Sissi

A period film set in Austria. Elisabeth is a duke's daughter in Bavaria. Everyone calls her Sissi. She is sixteen. She wanders the woods, fishes, and knows nothing of court life. Her sister Helene is being prepared. She is to marry the Austrian emperor. They set off with their mother. Sissi comes too. The meeting is at Bad Ischl. Franz Joseph is the emperor. Twenty-three, and his mother runs everything. Before the meeting Sissi runs into him while fishing in the woods. She does not know who he is. Then comes the formal dinner. Franz Joseph chooses not Helene but Sissi. From there the film becomes a story of the court. Sophie runs the protocol. She is the emperor's mother and does not want this marriage. There are rules. How to walk, how to sit, whom to speak to. Sissi knows none of them. The wedding takes place. A great ceremony in Vienna. What the narrative is interested in is not love but fitting in: its idea is that the girl is chosen not because she is loved but because she is charming, and that the moment she enters the court that quality becomes a problem. The narrative does not press it. The tone is light and the ending happy. The real Elisabeth's life was far darker. The film shows none of it. The costume and settings are very careful. It was shot in real palaces. Romy Schneider was sixteen and the part made her a known name across Europe. Magda Schneider, who plays her mother, was her mother in fact. The film did extraordinary business in Austria and Germany and two sequels followed. A shortened combination of the trilogy also went into circulation later. Romy Schneider avoided the part for years afterwards and was uncomfortable at being identified with it. Ernst Marischka directed. Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider and Gustav Knuth are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes classic European period film and light melodrama. Who it is not for: anyone looking for historical accuracy; the narrative softens the real life entirely and leaves no problem open.