Sisi & I
Sisi & I
Let us first settle in our minds one evident thing: Yes, it hasn’t taken us too long to get a film for the prominent queen of Austria, empress Elisabeth of Austria Sisi as she is mostly known in public. That film was Marie Kreutzer’s ‘Corsage'(2022), featuring a cold and rather too serious for the occasion Vicky Krieps as the tortured royal of the Victorian times. A woman who was tortured not only by her corsets but also by the century she lived in, Sisi was compelled to exercise control over her weight even as she was into carbohydrates (she unfortunately became bulimic). And behave and act in a certain noble decorum that she had no desire to stomach. Sisi’s public image? Ironically enough she appears on promotional materials of every conceivable souvenir shop in Austria that does not have items of Mozart and Beethoven, from milk chocolates covers to cheap plastic glasses’ cases. So put simply, Sisi remains flaccid, confined, and battered. This is the harsh realness filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder attempts to liberate (and reverse) on her new movie about Sisi – ‘Sisi & I’ – just like back Kreutzer did.
That said, this new Sisi film, co-written by Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht, also has a lot in common with “Corsage.” First of all, it is also chock full of anachronisms, from the rather deliberately contemporary-sounding feminine pop of the score to Helga Lohninger’s striking outfits – in the film, such gowns may not always be true to the era they depict, however they have something relevant to say about the era they find themselves in. Though, the new film still seems to have an element that is lacking in its purpose where ‘Corsage’ was sassy, dark with a hint of charming mischief while ‘Sisi & I’ feels bland and conservative in comparison.
Nonetheless, I believe that examining these works too closely is somewhat problematic as Finsterwalder’s effort is a bit different and is mostly told through the eyes of Sisi’s (Susanne Wolff) devoted servant, countess Irma played by Sandra Hüller in a more subdued manner than in the remarkable two-parter Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest. The first time we meet her, she is rather young and has to pick between her future options. So she is left with two choices, marrying off, devoting her life to the convent, or serving in Sisi’s court. At first, that last option seemed a perfect solution for the needy Victorian lady repelled with male bodily hair and dominative mother’s screaming both verbal and physical abuse.
However, a high-ranking position within the circle of a monarch does not prove to be the so-called ‘way out’ that she has been trying to find all along. That much is clear during the interview at the Corfu island when a newly sick of the motion Irma is treated as if she was one of the possessions of Reynolds Woodcock in “Phantom Thread.” And her life from there on would be much more miserable, consuming whatever little she can be possible to feed on, clothing the one chosen by Sisi on her enclosure, and taking drugs as prescribed by the lady. There will also be really head screw astrategies like what Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” depicted, where the nuclear fuel-cooler and changeable in love, Sisi, invents fans from her hand who are anxious to grasp her hot and cold (literally and figuratively). Hilarously cute little Irma must also be ready for dramatic heat changes like this since she is intodated to being ravished by all day long.
Ultimately all this means that, “Sisi & I” is a less winning movie for Finsterwalder if the Empress is within reach. (Two words, “Corsage” fall back on for instance). It achieves more when the narrative focus is on a thwarted Irma, who’s finding her voice, and her sense of self in spite of the challenges. Irma in reality stayed with Sisi for the last four years of her life, in the period from 1894 to 1898, and she was present when Sisi was murdered on her return from the journeys across Europe. Over a film which often feels overlong, the movie chronicles such holidays in great detail and resorts more than occasionally to the queer aspects of its characters. By that measure the key figure in the triangle is Sisi’s sister’s husband Viktor (Georg Friedrich), who was known to lead a highly libertine lifestyle scandalizing the society of that time. And throughout, in every scene, it is Hüller who astonishes the most commitment to the role, even when she is not the focus of attention, as if everyone forgets about Sisi and her movie “Sisi & I” is taken up by her Irma.
Ultimately, it is a rebellious enough film that deals with the women’s defiance to be put in the boxes created by the oppressive rules and norms — the will to survive and not give into that beautifully designed swamp. In her enthusiasm and desire of creating liberation, Finsterwalder may sometimes come across ummmm overly nice. As it goes to the lighter side of this Sisi, it has still certain commercial satisfactions how much aggrieved they may be despite of the simple presence of “Corsage.”
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- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Country: united states
- Director: Frauke Finsterwalder
- Cast: Annette Badland, Sandra Hüller, Anthony Calf
