Sissi, l'impératrice rebelle (2004)

Much has been written, and filmed about Sissy the Empress, and Romy Schneider will always BE Sissy to many. However, this new version, a novel, much more realistic take on her life (and times), is in my opinion the most honest, most succinct, and least melodramatic.

Sissi may be forever linked in movie fans' memories with young and lovely Romy Schneider in those saccharine Austrian 50s films that made her life seem like a fairy tale. But Elizabeth of Austria's REAL tormented life was far more interesting and eventful, and this TV-made French-German film tries to reassess and de-glamorize the "myth" -- and half-succeeds.

Arielle Dombasle had only one great moment in that movie. The scene shortly before her murder when she is walking along with Countess Staray...