Mayerling

source: Mayerling

the only sin about Mayerling is the expectation of viewer. because it is only a conventional romance. not profound, not convincing, only beautiful but that is just a detail. a film for fans of actors and for a lot of romanticism from public and solid information about empire situation for be ready to admire a sort of sketch about poor Rudolph and his bitter love story. Mayerling could not represent a real surprise; it is part from a wave who use history as vehicle for noble intentions, impressive budget, nice costumes and precise target who has always the nostalgia of fairy tales flavor. so, nothing special. because it is only a film about a subject from pink novels far by its roots or real signification.

Omar Sharif is Archduke Rudolf, the scoundrel heir to the Austo-Hungary empire whose love for Maria Vetsera spelled his doom. The fact that Catherine Deneuve plays Vetsera will help you to understand how that could happen. Beyond some great chemistry between the two stars, there's very little to recommend in this dull film. Though set against the backdrop of Austria at a time of intense unrest (the early stages in the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy), director Terence Young does not exploit that intrigue in the least. Instead the film is lumbering when it should be exciting. The acting is very uneven. Sharif is fine but Deneuve seems very distant. As the walrus mustached Franz Joseph I, James Mason is wasted and Ava Gardner, as his wife, shows up in a few scenes encouraging Sharif's obsession with Deneuve. On the plus side, there's James Robertson-Justice, excellent as a wily Prince of Wales and Genvieve Page as Sharif's matchmaking cousin. The cinematography by Henri Alekan is stunning. Written by three people, including Young.

"Mayerling" is the technicolor-version of "Marie Antoinette", although the gorgeous gowns worn by the ladies are not nearly as sumptuous. Of course, Empress Therese produced many females to wed-off to all the royal courts of Europe. In fact, Empress Victoria (England) was sent to rule there as a teenager ! I only read one user's mention of Marie Antoinette; the early BW version (starring Norma Shearer) displays the opulence royal families led in their icy palaces. Dirctor Terence Young did a splendid job of getting all the right ingredients together for this love-story (script by Michel Arnold). As several users have pointed-out, history was a minor one: many fictional scenes in here, although they certainly contributed to the drama between Crown-Prince Rudolph (Omar Shariff) and "Maria" (Catherine Deneuve). This story is at the near-end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after 600 years of ruling. Also as some users pointed-out, royal families (then) had little contact with their children - they were too busy being royal....primping and changing clothes so many times a day. Empress Elizabeth (Ava Gardner) portrayed that role with conviction. She did not like "court" life, and most likely wasn't that familiar with all of "Rudolph's" conspiring to take the throne from his father - Emperor Franz-Jospeh (James Mason). Politics then - even WITHOUT the TV-debates ! - was as notoriously corrupt as it is now. Some users mention the lovers' deaths could just as well have been assassinations. Myself, I thought the lovers had poisoned themselves, so I was shocked at the ending. Many users mentioned how well James Robert Justice played "Edward, Prince of Wales". I thought the role was good, but Justice was much too physically large: "Wales" was well-known to skip off to Russia to visit with Czar Nicholos (they were often thought-of as being brothers), so he could openly cross-dress for the many court celebrations....seldom mentioned.... All-in-all, this is a very lush movie. Enjoy it for what you see on the screen. Pomp and circumstance certainly give our imaginations a lot of excitement, and this movie can be enjoyed by all. Bravo !

If you want history go and do a degree. This movie is pure romantic escapism. The locations are authentic and magnificent and so are the actors. Catherine Denuve and Omar Shariff are stunning as lovers. The movie sound track is wonderful, particularly 'the Spartagus.'I found it to be definitely a romantic overdose. I first saw it as a teenager on TV and it has stayed with me all those years. It belongs firmly in the Hisotrical drama category. Other similar movies are Anna Karenina, which was a BBC mini-series which screened in 1977; Waterloo Bridge with Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor; Beau Brimmel with Elizabeth Taylor and Stewart Granger; Young Bess with Stewart Granger: Just to name a few.

Reading about the Crown Prince character in THE ILLUSIONIST, I discovered he was based on a real-life individual who became the basis for not one but two movie versions, both called MAYERLING. This revelation immediately brought back memories of this lushly filmed love story from 1968, a richly detailed costume drama starring Omar "Dr. Zhivago" Sharif and the beautiful but incredibly icy Catherine Deneuve. The story ends in horrible tragedy, which is also based on real events. Clearly, the filmmakers of this 1968 version of the tale were trying to recreate the huge success of David Lean's 1965 masterpiece "Dr. Zhivago." In this, they failed utterly. You may shed tears by the end, but you also will discover a film that lacks the heart of the film it attempted to emulate. It is easy to state that Deneuve was the wrong choice to play the love interest, and it is a no-brainer to see that director Terence Young, best known for early James Bond films, will never be mistaken for David Lean. It's like comparing Steven Spielberg to Stanley Kubrick. It can't be done.

