Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: On September, the streets of Geneva bustled with their normal
Speaker 1: Sunday fare. Families strolled down the waterfront along the western
Speaker 1: bank of Lake Geneva, ready to spend the afternoon lounging
Speaker 1: on park benches that overlooked the snowy caps of the Alps.
Speaker 1: In the distance. Among the crowd, two women were walking
Speaker 1: down the Quadumant Blanc to board a steamship set for
Speaker 1: the nearby Swiss city of montrou from Afar. Nothing about
Speaker 1: the pair was particularly remarkable. They were well dressed, one
Speaker 1: in a light, modest dress, while the other was draped
Speaker 1: dramatically in black fabric from head to toe, the soul
Speaker 1: exception being the white parasol that she held low above
Speaker 1: her head. But as the two women ascended the gangplank,
Speaker 1: muffled whispers and subtle pointing fingers began pointing out the
Speaker 1: cracks in their otherwise unremarkable facade. The taller of the
Speaker 1: two women, the one in black, held her fan tight
Speaker 1: enough for her knuckles to strain against the fabric. Her dress,
Speaker 1: while undoubtedly expensive, was speckled with dust only somewhat hastily
Speaker 1: wiped away. Her companion in the light colored dress talked
Speaker 1: to her in hushed tones, scanning her body with an
Speaker 1: expression of deep concern. As the ship left the port,
Speaker 1: the whispers continued to spread across the deck, like smoke
Speaker 1: trapped under glass. Tendrils slowly expanded until they clouded everything
Speaker 1: else in sight. Did you see what happened down there?
Speaker 1: That man came out of nowhere? He pushed that woman
Speaker 1: in the fancy black dress to the ground. Who would
Speaker 1: do such a thing? But all of the whisper stopped
Speaker 1: when the woman in black collapsed on the ship's deck.
Speaker 1: A moment of deafening silence gave way to a flurry
Speaker 1: of panicked bodies, searching desperately for aid, but the ship
Speaker 1: had already cast off into the harbor, and there was
Speaker 1: no doctor on board. With shaking hands, the woman's companion
Speaker 1: in white quickly cut open the woman's corset to help
Speaker 1: her breathe, only to pull back in horror when she
Speaker 1: found a small brown stain spreading across the woman's chest.
Speaker 1: For Going any last attempts at anonymity. The woman in white,
Speaker 1: the Countess are, called for the captain and demanded that
Speaker 1: he turned the ship back to port. When as for
Speaker 1: a reason why, the prominent noble lady told the captain
Speaker 1: with all the remaining poise she had, that Elizabeth, the
Speaker 1: Empress of Austria, had been stabbed. Officially, the Empress was
Speaker 1: not in Geneva at all. She had been traveling under
Speaker 1: the pseudonym Countess von Hohenems during her excursions for the
Speaker 1: sake of privacy as well as safety. There had been
Speaker 1: increased reports of assassination attempts on European monarchs in recent years,
Speaker 1: and since the Empress refused to travel with a guard,
Speaker 1: a gnome de geer was necessary for her travels. However,
Speaker 1: just the previous day, a newspaper in Geneva had caught
Speaker 1: wind of the ruse and published the Empress's whereabouts in
Speaker 1: an article that found its way into the hands of
Speaker 1: an Italian anarchist named Luigi Licheni. The following day, the
Speaker 1: man sat stationed outside the Empress's hotel, a needle file
Speaker 1: hidden in the right sleeve of his coat as he
Speaker 1: waited for his moment to strike back aboard the ship.
Speaker 1: The crew hastily scrambled to assemble a stretcher out of
Speaker 1: spare oars and sails, while the captain slowly turned the
Speaker 1: ship back to shore. On the deck floor, Elizabeth briefly
Speaker 1: breached through the surface of consciousness and reached for her
Speaker 1: lady in waiting. Are you in pain, the countess asked, no,
Speaker 1: The Empress replied weakly. The attack had been so sudden,
Speaker 1: the assailant vanishing so quickly, that Elizabeth had been unaware
Speaker 1: that she had been stabbed at all. The autopsy would
Speaker 1: later reveal Lucheni's weapon had pierced clear through the Empress's heart,
Speaker 1: and although her famously tight corset had staunched the bleeding
Speaker 1: long enough for the Empress to board the ship without
Speaker 1: constant pressure on the wound, her heart began pumping blood
Speaker 1: freely into her chest. From where she lay, Elizabeth stared
Speaker 1: up at the sky, the same sky she used to
Speaker 1: spend hours playing under as a child, the sky she's
Speaker 1: so often wished she could run under instead of being
Speaker 1: trapped behind palace walls, And as her heart beat its
Speaker 1: way ever closer to death, she used her last moments
Speaker 1: of consciousness to ask a simple question, a question she
Speaker 1: had no doubt asked herself countless times throughout her life.
Speaker 1: What has happened? I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble Blood.
