Picture Palace
The Empress: A Rebel in a Gilded Cage

Are you one of those people rolling their eyes at the seemingly never-ending “Sisi” mania? Don’t despair! Netflix has knocked the proverbial dust off the celluloid legacy of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Hungary, for a six-part drama entitled “The Empress”. The series includes plenty of intrigue, rebellion at the palace, and a glimpse of skin.

By Angela Zierow

She’s back: Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Hungary – whose pet name is Sisi with just the one “s” in the middle, more on that later. From Corsage featuring the award-winning Vicky Krieps to Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & Ich – in past years the eventful life of the monarch has been a popular choice for filmmakers. So it was only a matter of time until Netflix got in on the act. The Empress (Die Kaiserin) is one of the most successful non-English productions to come from the Netflix stable last year, revealed the US streaming service – usually so tight-lipped where viewing figures are concerned. Showrunner and head writer Katharina “Kati” Eyssen (Holiday Secrets; Zeit der Geheimnisse) is already working on a second season. This success comes as no surprise. The Empress makes clever use of the ongoing “sexy costume drama” hype that made hits of productions like Bridgerton (also Netflix). Was the rebellious title hero an actual person or not? That’s completely irrelevant, the main thing is she’s young, sassy, smart and sexy.

The other factor is that the name Sisi is recognised across all generations in German-speaking countries. The story in the first season should seem familiar to them: the Bavarian Duchess Elisabeth (played by Devrim Lingnau) loves her life spent between the stable and the great outdoors, until she falls in love with her cousin Franz Joseph (Philip Froissant), Emperor of Austria. However he was initially engaged to marry Sisi’s sister. That’s not an ideal start to the joys of love and marriage, especially as it messes up the plans made by Franz’s influential mother Sophie (Melika Foroutan), and Franz’s brother Maximilian (Johannes Nussbaum) also has a soft spot for his pretty cousin. Meanwhile trouble’s brewing in the kingdom, the people are rebelling. Foreign affairs aren’t running smoothly either – there’s a threat of war from several directions. A pompous wedding that’s anything but a dream, with plenty of added scandal, forbidden love and excessive parties – Sisi’s life Netflix-style. | Photo (detail): © Netflix

A Royal Popstar

It’s not always historically flawless, but how many Sisi films are totally without artistic licence? The real Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, who was stabbed on 10th September 1898 in Geneva, had already served countless creative artists as a template for novels, films and TV productions. The monarch became a celluloid hero for the first time in 1920. In the silent film Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich (Empress Elisabeth of Austria), Carla Nelsen played Sisi under the direction of her husband Rolf Raffé. There’s even a musical and an operetta. The libretto for Sissi by Fritz Kreisler was written by Ernst Marischka, scion of an Austrian creative dynasty who was responsible for an impressive three classics in the German-language film genre: not only did his Sissi trilogy make stars out of Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm. For many Germans Christmas wouldn’t be complete without Schneider’s soulful “Franzl!”.

Incidentally it was Marischka as director who gave his title character a second “s”, a fact that gives rise to confusion to this very day. Which spelling is historically correct? Just one “s”. This is attested by a tobacco tin that was a birthday gift to Elisabeth from the Bavarian King Ludwig II in 1881. The engraving reads: “Angebetete, aufrichtig geliebte Sisi. Niemand auf Erden ist mir so teuer als Du” (Adored, truly beloved Sisi. No one on Earth is as dear to me as you).

Current Sisi productions attempt to paint a more complex picture of the woman once described by British paper The Guardian as “a Habsburg popstar, the first royal celebrity, the earliest example of a woman body-shamed by the media and a long undiscovered 19th century feminist icon”. Before the Netflix production The Empress, the German TV channel RTL+ screened a series in December 2021 starring Dominique Devenport and Jannik Schümann as the Austrian imperial couple. Sisi – which depicts scenes of an eventful marriage with plenty of drama, pomp and passion – is now in its third season. Tightly laced into her corset: life at the imperial court consists of bizarre, antiquated rituals and traditional rules. | Photo (detail): © Netflix

Tightly Laced Into Her Corset

The Empress is in the same vein. It also portrays an unorthodox woman who questions the rules and struggles with conventions. She utters statements like “I want a man who satisfies my soul”, she writes poems and narrowly escapes being bundled off to the so-called lunatic asylum by her own mother. The imperial court turns out to be a snake pit with bizarre, antiquated rituals, including a degrading virginity test. The role of the young Empress was to keep quiet, emanate glamour, beguile the people, and produce an heir to the throne. And to make sure everyone really understands that the six-part drama focuses on the fight against traditional rules, Elisabeth is regularly laced into her corset so tightly that she can’t breathe.

Admittedly The Empress doesn’t work as a flagship for female emancipation – but the ladies do have the upper hand in terms of power. Bothersome husbands are unceremoniously shipped off to country estates, where they get to chase after wild animals and potential mistresses. Incidentally sex and passion abound; The Empress is not from bygone days in this respect either. Add in plenty of scandal, forbidden love and excessive parties, garnished periodically with a smattering of kitsch, along with a wedding that’s anything but a dream. The story of Sisi’s rebellion is told through beautifully composed images – although history buffs will search in vain for original film locations. Plus the fact that showrunner Eyssen has taken some liberties by including modern elements such as earrings on men, tattoos, and expressive dance. Welcome to the present, Sisi.