The Big Picture

Sisi & I
offers a twisted look into Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s final years with Countess Irma Sztáray providing a unique perspective.
The film depicts a seclusive Empress struggling with mental health issues while developing a complex relationship with her lady-in-waiting.

Sisi & I
, although chaotic at times, captures the unpredictable life and dramatic extremes of the Empress, highlighting her likeness to Princess Diana and her enduring mystique.

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known familiarly as Sisi, was a royal celebrity at the end of the 19th Century, and has been the subject of many films since. The Sissi Trilogy, three movies which star Romy Schneider as a young Sisi, was a huge hit in the 1950s, and airs on German television every Christmas; it’s the European It’s A Wonderful Life. The Sissi trilogy appeals with its glamourous portrayal of the Empress. More recently, directors have been taking a darker look at Sisi’s life, in particular her mental health struggles and her battle to escape confinement within a patriarchal society. Netflix’s The Empress retells the story of Sisi’s marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph. In 2022’s Corsage, Vicki Krieps played Sisi in middle age. Now comes Sisi & I, which shows the empress’ final years through the eyes of Countess Irma Sztáray, her lady-in-waiting and confidant, played by Sandra Hüller. The film imagines Irma and Sisi in a twisted relationship that approaches romance, but never quite gets there. As Irma accompanies Sisi on a tour of Europe, the film meanders as well. But though it never quite coheres, the stunning production design and wardrobe keep things interesting, as does director Frauke Finsterwalder’s willingness to push the drama to whipsawing psychological extremes.

Sisi & I (2023) Sisi & I is a fictionalized perspective on Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, through the eyes of her lady-in-waiting, Countess Irma Sztáray. Set in the late 19th century, the story explores the unconventional relationship between Sisi and Irma as they navigate the strict confines of the Austro-Hungarian court and seek freedom in Greece.Release Date March 30, 2023 Director Frauke Finsterwalder Cast Susanne Wolff , Sandra Hüller , Tom Rhys Harries , Stefan Kurt , Johanna Wokalek Runtime 132 Minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Frauke Finsterwalder , Christian Kracht Studio(s) Walker + Worm Film , MMC Independent , C-Films AG , Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft Expand

What Is ‘Sisi & I’ About?

The movie opens with Hüller, as Irma, staring into the camera confrontationally, while an anachronistic bit of hip-hop inflected pop plays on the soundtrack. The opening gambit teases that we’re going to get another one of what you could call a “Hüller movie,” in which the strange and singular actor channels a competitive aggression into the ordinary; turning everyday life into sports (as she did most notably in Anatomy of a Fall). Irma is applying to be the Empress’ lady in waiting, a process that demands she be weighed, like a prizefighter. Her mother is her coach, overbearing and cruel, slapping Irma in the face to keep her focused on winning, even drawing blood. The interview is conducted by Countess Marie Festetics (Johanna Wokalek), whose position Irma will be inheriting, and who is implied to have been the Empress’ former lover, on the way out. Marie couldn’t hack it, but we expect a more relentless showing from Irma.

Irma gets the job, and travels to Sisi’s summer palace on the Greek island of Corfu, where the empress lives, apart from her husband. When Irma arrives, she is put through weird and humiliating trials, forced to run across the garden to demonstrate her footspeed, as the staff moves around stone benches to turn the garden into an obstacle course. Sisi watches secretively from behind a curtained window. She finally reveals herself as a woman living in a strange and decadent isolation, according to her own exacting rules. Played with a cold glamour by Susanne Wolfe, Sisi is obsessed with her appearance and her weight. She starves herself and demands her staff starve as well. She dresses in the latest fashions and has Irma’s clothes burned for being too frilly. The stage appears to be set for something Gothic and off-kilter, as Irma gradually earns her way into the reclusive empress’s confidence, perhaps leaning into her own perversions.

Sisi & I turns out not to have the patience for that kind of slow-simmering storytelling. In fact, Sisi is drawn immediately to Irma’s normality. Famously, the Empress lived an ordinary childhood, before her marriage catapulted her into opulence. She’s much like Citizen Kane in that way, and Irma becomes her Rosebud, rapidly supplanting Sisi’s other confidantes. Irma is given the tasks of bathing the Empress, as well as sleeping chastely beside her to keep her company through the night. Both become smitten with each other. But as soon as they begin their summer pseudo-romance (scored with modern pop), the idyll is disturbed by the arrival of Franz’s hedonistic brother Viktor. Irma loses the Empress’ attention, and Viktor’s energy transforms palace life into a nonstop party. Irma struggles to stay relevant, but as we are beginning to learn, the Empress’ mood is unsteady. Soon, this episode has also run its course. And just as Irma gets Sisi back to herself, the Empress and her entire retinue depart Corfu for Vienna, and they don’t return to this location for the rest of the film.

