Sisi & I movie storyline. Sisi has reached the last half of her life. Countess Irma finds her in an aristocratic women-only commune in Greece, a whole universe away from the strict etiquette of Austria-Hungary’s court. Sisi lives in absolute freedom, in which neither her children nor her husband Emperor Franz Joseph play any sort of role.
The only important thing is that no one should ever be bored and that the empress herself decides the rules of the game. Irma is captivated by the charismatic Sisi and her modern ideas. But the outside world is reaching out to break Sisi. And no matter how much Irma and Sisi resist, in the end they are left with only one fatal path that will bind the two women together forever.
Sisi & I (German: Sisi & Ich) is a 2023 historical black comedy film directed by Frauke Finsterwalder, who co-wrote the screenplay with Christian Kracht. It stars Susanne Wolff as Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Sandra Hüller as Countess Irma Sztáray. It tells a fictionalized story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray.
The film is an international co-production between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Sisi & I made its world premiere in the Panorama section of the 2023 Berlin Film Festival on February 19, 2023. It was released theatrically in Austria by Panda Film, and in Germany and Switzerland by DCM on March 30, 2023.
Finsterwalder won the 2023 Bavarian Film Award for Best Director for the film. It also received four nominations for the 2023 German Film Award, including Best Actress for Sandra Hüller, and won the award for Best Costume Design. The film also received the Austrian Film Award for Best Costume Design in 2024.
Principal photography started on September 20, 2021 and wrapped on 15 November 2021. Filming took place in Germany, Bavaria, Vienna, Malta and Switzerland. The film was originally set to be released in spring 2022. It made its world premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on 19 February 2023.
It was scheduled to be released theatrically in Germany and Switzerland by DCM on March 16, 2023, but the release date in both countries was pushed back to March 30, 2023. Panda Film was released the film in Austria on the same day. A companion book to the film featuring the entire screenplay, film stills, a behind the scenes look and a conversation between Frauke Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht was published on March 29, 2023. The runtime announced in 2022 was 110 minutes. Shortly before the film’s premiere at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, the runtime announced on the festival’s official website was 132 minutes.
Film Review for Sisi & I
Let’s get one obvious thing out of the way: Yes, it hasn’t been that long since we’ve had a feature film on the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, commonly known to public as Sisi. That film was Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage” (2022), starring a stiff-lipped and often (aptly) unsmiling Vicky Krieps as the much-tormented 19th-Century royal.
A woman who felt constrained not only by her tight corsets but also by the era’s restrictive attitudes towards her, Sisi had to keep at a certain weight despite her love of sweets (she sadly developed an eating disorder) and behave a certain appropriate way, an expectation she had no desire to comply with. Nowadays? From milk chocolate wrappers to cheap eyeglass cases, she ironically decorates the façade of every single tourist souvenir in Austria not occupied by Mozart or Beethoven. So, in other words, Sisi is still corseted, caged, and tormented, a brutal reality director Frauke Finsterwalder tries to unlock (and undo) in the present day with her “Sisi & I,” much like Kreutzer did before her.
In that, this new Sisi film (co-written by Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht) shares a great deal with “Corsage.” For starters, it is also wall-to-wall anachronisms, from its intentionally feminine-forward contemporary soundtrack to Helga Lohninger’s gorgeous costuming—not always accurate to period, but with something purposeful to say about both the past and our present time like the movie it dresses. Still, the new film feels like it’s missing a certain something in its quest—where “Corsage” was cheeky, playfully dark and came with a dose of heart-tugging mischief, “Sisi & I” feels tame and square by comparison.
But it’s perhaps unfair to compare these films all too closely, since Finsterwalder’s outing is its own thing, seen mostly through the eyes of Sisi’s (Susanne Wolff) loyal handmaiden, Countess Irma (Sandra Hüller, in a quieter register after her extraordinary dual turn in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest.”) We meet her when she is faced with only bad options for her future: she can marry, or pursue a life in the convent, or become a part of Sisi’s court. At first glance, that last option is immensely attractive for the oppressed woman who’s repulsed by the male bodily hair and abused by her overbearing mother, both verbally and physically.
But being in the inner circle of the monarch doesn’t necessarily prove to be the escape she’s been looking for either. That much is clear during the interview at the Corfu island when a freshly seasick Irma is weighed and measured like she’s the property of Reynolds Woodcock in “Phantom Thread.” And her life from there on out would be even worse, eating however little she’s allowed, wearing what Sisi has chosen for her circle and taking drugs as ordered by the noble lady. There would also be mind games like in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite”—the hot and cold Sisi’s bait-and-switch (and sometimes, sexually suggestive) loyalties shift on a whim, and the ever-smitten Irma should be emotionally ready for that rollercoaster.
All things considered, “Sisi & I” is less beguiling as a film when Finsterwalder’s stays close to the Empress. (Again, we have the more impressive “Corsage” for that.) It succeeds more when the tale stays with a frustrated Irma, slowly growing into her voice and confidence despite the circumstances. In real life, Irma accompanied Sisi during the last four years of her existence, from 1894 to 1898, and was present during Sisi’s assassination after her travels through Europe.
The film (which often feels overlong) charts these excursions lavishly and smartly leans into its characters’ queer sensibilities, often in varying doses. One of the main personalities in that regard is Sisi’s cross-dressing brother-in-law Viktor (Georg Friedrich), who had a scandalous reputation as a libertine at the time. And through it all, Hüller’s dedication to the part is most impressive—even when the emphasis isn’t on her Irma, she sneakily dethrones Sisi and makes “Sisi & I” her own movie to run away with.
In the end, this is a sufficiently rebellious film about women’s refusal to be forced into sandboxes fashioned by oppressing norms—about fighting for air and resisting the urge to sink into that quicksand, however beautifully decorated. In her liberating and empowering pursuit, Finsterwalder might be meek to a fault sometimes. But this Sisi still has some mainstream pleasures of its own, however overshadowed they may be by the mere existence of “Corsage.”
Sisi & I (2023)
Sisi & Ich
Directed by: Frauke Finsterwalder
Starring: Susanne Wolff, Sandra Hüller, Tom Rhys Harries, Stefan Kurt, Johanna Wokalek, Angela Winkler, Georg Friedrich, Annette Badland, Anthony Calf, Markus Schleinzer, Sibylle Canonica
Screenplay by: Frauke Finsterwalder, Christian Kracht
Production Design by: Katharina Wöppermann
Cinematography by: Thomas W. Kiennast
Film Editing by: Andreas Menn
Costume Design by: Tanja Hausner
Set Decoration by: Helga Lohninger
Art Direction by: Jon Banthorpe
Music by: Matteo Pagamici
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: DCM (Germany and Switzerland), Panda Film (Austria)
Release Date: February 19, 2023 (Berlinale), March 30, 2023 (Austria, Germany and Switzerland)
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