Intended at the time to comfort a traumatized postwar population, both Sissi and Schneider’s ultra-bright performance remain synonymous with the Empress herself. She exploded in posthumous popularity thanks to Ernst Marischka’s Sissi trilogy, released between 19 and anchored by an ebullient Romy Schneider. Sisi’s posthumous résumé includes children’s cartoons, a smash-hit musical, sketch comedy, and, together with Mozart, acting as the face of Viennese chocolate. In death, she proved easily bent to prevailing contemporary sensibilities. ![]() This refusal lasted only as long as she did. “That her self-realization did not make her happy is the tragedy of her life,” wrote historian Brigitte Hamann in The Reluctant Empress, “aside from the tragedies that befell her most immediate family, set in motion by her refusal to be co-opted.” She was also ahead of her time, achieving something akin to self-actualization in her lifetime, albeit - and this is the fly in the feminist reclamation ointment - at enormous personal cost. In fairness, the real Sisi was both beloved and thwarted. She is beloved (by her husband Emperor Franz Joseph, by her cousin Ludwig, by her son and heir apparent Rudolf, by her father, by assorted aristocratic men, by the masses) and she is thwarted (by the ravages of age, by her own vanity, by her nefarious mother-in-law the Archduchess Sophie and the hounding Countess Esterházy, by the emperor again.) Sie ist der Moment, as they say.Īlthough she’s an easy target for a posthumous feminist reclamation, Sisi stories tend to be defined by two states of being, both passive. After several years off-duty, Elisabeth, the Empress of Austria from 1854 until 1898, is a favorite period drama protagonist once again, netting Un Certain Regard at Cannes and submitted as Austria’s Oscar entry, She’s green-lit for multiple second seasons. The original gorgeous but disillusioned and ultimately tragic royal woman with a humanitarian streak, an eating disorder, and a domineering mother-in-law is back - and she’s got her own Netflix budget.Ĭall it zero to Sisi in seconds flat. With Elisabeth’s full support, she – a constantly-absent spouse – was replaced by Franz Joseph’s ‘dear, good friend’, Burgtheater actress Katharina Schratt, the ageing emperor’s most important source of emotional support.Move over, Diana. ‘You have no idea how much I loved this woman’, Franz Joseph is said to have exclaimed after Elisabeth was murdered. Franz Joseph and Elisabeth maintained a bond of friendship, corresponding and meeting regularly. From the 1860s, the couple could no longer be said to have had a married life together. Elisabeth withdrew more and more, and increasingly turned her back on both the Court and her husband. However, she came increasingly into conflict with the conventions and rules of the Viennese court, personified by her mother-in-law.įranz Joseph was torn between the wishes of his wife and the demands of his mother. She even fulfilled the most important duty of an empress, giving birth to Crown Prince Rudolf. However, in the early years, the young empress did strive to live up to expectations. Elisabeth found life at Court extremely uncongenial, suffering from the strict protocol, the intrigues and her official duties as empress. ![]() In 1854, six months later, the ‘dream wedding’ was held in Vienna, and so began a marriage which, for both parties, constituted an extremely unhappy arrangement. ![]() ‘Oh, if only he were a tailor!’ Elisabeth is said to have exclaimed, adding, however, that ‘One doesn’t turn down an emperor!’ Before they even left Bad Ischl, the couple’s engagement was announced. However, events took a different turn, for Franz Joseph – and here, the narration of the famous Sissi film trilogy reflects real history – fell head over heels in love with Helene’s sister, Elisabeth, only fifteen years of age and still very childlike, who in fact was only supposed to play a ‘supporting role’ on the trip. On the occasion of her son’s twenty-third birthday, she arranged a party at Bad Ischl, to which her sister Ludowika was invited along with her nineteen-year-old daughter Helene, in the hope that the emperor would take a fancy to his young cousin. Indeed his mother Sophie, who was extremely ambitious politically, already had concrete plans. Young, attractive, ruler of a global empire and – single! Franz Joseph was much in demand on the European aristocratic marriage market.
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