth that Im pretty much fine with just watching her do whatever

I mean, I guess I liked that they softened Sophie for this one, I mean she's still strict with that everything-for-the-dynasty mindset but shes not actively causing problems with Elisabeth so that was kinda nice.

Actually, that reminds me of a scene that I really liked, it might be favorite in the film (although it does have some serious competition that I'll tell you about later). So, when Elisabeth comes back to Vienna after being in Hungary and she gets exhamined by the doctor, he doesnt actually tell her whats going on because its a really serious lung disease and he thinks she might not survive until the next year, but he does tell Sophie. Elisabeth finds out about this when she's allowed to get out of bed for an hour and decides to surprise Franz Joseph in his office at the exact moment Sophie decided to tell him about her condition, so she overhears everything including Sophie being like "yknow, since the empress is probably gonna die pretty soon and she hasnt produced an heir, we might wanna start looking into other women" which is so fucked up. But anyway, Franz Joseph sends her away and once he's alone he buries his head in his hands and starts crying, and he lets out such wonderfully pathetic little sobs it made me giggle and kick my feet. sighs dreamily. Men Suffering <3 (I mean that in a pervert way, not a terf way)

Then Elisabeth goes up to him and comforts him (shes using a different, hidden door than the one Sophie left through) and I liked that too, he doesnt hear her so he doesnt notice her approaching until she's already right next to him and gently puts a hand on his head, and it makes him kinda freeze up for a moment before he wipes away his tears and looks up to see that its Elisabeth, and hes still shocked for a moment and asks her how much she heard and she's like "I think Ive heard everything I had to hear" and then they hug and oughhhhhhh its a good scene. 10/10

Now, that other scene that I really like is one I like for how fucking insane it is. Its at the very start of the film, Elisabeth, Gyula and a bunch of his guys are doing a horserace and after being in the lead for a while, Elisabeth and Gyula lose the track and they basically just decide to give up and wander around together instead of joining back with the others. They walk and talk about how much they love hungary until they stumble upon a Romani camp where she hears a woman whos being beaten up by her husband cry for help. She walks up to them, yells at him and pushes him pretty hard and I think the husband slaps her in retaliation but Im not entirely sure. She definitely hits him with her riding crop and then the woman pours a bucket of water over, at which point Gyula finally intervenes and goes "HEY this is the queen of hungary". The woman and her husband both profusely apologize while Elisabeth just kinda laughs it off and walks away and as she's walking away, the husband starts beating the woman again.

Honestly, I dont think my description of that scene truly conveys how insane actually watching it was, it happens so suddenly and goes by so quickly, I literally yelped when the woman poured the bucket of water on her, a true roller coaster of emotion. That being said, as I was writing that down I realized that I felt weird saying that my favorite scene in this film is the one making a joke out of domestic violence, so I officially declare the other scene my favorite

And yeah, that's pretty much it for this one. It's a pretty flawed film but I liked it and I had a pretty good time watching it, I actually didnt feel any of that dread while watching (I mean, I was a little anxious because of the assassination-thing but I forgot about that pretty quickly). If I had to rank this trilogy from worst to best, the order would be: first film, third film, second film

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This Victorian gown was used twice in the Sissi series. It was seen first in the first 1955 film Sissi, where it was worn by Vilma Degischer as Archduchess Sophie. In 1957 it was spotted on an extra as an Italian noble woman in Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress.

Costume Credit: Martina, Redrosecut, Sarah

E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com

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[kosemsultanim]

Get to Know Me Meme: 11/30 Female Characters

♛ Elisabeth of Austria (Sissi Trilogy)

[ornellamutis]

Romy Schneider as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin / Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (1957) dir. by Ernst Marischka.

[dolcesostenuto]

Romy Schneider in a pastel mint dress in Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress

[scarytheory]

2021 IN FILM

63) Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin, Ernst Marischka, Austria, 1957)

[royal-diaries-podcast]

Sissi was viewed by 20 to 25 million people in cinemas. It is one of the most successful German-language movies. The movie was followed by The Young Empress in 1956 and Fateful Years of an Empress in 1957. In 1962, a condensed version of the trilogy was released in English under the title Forever My Love. The trilogy is a popular Christmas television special, and is shown on channels in German-speaking countries, Hungary and Italy. The Empress' date of birth on Christmas Eve 1837 adds to the appeal of the film as a Christmas special.

