Sissi is an Austrian historical romance film released in 1956, written and directed by Ernst Marischka, relating the early years of Elizabeth of Wittlesbach aka "Sissi" as empress of Austria, starring Romy Schneider as Sissi and Karlheinz Böhm as Emperor Franz-Josef I.
In 1853, Archduchess Sophie of Bavaria decides to make a match between her son, Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria, and her niece, Helene "Nene" in Bavaria, and plans to announce the engagement in the summer residence of the imperial family in Ischl. However, Helene's sister Elisabeth "Sissi", who accompanies her, meets the Emperor first and love is immediately sparked between the two.
Two sequels followed the two following years, Sissi the Young Empress (1956) and Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957).
This film contains examples of:
- Actually, I Am Him: When they first meet, Sissi immediately knows who Franz is, but he has no idea that this charming young lady is actually his cousin, and his betrothed's sister, though he asks her if she knows of them as they come from the same place. She refuses to tell him the truth even as he declares his love to her, and he only figures it out when they are officially introduced at a court ball.
- Adapted Out: When the real Sissi and Franz met, Sissi was dramatically mourning her first love, whom she had been forbidden to marry. Here, this boy does not exist, and Sissi's cheerfulness is one of the things that attract Franz to her.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Sissi is a passionate and skilled equestrian.
- Arranged Marriage: Initially, between Franz and Helene; however Franz and Sissi meet by chance and fall deeply in love.
- Artistic License – History: The series as a whole is Lighter and Softer than actual history.
- While Franz-Josef I was very much enamoured with his wife, it was far from as reciprocal as depicted in the movie.
- Sissi was never allowed to raise her own children in the end, as she eventually obtains in the movie.
- Rudolf was already born by the time Elisabeth became sick and started travelling as she does in the third movie.
- The movie presents Sissi's illness like something either genetic or caused by her very active lifestyle; modern doctors tend to believe that the symptoms were psychosomatic and caused by depression and anorexia.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Each of the three movies finishes on one.
- The first movie ends with Sissi sailing down the Danube under Austrian cheers, and her wedding to Franz.
- The second movie ends on an actual moment of crowning with Franz and especially Sissi being crowned together King and Queen of Hungary.
- The third film ends with the previously taciturn Venetians cheering on Sissi as she reunites with her young daughter after months of separation.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ludovika spends most of her time scolding Max for his terrible manners; however, when the king of Bavaria sends an envoy to demand that the Duke observe a more regal lifestyle and attitute now that his daughter is Empress, Ludovika straight up refuses and demands that they be left to live their life as they see fit.
- Babies Make Everything Better:
- Averted with little Sophie: her arrival in the family makes all the conflict between her mother and her grandmother explode.
- Played straight at the end of the third film: Sissi and Franz are ignored by the people of Venice during their official visit and given a very humiliating silent treatment. Until little Gisele is produced on the Piazza San Marco: Sissi, who had been sick and had not seen her in months, runs to take her in her arms and kiss her, and the crowd, moved, starts cheering "Viva la mamma!"note
- Bait-and-Switch: While in Hungary, Sissi attempts to save a Romani woman from being beaten by her husband, but when she intervenes, the woman scolds her and splashes her with a bucket of water.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: Nene is only called by her full name (Helene) in the French dub, probably because néné meants titty in French.
- Bodyguard Crush: Böckl, who is made colonel and Sissi's personal guard in the second movie, has a crush on her which is mostly Played for Laughs. He acknowledges that he loves her like a distant icon and has no hope of anything ever coming out of it.
- Call-Forward: While the series ends in 1857, a Bohemian palm reader tells Sissi that she will have two more children (Rudolf and Maria Valeria), and hides from her that she is going to be miserable for the rest of her life.
- Also in the second movie after the birth of Sissi's first daughter:
Sophie: Franz and I have long decided that if it were to be a boy, his name would be Rudolf. - Calling the Old Man Out: While Franz is an extremely dutiful Momma's Boy, he has been known to snap at his mother when she goes too far in her judgement and mistreatment of Sissi.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Sissi is determined to leave Vienna if she is not given her daughter back, but Franz begs her to stay, invoking his need of her, her duty as Empress, and the love of the Hungarian people who are about to name him king thanks to her. Eventually, she joins him at the ceremony, where in relief he promises to return their baby to her.
