Forever My Love, written and
directed by Ernst Marischka, and
starring Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm, is a dubbed-in-English compilation of the three films of the Sissi trilogy, about the romance between
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Duchess Elisabeth (Sissi or Sisi) in Bavaria,
who became his wife and Empress of Austria in 1854 at the age of sixteen. We
follow their brief courtship, Sissi’s many issues with her mother-in-law
regarding the raising of her children, Sissi’s role in bringing about the dual
monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867, and Sissi’s diagnosis of tuberculosis and
her convalescence on the island of Corfu, Greece.
The three films of the Sissi trilogy
are Sissi (1955, 1h 42m), Sissi: The Young Empress (1956, 1h 47m)
and Sissi: The Fateful Years of an
Empress (1957, 1h 49m). Given that the total length of the trilogy is 5h
18m, and Forever My Love is only 2h 27m,
the compilation is less than half the length of the trilogy so a great deal has
been left out. Arguably, the compilation was released to acquaint American
audiences with the trilogy. The compilation can be accepted as a lavish, royal
love story with all the pomp and circumstance one might expect. The costumes
and scenery are grand, and Romy Schneider (1938-1982), aged 17-19 during
filming, is at the height of her beauty. Judging from the Wikipedia biographies of Franz Joseph and Sissi, however, the story is rather fictionalized.
Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was born into the royal Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth (also called Sissi and Sisi) enjoyed an informal, undisciplined upbringing. Some might even say she was a wild child, enjoying horseback riding, hunting, fishing and simply being outdoors, especially with her father. At the age of fifteen, she met Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was being pressured by his mother to announce his engagement to Sissi’s older sister Helene (Nene). However, Franz fell deeply in love with Sissi, proposed to her and would not take no for an answer. Sissi was sixteen when the two married and she became Empress of Austria.
The marriage thrust Sissi into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867. The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide tragedy at his hunting lodge at Mayerling was a blow from which Sissi never recovered. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni.
Blogger’s comment: Forever My Love meets the criteria for a Cinderella story of a royal falling in love with a commoner because, while both Franz and Sissi are royalty, Franz thought Sissi was a commoner when he met and fell in love with her, and Sissi had no interest in marrying Franz and becoming Empress of Austria and even tried to reject him.
This Cinderella story, the story of the celebrity/royalty/titled/wealthy falling for the commoner/governess/maid/nanny is found throughout life and art, as this list of films labeled (tagged) Cinderella-story and reviewed in this blog will confirm.
Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was born into the royal Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth (also called Sissi and Sisi) enjoyed an informal, undisciplined upbringing. Some might even say she was a wild child, enjoying horseback riding, hunting, fishing and simply being outdoors, especially with her father. At the age of fifteen, she met Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was being pressured by his mother to announce his engagement to Sissi’s older sister Helene (Nene). However, Franz fell deeply in love with Sissi, proposed to her and would not take no for an answer. Sissi was sixteen when the two married and she became Empress of Austria.
The marriage thrust Sissi into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867. The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide tragedy at his hunting lodge at Mayerling was a blow from which Sissi never recovered. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni.
Blogger’s comment: Forever My Love meets the criteria for a Cinderella story of a royal falling in love with a commoner because, while both Franz and Sissi are royalty, Franz thought Sissi was a commoner when he met and fell in love with her, and Sissi had no interest in marrying Franz and becoming Empress of Austria and even tried to reject him.
This Cinderella story, the story of the celebrity/royalty/titled/wealthy falling for the commoner/governess/maid/nanny is found throughout life and art, as this list of films labeled (tagged) Cinderella-story and reviewed in this blog will confirm.
And in real life, Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederick was attending the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in 2000. While in the Slip Inn Pub in Sydney, he met and fell in love with an Australian commoner named Mary Elizabeth Donaldson. They became engaged in 2003, married in 2004, have four children, and Mary is now Crown Princess of Denmark.
Labels: Cinderella-story, drama, period, romance, Romy Schneider
IMDb 69/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=NA, viewers=90)
Blu-ray The Sissi Collection in Blu-ray includes four films: the Sissi trilogy and Victoria in Dover, a film about the young Queen Victoria, also starring Romy Schneider.
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