The success of the movie marked Empress Elisabeth's entrance to popular culture which made the historical figure even more legendary. The popularity of the films attracted tourists to places which were associated with the Empress, specifically those in Austria.

[wardrobeoftime]

The Sissi Trilogy + Costumes

Ludovika, The Duchess in Bavaria's blue dress in Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (1957).

// requested by @thatmawe

[peachykeenmovies]

Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (1957)

[kdram-chjh]

Movie: Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) | dir. by Ernst Marischka

Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (1957) #romyschneider

Watch this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IHM8e0MgCeY

[natalja1210]

[anyataylorjoy]

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), cin. Remi Adefarasin Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957), cin. Bruno Mondi Mary, Queen of Scots (2018), cin. John Mathieson Cinderella (2015), cin. Haris Zambarloukos Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), cin. Remi Adefarasin Princess of Thieves (2001), cin. Andy Collins  The Favourite (2018), cin. Gyula Pados 

[kosemsultanim]

Elisabeth of Austria’s Costumes in Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957)

[dweemeister]

Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957, Austria)

In three years, Romy Schneider had become the face of Austrian cinema. Appearing as Empress Elisabeth (”Sissi”) of Austria as part of Ernst Marischka’s Sissi trilogy, she is, as always, luminous and gracious in the role that became hers. German-language media would, decades afterwards, sometimes refer to Schneider as “Sissi”. This final film – Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress – is the least escapist in an otherwise popular, romanticized series that gave Austrians a source of cultural pride while trying to rebuild from the wreckage of World War II. It is also a solid summation of what Ernst Marischka wished to accomplish with these films: an opulent royal drama with enough good-natured humor to attract the widest possible audience. All three films are holiday season television traditions in German-speaking nations and elsewhere, even if the second and third never quite recapture the charm of the first. For Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress, Marischka assembles his regular cast and crew one last time.

In Sissi: The Young Empress, we witnessed (anachronistically) as Sissi (Schneider) and Emperor Franz Joseph (Karlheinz Böhm) became King and Queen of Hungary, forming the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Court life is insufferable as usual, Franz Joseph’s mother Archduchess Sophie (Vilma Degischer) continues to dictate Sissi’s schedule, and Hungarian Count Andrássy (Walther Reyer) has confessed his love to Sissi. Scandalous! Much of the film concentrates on lingering tensions between Austrians and Hungarians (Sissi is more popular than Franz Joseph in Hungary, given that she has learned Hungarian), Sissi’s extended bout of tuberculosis and recovery in Madeira and Corfu, and ongoing Italian nationalist sentiment in Milan and Venice (at the time, both were possessions of Austria-Hungary).

The trilogy’s regular supporting cast of characters returns: Franz Joseph’s father Archduke Franz Karl (Erich Nikowitz); Sissi’s mother Duchess Ludovika (Magda Schneider, Romy’s mother); Sissi’s father Duke Max (Gustav Knuth); Sissi’s eldest sister Princess Helene (referred to as ”Néné”, Uta Franz); and the recently-promoted comic relief in Major Böckl (Josef Meinrad).

As always, there are historical inaccuracies abound. Sissi’s fight with tuberculosis, though often discussed among Austrians when recounting their history, is probably just an unfounded rumor. Her stay in Hungary’s Gödöllő Palace occurred after that rumored affliction, not before. Lastly, Sissi’s first daughter, Sophie, who appears in the concluding moments, passed away very young after Sissi had temporarily moved to Hungary.

The latter two Sissi films feel like episodes in an extended plot, rather than their own, independent pieces. This should be obvious, but an individual’s appreciation of the sequels is dependent in the familiarity of what has happened before. Almost all of the character development is seen through Sissi, while everyone else remains as they were when we were first introduced to them.

How unfortunate, many Sissi fans will remark, that Romy Schneider came to dislike the role of Sissi so much that she refused to reprise he role when made aware of plans for a fourth film. Indeed, she is the greatest aspect of all three films and she, more than anyone else attached to these projects, should be able to say when there is nothing more she can provide to the character (Romy’s mother, Magda, lobbied her daughter to agree to the fourth film). Perhaps the role of Sissi might not have been the most dramatically demanding role that any actress might ever encounter, but with this valedictory performance that ranges between personal confidence to royal exasperation to physical fragility, it is the most layered portrayal of Empress Elisabeth yet, even if it is not the most appealing. Schneider, after Sissi, sought to develop her talents under some of Europe’s most noted auteurs all while occasionally starring in Hollywood films. Schneider would make one final appearance as Empress Elisabeth in Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig (1972, Italy/France/West Germany), but that interpretation of Sissi – misanthropic, scheming – is unlike anything seen in Marischka’s trilogy.

