Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Sissi Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 7, 2017

Note: This film is available as a part of The Sissi Collection.

Peter O’Toole will enter the cinematic record books for any number of reasons, including the fact that he remains one of the most Oscar nominated actors to never receive an “official” award (O’Toole was feted with an honorary Academy Award in 2003, perhaps precisely because he had never “really” won). O’Toole’s second and third nominations for Best Actor made history in a different way, for in 1964’s Becket and 1968’s The Lion in Winter, O’Toole was playing the same real life historical character (at different ages), King Henry II. There have been at least a few other performers who have played the same character in different films, and some of them, like Bing Crosby in Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's, or Al Pacino, in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, have also garnered Oscar nominations for each film, like O'Toole, though by and large those performances have been of fictional characters. One of the few other times the same performer has played the same real life historical character in otherwise unrelated films was when Romy Schneider "recreated" her take on Empress Elisabeth of Austria for Luchino Visconti's Ludwig , years after she had taken on the same role in a series of films that became known as The Sissi Trilogy ("Sissi" was the diminutive nickname family members called Elisabeth). This in and of itself is kind of a fascinating "trivia" phenomenon, since I personally can't think of another example where one performer essayed a role based on a real life historical figure in a "series" and then played the same role years later in a completely unrelated film. There are of course other manifest differences between the series and the Visconti film, due not just to the different eras in which they were produced, but also due to the fact that Ludwig is an often provocative, even trenchant, entry, while all three Sissi films tend to exploit a glossy quasi-"Hollywood" style where happily ever after is never too far out of reach.

It’s not hard to understand why Sissi became such a phenomenon when it was first released during the holiday season of 1955, for it resides in a slightly unreal “fairy tale” world that is opulent and appealing, with some impressively scenic vistas at virtually every turn, even if it is never all that emotionally impactful. There are some passing attempts to inject something akin to “real” human feeling into this tale, mostly courtesy of a subplot involving Sissi and her older sister Helene (Uta Franz), who, like Sissi herself, has a diminutive nickname, Nené. The main story of Sissi documents a trip that Sissi, Nené and their mother Duchess Ludovika (Magda Schneider, Romy Schneider’s mother in real life) take to the spa town of Bad Ischl, which Sissi thinks is a mere family outing, but which in fact has been secretly arranged (by the Duchess) to introduce Nené to Franz Joseph I (Karlheinz Böhm), with a pre-planned marriage between Nené and Franz Joseph the ultimate goal. It should be noted that as in so many royal families of yore, the betrothed were closely related, in this case cousins, since Franz Joseph’s mother Archduchess Sophie (Vilma Degischer) was Duchess Ludovika’s sister.

It probably doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Sissi and Franz Joseph will “meet cute” and that true love will take the place of an arranged marriage, and the film charts its predictable course with a commendable lack of detours, though its attempt to engage is certain soap operatic melodrama never really resonates, since my hunch is many viewers will be wondering what any of these fabulously wealthy people have to complain about, no matter what temporary shambles their romantic lives might be in. The main focal conflict here is between the angst ridden Sissi, who does not want to scar Nené unnecessarily, and Nené herself, who suddenly sees her supposed “triumph” vanish right before her eyes. Unfortunately, Sissi never really capitalizes on this inherent family dynamic in an overly realistic way, and the denouement, which combines Franz Joseph’s simply announcing that he’s going to marry Sissi (in what amounts to a fait accompli) and Nené sudden “Deus ex Machina” happily ever after are just kind of plopped down, before a sumptuous and rather epic wedding that caps the film.

One other conflict actually starts to pay off a bit more in the second and third films in the Sissi series, Sissi - The Young Empress and Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress, than it arguably does in this first film, and that's the contentious relationship between Sissi and her soon to be mother-in-law. This particular element is played in a properly courtly style in this film, where nothing is ever too dramatic, but Sophie's machinations actually become almost sinister in the later films, perhaps because she's about the only convenient "villain" (and/or villainess) in these stories of pomp and circumstance.