As good an advert for republicanism as you're ever likely to see,"Mayerling"is an everyday story of royal folk in late nineteenth century Austria.Set during one of Europe's seemingly incessant internal turmoils it concerns itself with the Emperor Franz Joseph (Mr James Mason),his rebellious son,the Crown Prince Rudolf (Mr Omar Sharif)the Empress(Miss Ava Gardner) and various mistresses,secret policemen,spies,extravagantly-uniformed popinjays,gypsies,dancers,wives, soldiers,swans,horses and the bizarre inbred web of European royalty at the time of Franz Joseph's Austro-Hungarian Empire. Filmed in what the old movie posters used to call "A Riot of Color" it resembles nothing more than an expensively-dressed but intellectually-challenged production of "The Student Prince" .Mr James Mason,wearing a very natty little white number,utilises his all-purpose mittel-European accent whenever he remembers.I am a great admirer of his and I sincerely hope the remuneration was comensurate with the distaste he clearly felt for the character he was playing. Mr Omar Sharif,who built a career largely founded on looking directly at the camera with his big brown eyes and looking soulful,gives a stupefyingly monotonous performance as his son the Crown Prince.He is utterly unconvincing as a man who -in the movie at least-cut a swathe through the distaff side of the Austrian aristocracy.With his well-buttered locks firmly in place he preens and poses in ever more unlikely uniforms.As a rebel he talks the talk but conspicuously fails to walk the walk,leaving a bottom button undone on one of his tunics is about as far as his defiance goes.Unhappily married,he falls in love with a commoner."Forbidden Love" is one of the movie's come-ons.As she is played by the most uncommon Miss Catherine Deneuve he is scarcely pushing the envelope there.Miss Deneuve has a profile to die for and we see rather a lot of it,particularly in the sequence set at the ballet. Now I love ballet as much as the next man,but this sequence does seem to go on for an excessive amount of time,a more cynical critic might consider it to be "padding". Rudolf's mother,the Empress is played by Miss Ava Gardner.She gives the part some good old American oooomph,making her a bit like "Auntie Mame",but it's done with undeniable style.Rudolf is certainly very fond of his mother - I'll put it no more strongly than that. The only performance worth watching is that of Mr James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt - sorry,Edward,Prince of Wales.He is so wonderfully unconcerned about everything going on around him it's a joy to behold.I waited vainly for him to ask Rudolf the immortal question "What's the bleeding time?". I am not qualified to dispute "Mayerling" 's historical accuracy,but,in my opinion,everything else about it is risible. It is a Ruritanian Opera Buffa without the tunes to send you home from the theatre whistling.

"Mayerling" purports to be the story of Crown Prince Rudolf and his lover, the Baroness Vetsera, who died in a suicide pact at the Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889. It has an amazing international cast: Omar Sharif, Catherine Denueve, James Mason, Ava Gardner, Genevieve Page, and James Robertson Justice. Which just goes to show you that an all-star cast doesn't make a great movie. You need a script and some direction for that. In the '60s, these grand period pieces were all the rage. "Mayerling" is highly fictionalized, full of events that never took place. What actually happened at Mayerling is a mystery, so we'll never know about that. The unhappy Rudolf, left out of anything political by his father, drinks and womanizes. When he meets Maria Vetsera, she falls madly in love with him and (supposedly) he with her, but he is ordered by his father to end the affair. The two enter into a suicide pact at the family hunting lodge. Rudolf, in fact, is a weak man, and it allegedly took him six hours to shoot himself after killing Maria. But no one has any idea what went on - there have been stories of murder as well, and when Maria's body was stolen, when the body was identified, it was shown that she had died from a blow to her head and no gunshot wound was found. Director Terence Young has done some marvelous work, including Wait Until Dark, but something went amiss here. The film moves very slowly and is totally lacking in anything that would help the viewer invest in any of the characters. There are glorious production values and sex but a coldness about it. Sharif and Deneuve give stilted performances, and Mason and Gardner don't have much to do. James Robertson Justice and Genevieve Page are very good. On a side note, Gardner plays Rudolph's mother, "Sisi," who to this day is the Princess Diana of Austria. She's everywhere, and a popular subject of musicals and films targeted to European audiences.

