Sisi-mania: Austria's Starry Empress Returns to Screens

Two movies and two new series -- including one being made for Netflix -- are set to reignite the fascination with Empress Elisabeth, who was popularly known as "Sisi" ALEX HALADA AFP
Two movies and two new series -- including one being made for Netflix -- are set to reignite the fascination with Empress Elisabeth, who was popularly known as "Sisi" ALEX HALADA AFP
TT
20

Sisi-mania: Austria's Starry Empress Returns to Screens

Two movies and two new series -- including one being made for Netflix -- are set to reignite the fascination with Empress Elisabeth, who was popularly known as "Sisi" ALEX HALADA AFP
Two movies and two new series -- including one being made for Netflix -- are set to reignite the fascination with Empress Elisabeth, who was popularly known as "Sisi" ALEX HALADA AFP

She was the Princess Diana of the 19th century. An impossibly glamorous Austro-Hungarian empress whose star-crossed love life and tragic end entranced the public.

Now two movies and two new series -- including one being made for Netflix -- are set to reignite the fascination with Empress Elisabeth, who was popularly known as "Sisi".

The first of the films, "Corsage", premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday while the series, "Sisi" -- which covers her early life and turbulent marriage to Emperor Franz-Joseph -- is streaming in Germany on RTL+.

It has already raised eyebrows there with its frank depiction of the young empress' sexuality while garnering favorable reviews from critics.

The series' Swiss-American star Dominique Devenport told AFP that part of the upsurge in interest in Sisi is a desire "to find more female narratives".

She may have been one of the most famous women of the 19th century, but Devenport said Sisi's life was "full of extremes, full of pain".

Married to Franz-Joseph when she was just 16, Sisi chafed against the rituals and strictures of life at the stiff and stuffy Habsburg court.

Devenport said the questions she asks of herself in the series are ones many young people today can relate to: "How can I stay myself; what decisions do I make, how do I keep up with what is expected from me?"

The rival Netflix series, "The Empress", is still in production, with release slated for later this year.

- A royal star -
Historian Martina Winkelhofer said Sisi was "one of the first very famous women in Europe".

"You have to consider that she came into Austrian history at the beginning of mass media," she said.

The advent of photography turbocharged her fame -- "suddenly you had the wife of an emperor who you could really see."

With the current thirst for stories with strong female characters, it was no surprise that Sisi's story would be revisited, Winkelhofer argued.

Sisi was also obsessed with her own image, and her figure.

In the elegant 19th century Hermes Villa on the outskirts of Vienna where the empress spent some of her later years, curator Michaela Lindinger pointed to the exercise equipment which Sisi used in an effort "to keep young really until her last day".

Vicky Krieps, the acclaimed Luxembourg-born actress who made her breakthrough opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in "Phantom Thread", plays this later Sisi in "Corsage", withdrawing from her husband and from life at court.

In Sisi's bedroom, a gloomy statue entitled "Melancholia" is a sign of the sadness that overcame her after the suicide of her son and heir to the throne, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889.

Just under 10 years later, she herself died at the age of 60, assassinated by an Italian anarchist.

- Enduring fairy tale -
Traditionally, however, it has been the fairy tale aspect of Sisi's life that has drawn attention and made sites like Vienna's Schoenbrunn Palace among Austria's most popular attractions.

Sisi has become a representation of Habsburg glamour far beyond Austria's borders, and is a particular cult figure in China.

Indeed, Andreas Gutzeit, the showrunner of the series "Sisi", said he got the idea to revisit the story after watching the trilogy of 1950s films in which the empress was portrayed by Vienna-born actress Romy Schneider, whose life was also a high-octane mix of glamour and tragedy.

Gutzeit said the RTL+ series has already been sold to several countries in eastern Europe and as far afield as Brazil.

The many different facets of the empress' life mean that "in each period, you have your own Sisi", insisted historian Winkelhofer.

Over the ages her image has moved from a focus on her physical beauty to her use of charm, to more modern depictions of her as a more assertive and empowered proto-feminist figure.

"You can discover a new woman in each lifetime," Winkelhofer said.



New Spielberg, Nolan Films Teased at CinemaCon

US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP
US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP
TT
20

New Spielberg, Nolan Films Teased at CinemaCon

US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP
US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP

Hollywood studio Universal Pictures on Wednesday teased new movies from Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan, while showcasing footage from its upcoming sequels "Jurassic World Rebirth" and "Wicked: For Good" at the CinemaCon event.

Spielberg "is currently shooting a film that promises to be a return to form, in the spirit of his monumental classics," said Universal executive Jim Orr, at the movie theater industry summit in Las Vegas.

The untitled film, out June 2026, is widely rumored to be a blockbuster sci-fi. Orr promised it would contain "a propulsive, modern, out-of-this-world twist," without sharing further details.

Meanwhile, Nolan is in the Mediterranean shooting his star-studded version of "The Odyssey," based on the millennia-old Ancient Greek epic saga written by Homer.

It is due July 2026, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Zendaya and Anne Hathaway, AFP said.

In a prediction bold even by the standards of Hollywood marketing, Orr suggested the film "will be a once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would, quite frankly, be very proud of."

The comments came at CinemaCon, an annual week-long summit at which Hollywood studios present their biggest upcoming movies to theater owners and press.

A theme of this year's event has been a drive to get studios to commit to keeping new movies in US theaters for at least 45 days before they appear on streaming.

A source with knowledge of the talks told AFP Wednesday that three of Hollywood's six biggest studios have committed.

Universal, which has in recent years brought many of its films to on-demand streaming very soon after they debut in theaters, has not yet agreed to the new 45-day "window," the source said. The studio did not immediately comment.

But its efforts to court movie theater owners Wednesday included showing extended new footage and A-list stars from the next Jurassic movie -- out this July.

It comes from the writer of the original 1993 "Jurassic Park." The action returns to that film's island setting.

Unlike the "Jurassic World" films where dinosaurs freely roamed the globe, the fearsome reptiles are now once again scarce, surviving in a few remote spots.

Star Scarlett Johansson said the film would "put the scares back into Jurassic" by keeping the dinosaurs hidden and ratcheting up the suspense.

Universal's presentation ended with surprise appearances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, whose second and final "Wicked" film will hit theaters November.

CinemaCon concludes Thursday with presentations from Paramount and Disney.