Sisi & I [Sandra Hüller/Susanne Wolff Elisabeth of Austria comedy]

[Sebastian Cobb]

I saw this last night apparently it was the UK premiere and there was a Q&A from the director, Frauke Finsterwalder.

It's a black comedy take on the story of Elisabeth of Austria, according to the director there's a few films about her that are Christmas staples in the German (and French) speaking world. She saw them as a kid and found them boring, but she doesn't live in Germany any more and was showing them to her daughter as a sort of "this is what we used to watch" type thing. Then after that did a bit more digging on the countess' story and decided to make a black comedy about the last few years of her life from the perspective of her lady in waiting, Countess Irma Sztáray (played by Hüller).

I didn't know anything about 'Sissi' going in, but it seems she was an eccentric woman who although married eschewed men for the most part and lived an extravagant life in a commune in Corfu. She seemed to treat her servants and people around her pretty poorly but they all seemed to be besotted with her regardless. In 1898 she was assassinated by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni.

The film follows things from the perspective of Irma, who falls in love with her. It's hard not to compare it to The Favourite (if you liked that then definitely see this). It looks great with some nice grainy close shots as it was shot on 16mm, and it uses a modern soundtrack, which in many historical pieces can be quite jarring (Hi Peaky Blinders mate) but worked pretty well here. I really quite liked it. Both Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff smash it.

[Mister Six]

At this rate, by 2030 every film made in the world will be populated entirely by Sandra Hüller.