Sissi, die junge Kaiserin (1956)

Sissi, die junge Kaiserin: Directed by Ernst Marischka. With Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider, Gustav Knuth. The second in a trilogy of movies about Elisabeth “Sissi” of Austria, the film chronicles the married life of the young empress as she tries to adjust to formal and strict life in the palace and an overbearing mother-in-law.

“I grew up with the Sissi movies and was a big fan of Romy Schneider in my youth. Later in life I researched the life of the Empress and the life of King Ludwig II a little bit more thoroughly. Of course I found out that the multiple movies made about these two popular royalties were all sugarcoated and in many aspects far from reality. This said, up to today I put on the Sissi movies to relax. I enjoy just about everything in it and like them as a fairy tale. A fairy tale with castles, kings, princesses and the wicked mother in law. I never visited Hungary and thoroughly get pleasure from the scenes showing this beautiful land. In many ways the movie is also realistic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMy father grew up under a Kaiser, so the lifestyle is not too far removed from what I experienced. Children of influential families were nearly always brought up by governesses and saw their parents only at u0026quot;audiencesu0026quot;. Duty to the Fatherland was something which was taught to everybody and of course even more so to the royalties. Marriages in high circles were always arranged and a marriage out of love practically unheard of. So the film paints also a picture of the time these people were living in. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think the Sissi trilogy may be the only movies which stayed with me all my life.”