A European legend gets a twist in the movie Sisi & I, moving into sensibilities more suited to 2024 than the real woman’s own days in the late 1800s. Officially known as Empress Elisabeth of Austria but popularly called Sisi (Sissi), she captured the public’s fancy through a combination of beauty, a Princess Diana fairy tale illusion about the joys of marrying into royalty, and ultimately, refusal to bend to society’s whims. Sisi’s rebellious spirit dominates director Frauke Finsterwalder’s project, co-written with her husband Christian Kracht. Their script purposefully jettisons numerous historical facts, putting current sympathies into the mix as the empress stands up for various rights ranging from sexual to choices about suicide. Finsterwalder sees Sisi as a conundrum, full of charm but self-centered, suited to the kind of dark humor and shenanigans found in The Favourite as minions hustle to meet the whims of woman who hates hearing the word “no.” Susanne Wolff, beautiful and not hiding a few impacts from age, captures Sisi’s ability to shine a light that others want to soak up. Sisi’s devotees include the title’s “I,” Sandra Hüller, a countess hired as companion and assistant to the fickle empress. Known for giving rounded, natural performances like the one that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Anatomy of a Fall, Hüller once again blends into her movie’s world as if born there. The world displayed for Sisi and I takes place in the late 1800s amidst luxurious Vienna palaces full of decadent food, furniture, and period costumes. Director Finsterwalder shakes up the elegance by using a Euro pop mix of songs whose lyrics reflect characters and action—though movement often involves little more than the camera sweeping across stunning scenery. But as often happens, beauty proves compelling, so Sisi & I fits into a long tradition of the empress capturing screen attention—any doubts of that allure erased by an Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) statistic that shows her inspiring at least one project almost every year since 1921. Not only that, the empress still influences “set jetting “ visits throughout Bavaria, where fans can buy such
classic souvenirs as a Sisi rubber duckie.
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