Sisi & I () is a 2023 historical black comedy film written and directed by Frauke Finsterwalder and co-written by Christian Kracht, starring Susanne Wolff as Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Sandra Hüller as Countess Irma Sztáray. It tells a fictionalized story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. The film is an international co-production between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Sisi & I made its world premiere in the Panorama section of the 2023 Berlin Film Festival on 19 February 2023. It was released theatrically in Austria by Panda Film, and in Germany and Switzerland by DCM on 30 March 2023.
Finsterwalder won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Director for the film. It also received four nominations for the German Film Award, including Best Actress for Sandra Hüller, and won the award for Best Costume Design.
Plot
Late in the 19th century. The single, middle-aged Hungarian countess Irma Sztáray, having rejected marriage and the convent, is forced by her overbearing mother to apply to be handmaiden to the increasingly reclusive Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sisi. An extravagant and temperamental woman, Sisi has been separated from her husband for many years and is living in an aristocratic women-only commune in Corfu, Greece. After a humiliating interview by her predecessor, Irma arrives at the estate seasick and heatstruck, and is immediately put through her paces by her new mistress. Though initially uncertain, Irma soon bows to the will of the Empress in all things, curbing her healthy appetite to match Sisi's obsessively restricted one and parting with her frou-frou ribbons and lace to adopt Sisi's preferred, Japanese-influenced style. Irma falls madly in love with the Empress, and as they travel from Corfu to Algiers, Bavaria to England, the two develop a co-dependent bond – though naturally, only as close as Sisi will allow. But when they return to Vienna, their lives change drastically. After her husband the Emperor rapes her, Sisi pressures Irma to murder her with a shiv, blaming an Italian anarchist.
Cast
Susanne Wolff as Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Sandra Hüller as Countess Irma Sztáray
Tom Rhys Harries as Captain Smythe
Stefan Kurt as Count Berzeviczy
Johanna Wokalek as Countess Marie Festetics
Angela Winkler as Ludovika, Duchess in Bavaria
Georg Friedrich as Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria
Annette Badland as Queen Victoria
Anthony Calf as Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer
Markus Schleinzer as Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria
Sibylle Canonica as Maria Török de Szendrõ
Tom Lass as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Ravi Aujla as Doctor Bose
Anne Müller as Baronin von Rothschildt
Frank Böhm as Hungarian Doctor
Alexander Korn as Diener
William Erazo Fernández as Porter
Sophie Hutter as Fritzi
Production
On 5 November 2019, Screen International announced that German sales company The Match Factory would handle international sales on Frauke Finsterwalder's upcoming period drama, whose working title was Sisi – Kaiserin Elisabeth (Sisi – Empress Elisabeth in English), and that it would begin shooting in autumn 2020 in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Morocco.
Finsterwalder co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, the bestselling Swiss author Christian Kracht. They had previously collaborated on Finsterwalder's first feature film, Finsterworld (2013), which starred Sandra Hüller, who plays Irma Sztáray in this film. It was reported that their screenplay would tell the story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria through the eyes of her lady-in-waiting in a period in which she was surrounded only by other women and separated from her husband for many years. Finsterwalder described it as "a feminist film full of biting dialogue, a gripping drama with elements of deep black comedy."
In the film's 2019 press release, Finsterwalder said: Films should try to create new mythologies. Empress Elisabeth was a radical, intelligent and modern woman, far more so than the Sissi with the double S that we all know. She was simply born a century too early.
On 21 September 2020, the new working title was announced as Sisi und ich, and it was reported that Susanne Wolff and Sandra Hüller had been cast to play Elisabeth (aka Sisi) and Irma, respectively. Ella Rumpf, Stefan Kurt, Angela Winkler, Johannes Krisch, Maresi Riegner and Sophie Rois were also confirmed in the cast. The title was changed again in 2022 to Sisi & Ich (Sisi & I).