Sisi (film)
Sisi is a historical film by the Austrian director Xaver Schwarzenberger . The German-language and simultaneous first broadcast of the first part was on December 16, 2009 on ORF 2 (on December 17, ZDF ) and the second part on December 20, 2009 on ORF2 and on ZDF, both at 8:15 p.m. in the main evening program. Cristiana Capotondi (dubbed by Pippa Galli ), David Rott and Martina Gedeck star in the two- parter .
action
- Part 1
The first part takes place from 1853, when Elisabeth got engaged to Franz Joseph, to 1857, when her first-born daughter Sophie dies.
Elisabeth , called Sisi, grew up in Bavaria for 16 years . Reluctantly accompanied her mother and elder sister Helene to Bad Ischl , where Helene called Néné with the Emperor of Austria, the 23-year-old, I Franz Joseph to be engaged. He falls in love with Elisabeth, and although she is reluctant for Néné's sake, Sisi reciprocates his feelings. Franz's mother, Archduchess Sophie , is reluctant to see this, but faces the new situation: Sisi is "reeducated" to become Empress, she has to take language and dance lessons, learn to understand court etiquette and acquire knowledge about her new empire. Franz and Sisi married in April 1854 to the great cheer of the population. Contrary to all etiquette, they kiss each other in front of the assembled wedding party and later spend their wedding night in the Schönbrunn palace gardens .
Sisi's new life begins in Vienna; wedged into the Spanish court ceremony and under Sophie's thumb. She finds it difficult to get used to life at court, with the ladies-in-waiting who are always present and the strange rules. For example, when she wants to bathe, she is told that she can only do this once a week. Sophie puts Countess Esterhazy at her side, who is supposed to help her with learning court manners, but above all to supervise her and to report to Sophie about her. One of the few bright spots is her brother-in-law, Franz Joseph's brother Maximilian , with whom Sisi gets along well. She tries to get closer to her people and is shocked at the harsh treatment the emperor treats those who hold more liberal views than the government.
Elisabeth becomes pregnant and has a child, Sophie . To her displeasure, however, this is nursed by a wet nurse instead of herself. She is also soon snatched from her by her mother-in-law and given to governesses for upbringing . Sisi tries to change Franz's mind - when he agrees with his mother that her tasks are elsewhere, Sisi leaves the court. She finds accommodation with her parents, where she spends time with Néné and also meets Count Andrassy , who demands that she take the side of Hungary and convince the emperor to grant his crown lands more freedom. He also wants an amnesty for himself and other political exiles who were banished as enemies of the Reich after the revolution in 1848 .
Franz picks up Sisi soon and travels with her to Milan , where she has to fulfill her representative duties as his empress and incidentally has a solid argument with Franz, who is not prepared to leave her upbringing little Sophie again. He also learned of Sisi's meeting with Count Andrassy through Countess Esterhazy and is angry about his attempt to contact her. Sisi, however, tends to support Andrassy's endeavors (a parliament for Hungary). Nevertheless, she reconciles with Franz and soon gives birth to another daughter, Archduchess Gisela .
When Elisabeth and Franz Joseph travel to Budapest in 1857 to speak to the representatives of Hungary, among them Count Andrassy, who has since been pardoned, Sophie dies of acute pneumonia. Since the two children Sophie and Gisela were brought to Hungary against the express request of Archduchess Sophie, she now accuses Elisabeth of being responsible for Sophie's death. Sophie's funeral concludes the first part.
- Part 2
The second part describes the years 1857 to 1867, when Elisabeth was crowned Queen of Hungary.
Sisi struggles with depression after her daughter dies. She is reluctant to return to political life. While Maximilian introduces her to his fiancée, Charlotte of Belgium , and Sisi appoints the young Hungarian countess Ida Ferenczy as her new lady-in-waiting, Franz struggles with the freedom and unification movements in the Italian provinces ( Sardinia , Lombardy , Veneto ). He adheres to the advice of Field Marshal Radetzky and insists on an authoritarian position. Maximilian tries to change his brother's mind, but Franz instead seeks an alliance with the French emperor to prevent the Italian provinces from a liberation strike. Napoleon III visits the Austrian court with his wife Eugénie and confirms the alliance.
Sisi makes no secret of her distrust of Napoleon. But she and Franz insist on celebrating the birth of the longed-for heir to the throne, Crown Prince Rudolf , in 1858 . Meanwhile Napoleon III falls. the Austrians in the back: he allies himself with the Piedmontese . Franz goes to war and suffers a devastating defeat in the Battle of Solferino . He loses Lombardy, and while Sisi takes care of the injured returning soldiers at home in Vienna, Andrassy reappears and confronts them with the consequences of Franz Joseph's actions. He also warns them that Hungary could go the same way as the northern Italian provinces.
On the way home, Franz is confronted with the dislike of his people, who would rather have his brother Maximilian on the throne - with whom Franz fell out because of his liberal attitude. Sisi brings him Andrassy's advice, and Franz then creates a parliament with an October diploma . This has no decision-making power, but is purely of an advisory nature, which is why Andrassy and other Hungarians reject it immediately. Sisi also has to discover that her very young son was sent to military education, where he is mistreated and psychologically harassed. She wants to take action against this, but Franz Joseph and Archduchess Sophie refuse to raise the child differently.