Sissi Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All three of the Sissi films in The Sissi Collection are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in both 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 in what Film Movement is touting as new 2K restorations (without stating what exactly was the source for the restorations). All three films feature an announcement that they have been digitally remastered by Arri Film and Television Restoration Services and Taurus Media Digital. Because all three share certain similarities, I'll deal with them as a group before moving on to comments about each film separately. Perhaps surprisingly, given the era in which they were shot, all three were evidently originally released in Academy Ratio, despite the fact that the "widescreen" rage had already erupted on this side of the pond. Therefore, most of the screenshots I've included with each review feature that aspect ratio, but I have also included a few of the "rejiggered" 1.78:1 versions so that those interested can see the differences in framing. One of the most noticeable differences is not in fact with regard to framing but with regard to the appearance of grain, which is much more substantially noticeable in the 1.78:1 versions, I assume due to being blown up and cropped to fit that aspect ratio. All three films were shot using the German Agfacolor process, a technique that is manifestly different looking than "classic" Technicolor. If "Technicolor reds" might be thought of as one of the defining characteristics of that technology, I'd argue that "Agfacolor blues" might be a corollary for this particular process. Otherwise, Agfacolor can look just a little anemic, at least relative to Golden Age Technicolor, with reds tending to skew a bit toward the pink or orange side of things and the overall palette never looking quite as richly suffused as in traditional Technicolor outings. The restorations are by and large quite winning, though eagle eyed viewers may still catch a stray (minor) blemish or two that peeks through now and again. Detail levels are a little variable, with all three films looking a bit on the soft side. At times even midrange shots tend to look a bit "blurry" in terms of things like facial details. That said, in close-ups, fine detail on elements like the opulent costumes and sets can be excellent. While there is a fine grain field in the 1.33:1 versions, things look just slightly digital to my eyes, with perhaps some high frequency filtering having been applied, since the grain field is somewhat variable and tends to look unnatural at times.

The odd looking grain in all three features is evident right off the bat in the first Sissi film during the credits sequence, where, while there is "something" crawling through the background, there's also a frozen look to large swaths of the frame, something that becomes immediately apparent if you pause the Blu-ray at any given moment. Once the film starts, things look a good deal more natural, and in fact the grain field has moments of looking almost noisy, especially in some of the more brightly lit outdoor moments where shots include summery skies. But there's something just slightly "off" here, and as I'll mention in all the reviews of the films in this set, the best way to see some of the anomalies is to freeze frame at various intervals, where grain can be seen to clump or swarm in sections of any individual frame, with a complete absence in other parts of the frame, to the point they almost look airbrushed (a good place to try this experiment is in the early hunting scene with Sissi and her father that begins at circa 16:45). Other than this issue (which may not bother others as much as it did me), colors are decent looking, and some of the palace reds and the vivid red of Sissi's cape in the final barge scene pop rather impressively well. Fine detail on elements like the feathered hats several characters wear is also very good, at least in close-ups. There are some minor brightness fluctuations that also crop up from time to time.

Sissi Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All three of the Sissi films feature DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes in the original German. Why these have not been offered with the original mono tracks is unfortunate, since aside from some age related issues like overall boxiness, there are recurrent prioritization issues in all three films that sounded decidedly unnatural to my ears. For example, sound effects like squawking geese or galloping horse hooves can occasionally overwhelm dialogue. The "surround" activity in these mixes is intermittent at best and at worst tends to add too much reverb (for my ears, anyway), leading to a somewhat diffuse sound. There is minor distortion in all three films with regard to some of the music, especially in terms of the more blaring brass or higher string sounds. Dialogue generally comes through fine, with the exception of the aforementioned prioritization issues.

Sissi Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there are some supplements included in this package, none are on this particular disc. See our The Sissi Collection Blu-ray review for details.

Sissi Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an interesting essay in the insert booklet included in this set which indicates that part of Sissi's enduring popularity in Germany came courtesy of annual broadcasts on television around Christmastime, and it's easy to see why a film like this would resonate so well during the holiday time. It's a rather simple story, told simply, with a lot of visual allure, and as such may well appeal to both adults and kids in sugar comas and recovering from a day of opening presents. Film Movement provides a release with some hurdles in both video and audio, but there's a lot to enjoy here, at least for those not expecting a Ludwig style deconstruction of history. Recommended.