It’s that time again when all over Europe TV stations drag out the Sissi films… For those not in the know: these are series of films about Elizabeth of Austria, married to Franz Joseph in what is presented as a méalliance of sorts. We’re at the imperial court in Vienna, at the turn of the century and Romy Schneider plays Elizabeth and is in the early stages of her career. The films were and are an example of high kitsch, and Romy Schneider did her utmost later on to break away from the role and from typecasting. Her mother, Magda has a supporting role in all films as her mother. So far for the general info. In film 3, Schiksalsjahre einer Kaiserin, there is a curious subplot concerning Elizabeth’s brother, Ludwig, who has the audacity to marry a Viennese actress. I’ve always been fascinated by this, as the actress’s name is so very clearly jewish: Henriette Mendels. But all this is downplayed in the film of course, unless “actress” is a code-word for “jewess”.
Oh well, the lengths I go to…before I grab another DVD and start watching Visconti’s “Ludwig”, which is a fine complement to the Sissi films. Visconti’s dominant theme in Ludwig, as in Senso and Il Gattopardo is the decline of upper class milieus when they face periods of historical upheaval. He was of course fully at home in the circles whose decline he chronicles: Visconti maintained that all his films were political; in his films he depicts his own circumstances, and this parallel is strongest in Ludwig, the story of a privileged aristocrat mainly concerned with art, who becomes a homosexual after an ill-fated love affair. Ludwig is isolated by changing times, and he refuses to come to terms with these changes by isolating himself from them. Escapism gives way to neurosis, then to insanity. Laurence Schifano describes “Ludwig” as “pseudo-classical, pseudo-baroque, pseudo-gothic, absurdly kitsch castles” in which he could pursue a lonely, fantasy existence.
It is a film of corridors, endless parades of corridors. In what is perhaps the most important scene, Ludwig’s beloved cousin Elizabeth (Romy Schneider) visits one of these castles. After shot after shot of her wandering through halls, up staircases, along corridors she finally arrives in a particularly imposing one and breaks down in mocking laughter. She is laughing at the folly of Ludwig’s grandiose, economically disastrous architectural projects, and she is also laughing at him. The ridiculous buildings he has constructed have become an extension of his character. It is hard to emphasize just how startling this scene is in the angst-ridden context of the rest of the film, the incredulity and spontaneity of her sudden emotion, so out of keeping with the code of behaviour common to other scenes, highlighting the painful absurdity of Ludwig’s predicament. Although Elizabeth is seen in an extreme long shot, dwarfed by her surroundings, her emotions dominate the scene. She is the only character in the film able to do so. Given her place in the story, as Ludwig’s unrequited love, this scene on the one hand brilliantly shows her rejection of him and his morbid fantasy world and, on the other, depicts her as a spirit of freedom that refuses to be trapped by it.
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