‘Sisi & I’ Is as Restless as Its Title Empress

Before we arrive in Vienna, there is a strange and janky diversion in which the Empress’ train arrives without her on it. We cut to reveal that Irma and Sisi have jumped off the train, on one of Sisi’s mad whims. It’s a bit too strange an idea for the film to ingest, especially without depicting the event, and this is the first sign that Sisi & I has more ideas than it can sensibly organize. Irma is furious with Sisi and tries to quit, but is charmed into staying. Yet when we do finally arrive in court, Sisi reconnects with her husband, whom she somewhat respects as a partner but has no romantic interest in. Nevertheless, Irma is again sidelined. The push and pull between Irma and Sisi again shifts wildly, and becomes difficult to track for the rest of the film.

Soon, the retinue goes off to Hungary, where Irma hails from, and where Sisi is a beloved figure. After Sisi splits with her husband more firmly, the two head off alone to England. Irma is again replaced in Sisi’s affections by the dashing groom (Thom Rhys Harries) in the stables of the aristocratic Earl Spencer (Anthony Calf). It’s another moment when the narrative drifts into chaos. It’s not just that we introduce a major new character very close to the end of the movie. There’s also nothing leading up to this new chapter to suggest that Sisi would be interested in a man like that, or a man at all.

Still, we do follow that Irma has again been supplanted, and that Sisi is beginning to find her obsessive adoration oppressive. After Irma takes desperate action and the affair is cut short, Sisi enters a spiraling depression. As the movie draws to a close, it becomes clear that none of the people who love Sisi understand her, and that she may not be capable of being understood. The film ends with a moment of historical revisionism that is shockingly similar to the finale of another biopic of a 19th-century superstar, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The similarity says a lot about our undying hunger for celebrities, which persists long after they’re gone.

Chaotic Though It May Be, ‘Sisi & I’ Makes an Impression
Image via DCM

It’s nice to feel that a director is in control of their material, and that every element has been perfectly placed where it is – even the shadows and absences – to achieve something intentional.

Still, it’s hard to be too put off by a movie that hurtles along with abandon along a senseless emotional roller coaster. After all, that’s sometimes how life is. The film presents Sisi as someone with severe mental health issues, made worse by brushes with tragedy. (The movie doesn’t really address the actual Sisi’s loss of two children, perhaps assuming that a European audience will not need to be told.) It makes a certain kind of sense that a woman like that, with access to an Empress’ fortune, would lead an unpredictable life. It’s equally clear how she could end up captivating the public, and why she’s so frequently compared to Princess Diana. By the end of the movie, the film does manage to make a complete statement about Sisi. But that statement is that Sisi is beyond our comprehension, too great a soul to be earthbound. Be comforted by the fact that she dwelled among us, for a time.

The movie doesn’t end up serving Irma very well. It initially builds her up as driven and complex, perhaps the Empress’ equal. But she’s completely overwhelmed by the wild Sisi, and ends up a passive subject to her unpredictable whims. It’s not the Sandra Hüller movie you might have hoped for, and Sisi & I never communicates any particular reason for us to perceive Sisi through this boring outsider’s perspective. But even if the movie doesn’t come to a clean point, it maintains a certain grandeur. Part of that is the majestic location filming (captured on 16mm by Thomas W. Kiennast), and part of that is the incredible wardrobe (from Tanja Hausner). But the largest portion may belong to the vitality of its historical subject, a woman who continues to fascinate us, even if no one has really ever gotten to know her.

REVIEW Sisi & I (2023) Sisi & I is a chaotic though still compelling look at a figure that has become an icon of history.ProsThe film boasts excellent production design.Both leading performances are excellent and hold the film together.The film builds to a certain degree of grandeur that is impossible to deny even with its shortcomings. ConsThe film frequently wanders and is often a little chaotic.

Sisi & I is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes near you.

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