Speaker 1: One quick warning just before we begin. This episode does
Speaker 1: delve into a discussion about eating disorders, and so if
Speaker 1: you're specifically sensitive to that sort of content, this might
Speaker 1: not be the episode for you. Embrace Eliza Bith of Austria,
Speaker 1: who was known to her friends and family as Ceci,
Speaker 1: never wanted to make history. She was born Elizabeth Amlay
Speaker 1: Eugenie on Christmas Eve eighteen thirty seven to her parents,
Speaker 1: Princess Ludvika of Bavaria and Duke Maximilian Joseph. Princess Ludvika
Speaker 1: was the sixth child of her father, the King of
Speaker 1: Bavaria's second marriage, while Duke Maximilian was only a member
Speaker 1: of a junior branch of the royal House of Wittelsbach
Speaker 1: and so Ceci was born as a child into a
Speaker 1: family with no formal ties to daily court life. That
Speaker 1: normally would have allowed her to live a life without
Speaker 1: the pressures of court, but her father took that casualness
Speaker 1: one step further. In history texts, the characterizations of Duke
Speaker 1: Maximilian range from childlike to eccentric, but to summarize him
Speaker 1: in the simplest of terms, the Duke to play the
Speaker 1: part of the cool dad. He had a love of
Speaker 1: circuses and Bavarian folk music, and according to a self
Speaker 1: published account of his time traveling in Egypt, he had
Speaker 1: apparently ordered his servants to yodel while climbing the Great
Speaker 1: Pyramids as if they were traversing through the Swiss Alps.
Speaker 1: When the Duke was home, he would often sneak his
Speaker 1: children out of their lessons so they could play with
Speaker 1: the local peasant children around Postenhoffen Castle, and so Ceci
Speaker 1: and her siblings spent their summers riding horses, swimming and
Speaker 1: hiking across the Bavarian countryside, like a troop of Von
Speaker 1: Trapped children, minus the Nazis and leader hosen made of curtains. Unfortunately, though,
Speaker 1: this is about the time I should remind you that
Speaker 1: this is a podcast called Noble Blood, and from here
Speaker 1: Cecy's life begins to take some dark turns. But to
Speaker 1: fully appreciate cc story, we need to zoom out a
Speaker 1: little bit and understand the context for what Europe was
Speaker 1: going through in the middle of the nineteenth century. Now,
Speaker 1: it would be impossible for me to summarize the events
Speaker 1: leading up to the mass political upheavals in eighteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: all across Europe a series of collective and individual events
Speaker 1: on a dozen different fronts. They are often lumped together
Speaker 1: in Encyclopedia entries under the Revolutions of eighteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: but for the purposes of this episode, here's what you
Speaker 1: need to know. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution,
Speaker 1: most of the jobs of the peasant working classes became obsolete.
Speaker 1: Artisans were replaced with machinery, and poverty, combined with urbanization,
Speaker 1: made tensions between the upper class, who wanted to preserve
Speaker 1: their power and didn't want to be reminded that poor
Speaker 1: people still existed, and the lower class, who wanted to
Speaker 1: be given basic human rights and be represented by a
Speaker 1: government who actually cared for their well being, rose to
Speaker 1: a boiling point. All of this was occurring in a
Speaker 1: climate in which the old ideas of the divine rights
Speaker 1: of the monarchy were beginning to seem a little obsolete.
Speaker 1: The legal and symbolic power of kings across Europe was dwindling.
Speaker 1: Naturally in response, to the demands of the working class.
Speaker 1: The Austrian government restricted freedom of speech, gatherings of university fraternities,
Speaker 1: and then demanded absolute loyalty to the Austrian government. As
Speaker 1: you can probably imagine, this didn't go well with the
Speaker 1: working class, and after a series of appointments and resignations
Speaker 1: following the resignation of the Foreign Minister Prince Metirik, Emperor
Speaker 1: Ferdinand the First of Austria was forced to abdicate the throne.
Speaker 1: The next in line for the throne was a man
Speaker 1: named Archduke Franz Carl, who, at the urging of his wife,
Speaker 1: would renounce his claim to the throne so that their son,
Speaker 1: Friend Joseph, would become the new Emperor of Austria. Let
Speaker 1: me say that one more time. Archduke Franz Carl gave
Speaker 1: up the opportunity to be the Emperor of Austria because
Speaker 1: his wife, Archduchess Sophie told him that he should take
Speaker 1: a step back and let their son ascend to the throne.
Speaker 1: Convincing her husband to renounce his title maybe the easiest
Speaker 1: way to characterize what type of person that the Archduchess was.
Speaker 1: Sophie knew that her husband would be a poor ruler.
Speaker 1: But more than that, she knew that even though she
Speaker 1: would technically be the Empress, she would be giving up
Speaker 1: all of the power that she actually had over the
Speaker 1: Empire in exchange for a symbolic crown. But if her
Speaker 1: son were appointed, she would miss out on the title
Speaker 1: of empress, But behind the scenes, her eighteen year old
Speaker 1: emperor's son would be asking her counsel on all of
Speaker 1: the important government matters. Sophie would hold more power pulling
Speaker 1: the strings than being the party throwing marionette, and so
Speaker 1: the young Emperor and his mother ascended the Austrian throne.
