Director: Frauke Finsterwalder (Germany, Switzerland, Austria). Year of Release: 2023
A woman is being stretched into a corset, her fingernails cleaned, eyebrows plucked, hair arranged. The opening scene of Sisi und ich is very reminiscent of Corsage, one of many recent films and tv serials about the life of Empress Elizabeth (Sisi) of Austro-Hungary). Sisi died 125 years ago and has been compared by some lazy reviewers to Princess Diana. But if you’re expecting a re-run of Spencer, there’s no need to worry. Sisi und Ich is nowhere near as terrible.
The woman being corsetted is not Sisi, but Irma, a 42 year old spinster who’s being forced into her dress by her mother, who is continually disparaging towards her. At one point, Irma looks into an ornate mirror to squeeze a spot, and is slapped by her mother, who draws blood. Nonetheless, she needs to look presentable, as she’s just up for what her mother sees as her last chance – an interview to become a lady in waiting to Empress Sisi.
Of course Sisi doesn’t conduct the interview herself – she has people to do that for her. The interview consists of intrusive questions about Irma’s weight. She is then asked to hurdle over bushes in the garden in high heels. Irma is not being tested for any particular competence, just her ability to know her place and take orders. When it’s all over, the royal functionaries say that she may as well have the job.
Irma is sent to Corfu to join Sisi, who is currently living in a commune, which allows no fat people or men. The androgynous women are different heights, but all look like Tim Curry in Rocky Horror. Before she even lands on the island, Irma pukes over the side of her small boat. This is not the last vomit we will see, given the apparent bulemia that Sisi encourages in her entourage. The film contains many ablutions including a fairly gratuitous scene of someone sat on the toilet, shitting.
Sisi is vicarious and vain – ordering her entourage around on a whim, and ensuring that they stay slim by denying them food, and giving them cocaine. In what might be an expression of Stockholm syndrome, Irma falls in love with her. Later, when Sisi asks if she will marry, Irma tells her mistress: “when I think of men, I always think of tablecloths. I always was disgusted by men. They are always so …. hairy”. She does have a point.
Just as you think that all this is going to develop into a great romance, the film – and Sisi – holds back. The relationship between Sisi and Irma is one of mistress and servant. Sisi also easily gets bored, and is capricious with her favourites. Irma must tussle with the other women for Sisi’s attention. When the Empress has a dalliance with an equerry at Queen Victoria’s Court, Irma watches on, seeking with jealousy.
The film follows the royal entourage through the world in a very episodic fashion. There’s little that binds the scenes together – other than the fact we are watching rich women at their leisure. They visit Algeria for little other dramatic reason for them to come across and consume hashish. Similarly, the visit to Sisi’s cousin Queen Victoria in England is mainly there to enable the equerry love story and to show a load of privileged oiks in red jackets hunting foxes.
Do we need another film about Sisi, an empress who has attracted a lot of artistic interest in recent years with a couple of tv series and a number of films – not to mention the Romy Schneider film from the 1950s? To give it its due, Sisi und ich’s decision to see things mainly through Irma’s eyes at least gives it a different focus. But, even though it shows that the Empress had many imperfections, it doesn’t quite escape the realm of hagiography.
Like Spencer, and most films about royals – however critical – Sisi und ich is fated to concentrate on the lifestyles of the super rich, which – whisper it – are not very interesting and become quite repetitive pretty quickly. Even if your subject is a woman who has been excluded from the circles of power, she’s still a very privileged women who has the resources to hang around in a Greek commune and ordering people about. Sisi is not a character with whom most people can identify.
You might argue that we are seeing things from Irma’s POV and that Irma is not a posho – but just wait one minute. Irma is the Countess von Sztáray, daughter of Princess Ludovika von Bayern. She may be a little inelegant and clumsy, but that does not mean that she’s one of us. They’re not offering her sort of work down at the Job Centre. You might argue that the film is satirising Irma’s blind loyalty to her social better, but if this is the intention, it doesn’t really get through.
In case this all sounds horrible, Suzanne Wolff is suitably charismatic as Sisi, and Sandra Hüller, who plays Irma, is always worth watching. One early scene, in which she secretly pulls a face, is worth the entrance fee alone. In the first half of the film, you enjoy spending time in their company, even though they are doing not much more than going on long walks, riding horses together and Irma combing Sisi’s hair. But although the film lasts well over 2 hours, we never really get anywhere.
Unlike some critics, I did love the soundtrack – a string of songs about heartache and loneliness by modern female singers. It’s all quite anachronistic, especially when Irma sings along, but the selected music (a variety of folk, rock and country songs, including ones by Portishead, Nico, and Dory Previn) are magnificent and do touch you. Occasionally, the lyrics try to follow Irma and Sisi’s mood a little too literally, but if that annoys you, just sit back and listen to the nice music.
Only one of the songs we hear is not sung by a woman – a choir singing the Carol of the Bells. At this point in the script, Sisi declares that she has lost all interest in music. This may not even have been intentional, but if it was, you feel that the film is trying just a little too hard. And this, I think, is where the film falls down. It is not funny enough to be a comedy and not dramatic enough to be a drama. It is well-acted, which is arguably enough reason to go see it, but could be much better.
CinePhil 