Maximilian wants to avoid further arguments with Franz - he goes to Mexico and has himself proclaimed emperor there. His mother Sophie can hardly bear to say goodbye because she knows that Max will not find support from the Mexican people. Sisi's impotence to help anyone, be it Franz, Maximilian, the Hungarians or her own son Rudolf, contribute to a serious illness: Lung sick, emaciated and depressed, she is sent by her doctors to a more southern climate. When she was on a vacation trip, she had the emperor informed that he should not contact her until Rudolf was brought up differently. At a masked ball in Venice she meets an admirer who turns out to be Count Andrassy. A kiss occurs between them, but she politely rejects him. After much back and forth, during which Elisabeth ignores all of Franz Joseph's letters, the emperor gives in and travels to meet her with both children.
After the reconciliation (also between Elisabeth and Archduchess Sophie) and Rudolf's conversion to a more civil upbringing, further tragedies hit the imperial couple: Another military defeat , this time against Prussia , almost bankrupt the Austrian state and now also robs Veneto . In addition, Maximilian's body is brought home from Mexico; he was shot by the rebellious Mexicans. Charlotte is not coping well with the loss; she becomes increasingly entangled in delusions. Sisi is dedicated to preserving the Hungarian part of Austria. After a speech to the country representatives around Andrassy, in which she promised more independence and the fulfillment of her demands, the Hungarians agree to crown Franz Joseph and her as their king and queen .
Background information
The film was produced as a co-production by ORF, ZDF and RAI , as well as by the Austrian Sunset Austria , the German EOS Entertainment and the Italian Publispei . The two-part film was shot from April 15 to July 3, 2009 in Austria, Italy and Hungary at a cost of 11 million euros. The Austrian Television Fund has the Sisi promoted -Neuverfilmung 1.4 million euros.
Historical life was extensively recreated at original locations such as the Vienna Hofburg , Schönbrunn Palace , Laxenburg Palace, Eckartsau Palace in Lower Austria , Brunnsee Palace in Styria, as well as the Lido and the alleys of Venice. For the shooting in the Italian Miramare Castle , a historic ship was brought to Trieste and launched in the Mediterranean. Elisabeth and Franz's golden wedding carriage, an original six-horse carriage from 1740 and weighing four tons, is on loan from the Archbishop of Olomouc (Czech Republic) . According to the ORF, it was given to a museum after the shooting. At the approach to the wedding, the Starhemberg Palace on Minoritenplatz is in the background , above whose main portal a three-dimensional eagle of the Republic of Austria hangs and is visible. For the battles of Königgrätz and Solferino , among other things, traditional clubs were hired to represent battle scenes as true to the original as possible.
A few days before the first broadcast on ORF2, the two-parter was presented to a selected audience on December 2, 2009 in the imperial orangery of Schönbrunn by the ORF management, the director and the producer, with the participation of the main actors.
Differences from reality
The two-parter deviates in many points from the established knowledge.
- Elisabeth did not learn Hungarian as a child because she lived in Bavaria and had no relationship with Hungary.
- When Franz Joseph and Sisi were engaged, the emperor was the victim of an assassination attempt, which actually took place in the spring of 1853, before the meeting in Bad Ischl.
- Elisabeth was almost certainly not deflowered in the Schönbrunn palace gardens. The wedding night did not take place until the third night, as Elisabeth had refused to meet the emperor, presumably out of fear.
- In the first part you can see a famous picture of Elisabeth hanging in Franz Joseph's study. It is by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and was only made in 1864, when Elisabeth was already 27 years old. At the time of the film, however, she was only 17 years old.
- Elisabeth's wish that raising children was her concern was only allowed after an official letter from 1865 in which she almost bluntly threatened Franz Joseph with divorce. Whether Elisabeth ignored him for so long, as shown in the film, can no longer be understood today.
- The relationship with Count Gyula Andrassy is repeatedly flirted with. The character Andrássy is heavily exaggerated, for example he never conspired with Max in Bavaria and never met Elisabeth. It is pretty much certain that there was never such a thing as a love affair between them. Even the rumors that Elisabeth's last child, Marie Valerie , should not actually come from Franz Joseph, are now considered nonsense.
- After the war against France, in which Austria lost Lombardy, Elisabeth has never been to Italy again, and has never been to a masked ball in Venice. She certainly never met the Hungarian count in Italy. The fact that she appears disguised as dominoes at a masked ball and is courted by Count Andrassy is an allusion to a ball in Vienna and the unknown was Friedrich Pacher from Theinburg .
- As a result of the later lost war against Prussia and Italy, a compromise with Hungary became inevitable. Only then, not to prevent a third front, were the imperial couple crowned the royal couple of Hungary. It also had less to do with Sisi's charm.
- The film ends with the royal coronation in Hungary; however, this took place a few days before the death of Archduke Maximilian, who is already dead at the time of the coronation in the film. In fact, the royal coronation in Hungary took place on June 8, 1867; Emperor Maximilian of Mexico was shot dead on June 19, 1867.
Web links
- Sisi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- An imperial premiere: Xaver Schwarzenberger's “Sisi” on orf.at (with background information on the making of the film)
- Official website of the production company on betafilm.com
- Sisi on universumfilm.de
- Sisi: ZDF is planning a splendid remake on filmstarts.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sisi. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on December 27, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c ORF: Emperorly good premiere: Xaver Schwarzenberger's “Sisi” ( memento of the original from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and Imperial shooting start for Schwarzenberger's “Sisi” in Vienna ( memento of the original from March 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on programm.orf.at, accessed on May 18, 2013.
- ↑ ZDF comes to Sat.1 with “Sisi” beforehand on dwdl.de, accessed on May 18, 2013.
- ↑ TV Fund Austria: “Sisi” without Romy - a myth back on TV , OTS press release from December 15, 2009.