- Costume Porn: The countless gowns worn by Sissi and the Austrian court, the Hungarian costumes of both aristocrats and common people, the uniforms, the hunting gear, the riding gear, the walking gear - these movies are overflown by magnificent costumes in each new scene.
- Daddy's Girl: Sissi is very close to her father.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Sophie is originally so steeped in protocol that even "getting comfortable with her son" means "sit on chairs ten feet away from each other" to her, and she is extremely cold to Sissi. While the change is subtle, she eventually grows somewhat more warm, and by the third movie she is embracing Franz and smiling uncontrollably at Sissi's recovery.
- Doting Parent:
- Sissi, who participated in raising most of her siblings, is an unusually hands-on mother to her daughters, and always takes time out of her day to be with them.
Franz: Please consider: our official lives are so charged - how will you ever find time to raise your child?Sissi: I will always find time for my child, far more easily than for balls or receptions!- Max and Ludovika also dote on all their children, though they're not above scolding them when needed. They are also Doting Grandparents to Sissi's children, and it's the existence of their granddaughter Marina that eventually makes them accept their son's marriage to her mother.
- While she is stern and bordering on My Beloved Smother, Sophie clearly adores Franz; in fact, most of her severity comes from fear for his position and very life.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Archduchess Sophie is extremely severe and quick to hand out execution orders. Of course, most of them are directed towards rebels, terrorists, and men who tried to murder her son. Sissi, on the other hand, preaches forgiveness and amnesty, making her quite popular among the oppressed populations of the empire.
- The Good King: Franz clearly tries to be this, refusing to hand out executions dime a dozen and to unite the empire; however, his obvious unpopularity first in Hungary, then in Italy, shows that he's not very good at it.
- Graceful Loser: The one Milanese nobleman who came to La Scala in order to gloat when the Italian aristocrats sent their staff in their place to humiliate Franz and Sissi. He is even more amused by the way they turn the situation around against his countrymen.
- Fainting: Sissi faints at the ball welcoming the Hungarian exiles home, due to exhaustion caused by her pregnancy.
- Fiery Redhead: Sissi, with her magnificent light auburn hair, who is on the softer side of Spirited Young Lady.
- Happily Married: Franz and Sissi frequently clash about their responsibilities as Emperor and Empress of Austria, but they clearly adore each other as people.
- Max and Ludovika, Sissi's parents, are also this, despite their differences in character.
- Sophie and her husband Franz Karl, while often acting Like an Old Married Couple, are also clearly fond of each other.
- Henpecked Husband: Franz Karl, Sophie's husband and Franz's father, is this, which led him to develop his Obfuscating Disability. Max also considers himself one, although he's clearly the one in charge of how his household works.
- Hollywood Costuming: While Costume Porn is very much in action, some elements are roughly a hundred years ahead of fashion, with 1950's bustiers and low waistlines, and much smaller petticoats than those of the 1850's. There is also the occasional heart-shaped neckline and most women sport a dramatic red lip, when Victorian makeup was particularly discreet.
- Perhaps the worst offender is Franz Josef's baby face. Facial hair may not have been considered good-looking in the 1950s, but the real Franz Josef, even as a young man, had fine whiskers and a mustache, which eventually became enormous.
- The Ingenue: Sissi oscillates between this and the Spirited Young Lady.
- In-Universe Nickname:
- Sissi for Elisabeth
- Nene for Helene
- Max for Duke Maximilian in Bavaria, their father
- Franz for the more complete Franz-Josef
- Ironic Echo: In the first movie, between Franz's brothers. When Maximilian speaks of how much he admires Nene, Karl Ludwig says that he shouldn't try to hunt on the Emperor's land; but as it becomes clearer to everyone that Sissi is actually Franz's favorite, Maximilian later says the same to Karl Ludwig, who had been courting Sissi all evening.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Franz spurns Helene in favor of Sissi, she tells her at the end of the movie that not only does she not resent her, she has also found another suitor, which alleviates Sissi's guilt and allows her to go on to marry Franz. In the third movie, it is revealed that Helene actually never got over the humiliation and heartbreak, and cannot think to ever fall in love again.