For co-star Böhm (who is simply sufficient here), a promising career stalled with the critical and commercial failure of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), in which Böhm stars as the film’s cinematographer/photographer/serial killer. The sexual themes of Peeping Tom poisoned Böhm’s appeal to film producers, although he would continue working until 1980. From 1981 onward, he and his wife concentrated almost entirely on humanitarian work in Ethiopia.

As he did for the previous films, Marischka also co-produced and wrote the screenplay himself. Moreso than Sissi and Sissi: The Young Empress, this film tackles European politics from its opening minutes. Marischka’s take on how Hungarians, Milanese, Venetians, and others viewed Austria-Hungary is portrayed through some of the rosiest tinted glasses one could possibly find – the harshest words for the Austrian royals are mild, soon won over by Sissi’s deference, beauty, and charm. The intensity of the Empire’s ethnic relations and political power plays are minimized, assuming Franz Joseph’s and Elisabeth’s inherent righteousness. She must, according to the ever-demanding Archduchess Sophie, be at his side in these political affairs, but do and say little. But Sissi is not the passive type, and she assists in the well-mannered, considerate ways that she can.

This is best exemplified in the scene where Sissi and Franz Joseph attend a production of La Traviata at La Scala, an esteemed Milanese opera house. As the royal couple are about to take their seats to the tune of “Kaiserhymne” (music by Joseph Hayden and lyrics by Lorenz Leopold Haschka; you may recognize the melody as the German national anthem). Midway through the Austrian anthem, the orchestra abruptly switches to “The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” from Verdi’s opera Nabucco; the Italian nationalists in the audience stand up, backs towards the Emperor and Empress, singing in unison. Instead of leaving the opera (as others might have done) during this act of defiance, Sissi wants to hear the nationalists out and applauds when the piece is finished. Stunned by her magnanimous applause, the Milanese – actually the servants of the nobles who were refused to show up – are heartened by the respect she has shown to their demonstration. From a musical standpoint, this Verdi chorus was used as a protest song in nineteenth-century Italy for those wishing to see a unified Italian state; its popular use in Italian society was probably not what Verdi was intending, but that is the reputation the composition garnered (a reputation advanced by this film).

As they have been throughout, those working on the film’s technical departments are doing tremendous work. Costume designers Leo Bei and Gerdago have spectacular uniforms, gowns, dresses, and suits in every single moment of this film. Composer Anton Profes returns with Sissi’s violin-heavy leitmotif repeated across the trilogy. Production designer Fritz Jüptner-Jonstorff carries over much of his incredible work recreating dance halls and imperial palace hallways and rooms when Sissi is in Austria. Nowhere does it confirm or deny that the production shot at La Scala, so I cannot credit Jüptner-Jonstorff with what might be a fantastic reproduction of the terraced seating of the music hall. Cinematographer Bruno Mondi, hamstrung by all the interiors in the second film, is once more confined to imperial quarters. But the final sequence in Venice, utilizing the enormity of Piazza San Marco, is appropriately epic in scope and beautifully framed to conclude three years of a landmark in Austrian cinema.

The Sissi trilogy never appeared in their original theatrical cuts in the United States. Some years after, Paramount purchased the rights to distribute Sissi to American cinemas, but decided to splice the three films together into an abridged version. That version is Forever My Love (1962), and it is not recommended for any viewers interested in watching the Sissi films.

For an Austria just beginning to reassert its autonomy after years of destruction and desolation, the Sissi series offered respite from economic and political woes and a celebration of being Austrian. Some detailed parts of the storytelling and cultural references will escape the detection, the understanding of many. What remains for all to see is an amiable trilogy where a princess become and Empress, where a young girl accepts the duties of her public position and become a unifying force for a nation of different, conflicting peoples. Where Sissi is beginning to understand the desires and fears of the non-Austrians in the empire and the practices of the imperial family, she never loses her indispensable empathy for others. For all those who may see these films and even for those who see these works as sugary fictions, may we learn and live by that example.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

Also in the Sissi trilogy: Sissi (1955) and Sissi: The Young Empress (1956)