When the heir to the Hapsburg throne was found shot to death in that hunting lodge named Mayerling in 1889 a lot of the hopes and dreams of a future generation were blasted for all time. But the bigger tragedy was that Crown Prince Rudolf was such a weak vessel to support those hopes and dreams. In point of fact he was quite unstable, some like young psychiatrist Sigmund Freud practicing in Vienna might have called him mad. It's the mad quality that Omar Sharif does capture in his portrayal of Crown Prince Rudolf. His companion in death was young Catherine Deneuve playing the minor league baroness who accompanied him in death. She's good, but she's a bit old for the part. Maria Vetsera was 24 in real life, possibly Mia Farrow might have been a better choice. The sets and costumes and certainly the locations are as authentic as you can get. But Mayerling moves ponderously slow and sluggish. A better pace could have improved it. James Mason and Ava Gardner play emperor Franz Josef and the Empress Elizabeth who was known as Sissi all her life. Her childhood name never left her because in many ways she was also as big a child as her son. The Emperor and Empress live apart for most of the year with Elizabeth jaunting about all over the continental hot spots. If Sharif wants to have his fling, he only has to look at mother who never settled down. In many ways Ava Gardner is the best one in the film, she's cast perfectly because she too never really settled down in life. Also memorable is James Robertson Justice whose girth and and booming mirth made him be perfectly cast as Edward the Prince Of Wales who is also waiting to ascend to the throne of Great Britain and about whom many hopes are kindled even in the constitutional monarchy that the United Kingdom is. He's not exactly in the confidence of Queen Victoria, but he's learned to very cheerfully accept his fate and be patient. He was about 40 year patient and that's what Rudolf would have had to be as Franz Josef reigned until 1917. I'm surprised James Robertson Justice never played Bertie in a film about him, he was so right for the part. Speculation has abounded for years about what drove the Archduke to do what he did. This impressive, but slow version of the story will feed the speculation of the movie going public and historians.

As non-German speaking member of the European Commonwealth I want to make statement on the common, I presume, genealogical heritage of all Europeans. The cultural issues from the movie "Mayerling" (1968) lay as background only to much more important problems of today. I am worried to think that the still actualized division of Europe into Western and Eastern compartments could reflect unbeneficial to whatever meaningful strategy in the future. The only common denominator for this division is the existence of Nuclear Power Plants of Soviet Union design (formerly) in this geographical region from Central Europe to the Black Sea aquatorial zone. But do we know our common history, and think about it, do Americans divide their United States to Western and Eastern parts? Or do Turkey contemplate to remain a buffer zone between Europe and Middle East solely because global politicians couldn't devise a mechanism to measure the extent of cryto-Christianity in these countries? I talk now for the film "Mayerling" (1968) and then for its forbearing, the Holy Roman Empire. The plot is trivial enough to deserve attention which is a suicide attempt of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Mary Vetsera, played by Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve. Sharif performs brilliantly in another historical personages of his acting career (he played in "Genghis Khan" (1965), "Che!" (1969) and as Sultan Hassan in "Harem" (1986)). I look forward to find the two-part movie under Henri Verneuil's directorship about the Armenian Genocide - "Mayrig" (1991) and "588 Rue Paradis" (1992), dubbed in English since I don't understand the original French soundtrack. So also the titular movie present Emperor Franz-Josef (played by James Mason, the longest ruling Monarch in European History with 68 years reign 1848-1916) and Empress Elizabeth of Bavaria (played by Ava Gardner, recognized as the most beautiful women of 19th century). Mayerling locations were shot in Boulogne Studio in France which depicted the Habsburg Palaces and its environment as exact replica of the reality. Not many people now-a-days know that Paris and Vienna were the two utmost achievements of Baroque Architecture in Middle Ages! I also made effort to trace the origin of Bulgarian kingship in Modern Times. It stems from Franz Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Sophie of Saxe-Hildburghausen which had 10 children from the lineage House of Wettin, Saxony. Their descendants established ruling houses in Belgium, United Kingdom, Portugal and Bulgaria. Son Leopold ruled as Leopold I of the Belgians. Male-line great-grandson reigned as Edward VII of the United Kingdom. Another grandson reigned as king Ferdinand II of Portugal. Leopold I of Belgium's daughter was Empress Carlota of Mexico. Furthermore, the great-grandson and nephew of Ferdinand II of Portugal ruled as Ferdinand I of Bulgaria.