Sisi’s new series on RTL – Imperial Court Dildos

So Sisi is wearing black. Otherwise, she wouldn’t want to travel to the court of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I – and since her mother and sister Nene couldn’t go to Vienna to see Nene’s future husband without her (so obvious!), then in black. She is in mourning because her mother refuses to accept her simple count. When the emperor asked what had happened and why she was wearing black, Sisi replied indifferently: “I am sad for my great love, Your Majesty.”

So she is back. In times when cinema turned one historical material into autobiographical, it was only a matter of time before the story of Elizabeth of Bavaria, who later became the Empress of Austria, was re-adapted. RTL’s six-part series “Sisi” is the start of a series of productions that aim to portray the Empress in a more multifaceted way than before.

And Sisi can take a renaissance. Because the portrait of the Austrian Empress is still shaped by one trilogy: a portrait of Ernst Marishka from the 1950s with Romy Schneider. Sixty years later, the down-and-coming three-part series is shown on TV every Christmas, and Schneider’s name still drops at the same time that he stuck to the role that stuck it out “like semolina.” And similar to Romy Schneider, Sisi also has a lot to offer.

The RTL mod wants to be more historically accurate than Marischka’s films, but doesn’t want to replace it. Leading actress Dominic Davenport put it at the series premiere in Cannes in regards to fans of old films: “I’d like them to ditch the classics while watching the series.”

The gist of the story is the same – the Duchess of Bavaria becomes betrothed to the Austrian Emperor instead of her sister and soon suffers from the burden of all the obligations of the Empress. However, the new version shows Sisi’s multifaceted presence. She does not know what to expect at the imperial court, but she knows very well that she will not twist herself for it. “No one will change me,” she tells her father in an argument. Swiss-American actress Dominique Davenport is spared this stubborn, curious sissy who is finally shy about hiring the same woman as the maid with whom her future husband spent a night in the brothel.

The real Sisi was not only educated and traveled a lot, but a liberal and a passionate knight, she studied nutrition, diet and fitness and wrote poetry. All in all very progressive at the time. She allegedly got an anchor as a tattoo. Nothing is to be seen from the tattoos in the first two episodes of ‘Sisi’, previously available, but the ladies of the court escaping dildos to the Vienna Hofburg Hotel.

One wanted to portray the Austrian Empress as a “delicate and resistant woman,” as was said at the beginning of the project from the production side. But the Kaiser (a little too stubborn: Yannick Schumann) is not easy to understand. Although he loves Sisi, he is not reckless, and there are still doubts on the horizon, a little doubt. His political activities occupy a large space in the series, and as Sisi prepares for the wedding, the Emperor negotiates between Napoleon and the Russian Tsar. Tact too: Julia Stemberger as Sisi’s mother Ludovica and Desiree Nosbusch as Franz’s mother, Archduchess Sophie.

Exquisitely portrayed – filmed in Latvia and Lithuania, among others – Sisi is already mentioned once with “The Crown” or “Bridgerton”. A comparison that RTL should be pleased with. Should the series boost its RTL+ video platform and help position itself against providers like Netflix? This could work by the spring of 2022, but then Netflix itself will release Sisi’s adaptation of “The Empress” with Devrim Linnau and Philip Froissant as an imperial couple, and another series is in the works in the USA. Also in the spring of 2022, Frauke Finsterwalder and her husband Christian Kracht will bring Sissy and I to the cinema. It tells the story of the Austrian Empress from the perspective of Lady-Waited Irma.

But if characters rather than dildo comedy come to the fore in later “Sisi” episodes, the renaissance has succeeded. In any case, Sisi’s second season has already begun.
“Al-Sisi”: Six episodes, starting today, on RTL.

Posted today at 8:00 am

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