- Kissing Cousins: As per Habsburg tradition, Sissi and Franz are first cousins as their mothers are sisters.
- Love Triangle: While Sissi is Happily Married to Franz, she has a number of suitors across the movies, notably his brother Karl Ludwig, Count Andrássy, or Colonel Böckl. Helene too never got over Franz.
- Marry for Love: Franz and Sissi, despite him being betrothed to her sister Nene.
- In the third movie, Sissi's brother Ludwig and actress Henriette Mendel, in spite of his parents' wishes.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: All nine children of Max and Ludovika are shown on screen.
- Meet Cute: Sissi, while fishing, accidentally hooks Franz's coat as he was passing by.
- Momma's Boy: Franz is an extremely dutiful son and always heeds Archduchess Sophie, though she can oftentimes border on My Beloved Smother.
- Mother Makes You King: As Sophie points out several times, she refused the crown to give it to her Franz in order to perpetuate the House of Habsburg.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs for Böckl at the end of the first film: he considers throwing himself down a well when he realizes that the girl he mistook for a terrorist and harrassed all day is actually the Emperor's bride.
- Obnoxious In-Laws:
- The tense relationship between Sissi and her mother-in-law Archduchess Sophie is a running theme of the trilogy, and at the core of the second one. Sissi has little respect for the court of Vienna and her position as Empress of Austria either, which Sophie, who spent her life battling for these principles, cannot tolerate. She spies on her, scolds her continuously, and crosses the line when she takes away Sissi's daughter to raise her herself. However, it is clear that Sophie, while stern, is actually quite fond of Sissi when she does not betray her position, and their relationship seems to become somewhat warmer after the second movie.
- Sophie also considers Max, Sissi's father and her own brother-in-law, to be this, with his carefree bourgeois lifestyle.
- Obfuscating Disability: Franz Karl, Franz's father, is actually not deaf in the least; he fakes it so people (especially his wife) will stop bothering him. He eventually tells Sissi, who plays along as she understands his plight.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: From both Max and Ludovika about Sissi's flight from Vienna after Sophie confiscates her daughter. While Sissi expects her father to side with her, he scolds her, gently but decidedly, about running away from her responsibilities; meanwhile, her mother, who is usually the one most concerned with propriety, and from whom Sissi had kept the truth for this reason, is outraged when she learns what happened and confronts both Franz and Sophie about it.
- Pet the Dog: Böckl is congratulated by Sissi's own father for near single-handedly reconciliating the imperial couple behind the scenes.
- Serial Romeo: Despite his Bodyguard Crush on Sissi, Böckl somehow finds a new girlfriend in every port they land in (a serving girl Hungary, his Portuguese teacher in Madera, and a farmgirl in Corfu). He genuinely falls in love as hard and as quickly as he seems to fall out.
- Spell My Name With An S: Sissi, as opposed to the more well-known (in English) Sisi.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When in Milan, Franz and Sissi invite all of the local aristocracy to the opera, but they refuse and give their invites to their staff. While surprised at first, Franz and Sissi decide to act as though nothing was amiss and later greet the guests as if they were all the princes and dukes they serve, turning the Italians' humiliation back against them.Italian Lady: So now the Empress thinks I look like a cook?!
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Proper Lady Nene is the Girly Girl to Sissi's horse riding, fishing, hunting, generally wilder Tomboy.
- Universally Beloved Leader: While Franz is a polarizing figure in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his empress Sissi, through her natural charm and clever navigation of social rules, makes herself incredibly popular wherever she goes, especially in Hungary.Franz: You have won more battles than all my generals.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Little Archduchess Sophie, Sissi's firstborn child, dies between the events of the second and third movie; however this is never mentioned, and audiences are surprised to see her replaced by her sister Gisele.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Despite having a long conversation with Sissi in which she states that while she may love him, she does not want to marry him, Franz goes ahead and claims that they are engaged before the entire court, forcing her into marriage. It helps that they actually are in love, and that Sissi's main qualm was her sister's sorrow, which she soon learns is non-existent.
- Wrong Guy First: Toyed with. Sissi is initially closer to Franz's brother Karl Ludwig, and her mother suggests that a double marriage might be considered, but while Karl Ludwig does genuinely court her, she only sees him as her cousin and Unlucky Childhood Friend.
