Aren’t there a bit too much series and films about Empress Elisabeth of Austria “Sisi” nowadays. Netflix has Die Kaiserin (The Empress) since 2022 (another season yet to come), the film Corsage came out this year, and since 2021 there is a German tv-series by RTL. And apart from that as usual the old 1950s Sissi-films with Romy Schneider as the Empress will surely be shown on TV-channels in several European countries during the Christmas season again.
2023 it will be 125 years ago that Sisi was murdered in Geneva, Switzerland. In March 2023 the German film “Sisi & Ich” (Sisi & I) by producer Frauke Finsterwalder is to be shown in the cinema. The court lady Irma falls in love with the mature, charismatic Empress Elisabeth, who lives in freedom in a kind of aristocratic commune in Greece. That even sounds less real than the romantic version or the rebelious more modern Sisi than ever before.
RTL-Series
RTL (Germany) has announced that the second season of Sisi, with Dominique Devenport as Empress Sisi and Jannik Schümann as Emperor Franz Joseph I will be right in time for Christmas. The new episodes 7 to 21 will be available at RTL+ on 16 December 2022. The TV-channel Fox will repeat the first season on 16 and 17 December 2022, three episodes each evening, starting at 8.15pm. The second season will be on television at RTL on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 December 2022, with three episodes each evening, also starting at 8.15pm.
The story
In season 2, Sisi finally gives her Franz an heir to the throne! Actually, the birth of their son should make the happiness of the imperial couple perfect. Instead, it is the impetus for power struggles in Europe: Bismarck threatens to drive Austria into a new war. Sisi tries with all her might to be there for her husband and her people. Personal happiness, however, does not seem to be granted to the empress: Sisi’s life remains that of a bird in a golden cage.
When she has to travel to Hungary on a political mission, she encounters a world that makes her blossom anew in many ways: The untamed, endless expanses of the Hungarian puszta, the hard, simple life of the people and a man with whom one can steal horses: Count Gyula Andrássy (Giovanni Funiati). When Sisi ends up in captivity with Andrássy, of all people, she has to ask herself how long she can resist his attraction …
Podcast
“Sisi” hype and lots of news also on the RTL+ social channels: On the podcast channel within the RTL+ music app, there is the exclusive podcast “Sisi – Ihrer Zeit voraus” (Sisi – Ahead of Her Time), in which host Tim goes on a search for traces of Sisi’s past in Vienna and meets people who can tell interesting stories about the empress.
Producers and funding
The second season was funded by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (Support Programme for International Film Productions in Latvia), the Riga Film Fund of the Riga Municipality and the Tax Incentives Programme for Film Productions of the Republic of Lithuania. The series were produced by Story House Pictures. Producers were Andreas Gutzeit and Jens Freels. BETA Film is handling world distribution. The scripts were written by Elena Hell, Robert Krause and Svenja Rasocha. Robert Krause and Andreas Gutzeit were the head writers. The film was directed by Miguel Alexandre and Sven Bohse. The editor in charge at RTL Germany is Nadja Malkewitz, Sylke Poensgen is executive producer, under the direction of Hauke Bartel.
I cannot understand the fascination with this woman or her family. If not for the legend of her unmatched beauty, I suspect there would be no modern fascination with Kaiserin Elisabeth. She was immature and unsophisticated, and she dodged her adulthood responsibilities by crafting a self-indulgent and self-absorbed life that worked well for her, but not for anyone else. Her husband was an utterly unimaginative work-horse of duty to the day he died. Their failures as parents resulted in a deeply frustrated heir who found solace in a seedy and morbid existence, which led to the worst possible result.
I think in Europe the 1950s films of Sissi with Romy Schneider – still shown on television – might have been a huge reason for her popularity, as well as her cause of death of course and her character.