Sissi (film)

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Movie
Original title Sissi
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1955
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Ernst Marischka
script Ernst Marischka
production Erma-Film, Vienna
( Karl Ehrlich ,
Ernst Marischka)
music Anton Profes
camera Bruno Mondi
cut Alfred Srp
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Sissi - The Young Empress

Sissi is an Austrian historical film from 1955, which tells of the early years of Empress Elisabeth . It is based on the novel of the same name by Marie Blank-Eismann, published in 1952 by Titania-Verlag in Stuttgart in two parts . In 1933, Sissi was already published as an illustrated serial novel in the novel bloom rain .

It premiered on December 21, 1955 in Vienna, and one day later the film was shown in German cinemas for the first time in Munich. When the film proved to be a huge success at the box office, the sequels Sissi - The Young Empress (1956) and Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (1957) followed. The Sissi - trilogy with Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm is one of the most successful German film productions and the most successful films in German and Austrian cinemas; the audience numbers range between 20 and 25 million. Only Der Förster vom Silberwald (28 million viewers) was even more successful. The figures are inaccurate, however, as the ticket sales were not completely recorded during this time.

prehistory

In 1931 Hubert Marischka bought the rights to the play Sissys Brautfahrt from Ernst Décsey and Gustav Holm . Together with his brother Ernst and the authors of the play, he rewrote it to a libretto for a Singspiel called Sissy . With the music of Fritz Kreisler it was premiered on December 23, 1932 in the Theater an der Wien . The play was a great success with Paula Wessely and then with Hedy Kiesler and finally Rose Stradner in the title role. The production was played until 1936, one of the not very numerous performances after the Second World War saw Elfriede Ott and Oskar Werner in the leading roles. The American film company Columbia acquired the rights to the play for the then considerable sum of 160,000 dollars . The film version, titled The King Steps Out , was filmed by Josef von Sternberg with Grace Moore in the lead role and was a box office success.

In 1955 Ernst Marischka also decided to make a film. Since the rights to the US version from 1936 could not be bought back, he acquired the rights to the novel Sissi by Marie Blank-Eisman in order to avoid risking legal proceedings, redesigned the script and named the film like the underlying novel Sissi . It was not until 2015 that it was confirmed in a process that the film Sissi was actually based on the Singspiel Sissy .

action

Bavaria / Austria 1853: Princess Elisabeth, called Sissi, is the second oldest daughter of Duchess Ludovika and Duke Max in Bavaria . She grows up carefree with her seven siblings in her parents' castle on Lake Starnberg . The impetuous girl is fond of animals and in love with nature and has a happy childhood without the constraints customary in her class.

15-year-old Sissi travels from Possenhofen in Bavaria to Ischl in Austria with her mother and older sister Helene . On the initiative of the authoritarian, dynasty-conscious Empress Mother , Archduchess Sophie , Helene, known as Néné, is supposed to meet her cousin, the young Emperor Franz Joseph, in the imperial summer residence in order to become engaged to him as soon as possible. Sissi does not know the reason for the trip and because of her youthful exuberance, she is not allowed to take part in any social event during the days in Ischl . So she spends her free time fishing.

While doing so, she happened to meet the arriving emperor, who had no idea that the pretty girl was his younger cousin Sissi. He takes a liking to her and invites her to go on a hunting trip. At this meeting, the surprised Sissi learns of Franz Joseph's planned marriage to her sister Néné. When asked what her name is, Sissi denies her true identity and is said to be called Liesl von Possenhofen . The young emperor sadly confesses to her that he is already envious of the man who would one day have her, Sissi, as a wife. Disturbed by the indirect declaration of love and driven by the loyalty to her sister, Sissi leaves Franz Joseph alone without further explanation, even though she has also fallen in love with the monarch .

On her return to the summer residence , Néné reveals the secret of the trip to Bad Ischl: she will become engaged to Franz Joseph that same evening. Since there is no table lady, Sissi is also supposed to attend this social highlight, a ball in honor of Franz Joseph's birthday.

On the evening of Franz Joseph's birthday party, the noble visitors to the ball are announced by the court staff and then enter the ballroom one after the other. Finally, Ludovika von Bayern, her daughter Néné, whose engagement to Franz Joseph is planned, and Ludovika's daughter Elisabeth von Bayern are proclaimed and enter the hall. Elisabeth raises her head after the curtsey and Franz Joseph looks confused and astonished at Sissi, with whom he was hunting in the forest a few hours earlier, as Liesl von Possenhofen .

Franz Joseph now openly confesses his love for Sissi and asks her to marry him. In order not to hurt her sister Néné, she rejects him. Franz Joseph, however, disregards the reservations of his mother and Sissi's resistance and, to the surprise of everyone present, announces the engagement to the very young cousin. The scorned Néné is heartbroken and leaves the ball.

Back in Possenhofen, the wedding preparations are in full swing. Nevertheless, Sissi cannot look forward to her upcoming marriage because the offended Néné has left their parents' home for an indefinite period of time. But when she, freshly in love with her new admirer , the Prince of Thurn und Taxis , returns home shortly before the wedding to talk to Sissi, the young bride can finally look forward to her future happily.

For the wedding celebrations, Sissi travels to Vienna with her entire family on board the paddle steamer "Franz Joseph" . Many people line the banks of the Danube and cheer for the future Empress of Austria. The dream wedding takes place - Sissi and Franz Joseph get married.

