Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress

The last of the trilogy. Elisabeth is empress now, and on top of the rules of the Viennese court and her running conflict with her mother in law comes illness. Her lungs fail and she is sent to Madeira and then to Corfu to recover. In the background sits Italian discontent in Lombardy and Venetia, which the film resolves with a state visit and a well received public appearance. Ernst Marischka directed all three with the same hand and builds the same world of bright uniforms, processions and palace corridors. What Romy Schneider brings is a weariness the script never asks for. There is a reason for it. The film did well enough for a fourth Sissi to be planned, but Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm both refused, wanting out of the sweet image the role had glued to them. American audiences knew the trilogy for years only as a single condensed and dubbed feature called Forever My Love. Who it is for: lovers of classic court melodrama. Who it is not for: anyone seeking historical accuracy.