The comedic part is taken over by Erich Nikowitz as Franz Joseph's father Archduke Franz Karl , who pretends to be hard of hearing , and above all by Josef Meinrad as Major (later Colonel) Böckl, who is supposed to protect the Emperor in Ischl and Sissi for an assassin holds.

Locations

Reviews

  • “Romantic, soulful entertainment in the style of undemanding Heimatfilme.” - Lexicon of international films (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997
  • "Back then, when Lady Di did not yet exist, the needs of royalists had to be satisfied differently, and the story of the young and beautiful Bavarian princess, who appeared in two sequels as the Austrian empress, was perfectly adapted for the film on. Herzallerliebst. “- Heyne-Filmlexikon, 1996
  • “Undemanding, entertaining blaze of color.” - 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, pp. 397–398
  • “Romy Schneider is fresh as a dew, young, childishly seductive and wears her robes with grace. Karlheinz Böhm as dressed up Emperor Franz Joseph knows how to appreciate his luck. Mixture of Heimatfilm, melodrama, fairy tale and magnificent Biedermeier idyll, which initiated Romy's great star career. "(Rating: 2 1 ⁄ 2  stars = above average) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in the lexicon" Films on TV " (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 751
  • "Touching love romance to the later Austrian empress Elisabeth in timely, gazebo 'style. For lovers of this entertainment product 'from the good old days', digestible from 14 upwards. "-" Evangelical film observer "
  • “Films have made Empress Elisabeth a myth. They almost never have anything to do with reality. ”- Mittelbayerische Zeitung of December 14, 2012

Awards

  • Bambi for the most commercially successful foreign film in 1956

background

The Sissi films are still useful to Austria's tourism today. The film adaptation and its two sequels show Austria's landscape as a backdrop to one of the most famous love stories in German-speaking countries. The costumes by Gerdago and the buildings by Fritz Jüptner-Jonstorff also played a significant role in the creation of the film .

Despite the enthusiastic reception by their audience, the Sissi films were denied public recognition. They were seen as typical kitsch, especially among film reviews . The leading actress Romy Schneider also distanced herself from her role. Romy Schneider said of the films and her role in them in a later interview: "That'll stick with me like semolina all my life".

Karlheinz Böhm broke with his "Sissi" image when he played a psychopathic murderer in the English production Augen der Angst in 1959 , who kills women and records the moment of death with a film camera. The film caused a scandal and brought Böhm a career break .

The real nickname of the later Empress Elisabeth in her family was "Sisi". At least that's how she wrote herself, sometimes "Lisi."

Sequels

Other implementations of the topic

In 1991 Christoph Böll , nephew of the Nobel Prize laureate Heinrich Böll , brought another film adaptation of the material with the title Sisi and the Emperor's Kiss to the cinemas. The film should be less romantic, more disrespectful and closer to the real person Elisabeth . Wichart von Roëll and Sonja Kirchberger had leading roles . There was a dispute between the various financiers of the film, which hindered its theatrical release. Despite extensive press coverage in advance, production therefore flopped. The film only had about 3000 viewers, with several million marks in film funding, each individual cinema ticket was subsidized with a four-digit DM sum. The film was co-produced by Wilhelm Grönemeyer, father of the singer Herbert Grönemeyer and the doctor Dietrich Grönemeyer .

There is also a successful musical called Elisabeth . Since 2012 there is also Sissi - The Musical .

The humorous animated film Lissi and the Wilder Kaiser was made in 2007, directed by Michael Herbig .

A remake of the life of Empress Elisabeth in two parts was shown on ZDF and ORF in December 2009. Her name is Sisi , and she was directed by Xaver Schwarzenberger . Elisabeth plays Cristiana Capotondi , Archduchess Sophie is portrayed by Martina Gedeck .

In the film Mädchen, Mädchen 2 - Loft oder Liebe , the film is used for a drinking game : whenever the word “majesty” is mentioned, one has to drink.

literature

  • Marie Blank-Eismann: Sissi. Original novel (first published). In the rain of flowers. Illustrated weekly for the family. 1933, ZDB ID 2358509-2 .
  • Marie Blank-Eismann: Sissi. Novel. Deutscher Literatur-Verlag Melchert, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-87152-275-9 .
  • Ernst Marischka: Sissi. A novel based on the films Sissi. Sissi, the young empress and fateful years of an empress. Blüchert, Hamburg 1960.
  • Karin Petra Rudolph: Sissi. The life of an empress. The illustrated book for the original films. Burgschmiet-Verlag, Nuremberg 1998, ISBN 3-932234-26-X .
  • Heidi Schlipphacke: Melancholy Empress: Queering Empire in Ernst Marischka's "Sissi" films. In: Screen. 51, 3, 2010, ISSN  0036-9543 , 232-255.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 559
  2. ↑ The End of the Sissi War. In: Courier on Sunday . March 1, 2015, accessed December 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 559
  4. ↑ Schloss Fuschl ( Memento from July 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Peter Weck: Was that it ?: Memories . Amalthea Signum Verlag, 2020, ISBN 978-3-903217-52-2 ( google.de [accessed August 17, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Google Maps. Retrieved August 17, 2020 (de-US).
  7. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 6/1956
  8. ↑ Eternal love only survives on the canvas. In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung . December 14, 2012, accessed March 16, 2018 .
  9. ^ Romy Schneider
  10. ↑ Sisi and the Emperor's Kiss. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Sissi - The Musical
  12. ↑ IMDb.de: Mädchen, Mädchen 2 - Loft oder Liebe (2004) - References to other titles , accessed on February 11, 2011

Web links

Commons : Sissi  - collection of images, videos and audio files