Speaker 1: By eighteen fifty three, five years later, the Hungarian uprisings
Speaker 1: had been long since quelled thanks to assistance from Russia,
Speaker 1: but the approval of the young Emperor remained staggeringly low.
Speaker 1: His indecision and ultimate refusal to offer aid to Russia
Speaker 1: amidst the outbreak of the Crimean War left him in
Speaker 1: murky territory internationally and on the home front, the working
Speaker 1: people of Hungary had not forgotten their grievances against the
Speaker 1: emperor just because a few years had passed. All in all,
Speaker 1: it was obvious that Emperor Franz Carl needed a pr makeover,
Speaker 1: and even that the young emperor was twenty three years
Speaker 1: old and still single, the easiest way to fix his
Speaker 1: image would be turning to an answer that still bolsters
Speaker 1: royal approval ratings today, they would have a royal wedding.
Speaker 1: After careful consideration, the Archduchess Sophie decided that aligning Austria
Speaker 1: with another connection to Bavaria was the right step forward
Speaker 1: for the Empire. That connection in question would take the
Speaker 1: form of her sister Ludovica and Ludvika's eldest daughter Helene.
Speaker 1: And this is how we find our way back to Cecy,
Speaker 1: who in August eighteen fifty three found herself packed into
Speaker 1: a carriage between her older sister and her mother and
Speaker 1: route to Austria's imperial summer residence in body Chel to
Speaker 1: confirm the engagement between Helene and Emperor Franz Carl. With
Speaker 1: her older sister in age to the man in charge,
Speaker 1: the young Elizabeth, then fifteen years old, was being brought
Speaker 1: along to be presented as a possible match for the
Speaker 1: Emperor's younger brother, Archduke Carl Ludwig. After all, why not
Speaker 1: try to marry two of your daughters into royalty instead
Speaker 1: of just the one, but that plan would quickly dissolve
Speaker 1: into chaos the moment that Emperor Franz Joseph caught a
Speaker 1: sight of young cc From here, historians have a few
Speaker 1: differing opinions as to what exactly happened next. Some historians
Speaker 1: described the meeting of Franz Joseph and the young Duchess
Speaker 1: Elizabeth as an almost disneyesque fairytale romance. The way this
Speaker 1: version goes, the young Emperor spot a beautiful young woman
Speaker 1: running freely in a meadow, having stopped her carriage to
Speaker 1: pick wild flowers. The Emperor sees this girl, her long,
Speaker 1: dark blonde hair running in soft waves down past her shoulders,
Speaker 1: and he falls instantly in love, only to then come
Speaker 1: to realize later that the young woman was actually the
Speaker 1: younger sister of his would be betrothed all along. In
Speaker 1: another telling, Princess Ludovica suffered from a terrible migraine that
Speaker 1: delayed their journey, a headache made worse by the fact
Speaker 1: that when they did finally arrive in Friends Joseph's court,
Speaker 1: albeit a bit tardy, their luggage had not, meaning that
Speaker 1: they had to meet the Emperor wearing what they had
Speaker 1: traveled in. That would have been bad enough, but the
Speaker 1: trio was dressed all in mourning for an aunt who
Speaker 1: had recently passed away, And so the three women met
Speaker 1: the Emperor while wearing black conservative dresses, certainly not the
Speaker 1: gowns that were specifically made to impress royalty. And while
Speaker 1: the black maid, Helene, with her dark brown air, look
Speaker 1: pale almost to the point of being sickly, Elizabeth's dark
Speaker 1: blonde hair and youthful complexion was said to have glowed
Speaker 1: in comparison. But regardless of which of the versions of
Speaker 1: the first meeting between Franz Joseph and Cecy actually happened,
Speaker 1: the results were indisputable. Elizabeth, the younger sister, was the
Speaker 1: Emperor's clear choice for a bride. Sophie, the Emperor's mother,
Speaker 1: recounted an exchange with her son in her diary. She
Speaker 1: had asked, don't you think that Helene is clever? That
Speaker 1: she has a beautiful and slender figure. Obviously she was
Speaker 1: desperately trying to salvage what was left of the planned engagement. Well, yes,
Speaker 1: a little grave and quiet, certainly pleasant and nice, yes,
Speaker 1: But cc the Emberor's tone brightened after just speaking her name. Cecy.
Speaker 1: Such loveliness, such exuberance like a little girl's, and yet
Speaker 1: so sweet. Predictably, arch Duchess Sophie was livid. She had
Speaker 1: arranged a perfectly suitable marriage with Helene, the obedient daughter
Speaker 1: of her timid sister, who was almost guaranteed to do
Speaker 1: anything the Archduchess asked of her. But Elizabeth. Elizabeth was young,
Speaker 1: only fifteen. She had not been given the proper schooling
Speaker 1: to be an empress. She was a headstrong, freethinking young
Speaker 1: woman who rode horses instead of attending lessons. She did
Speaker 1: not fit into the carefully carved space Sophie had whittled
Speaker 1: into her master plan for her son's reign in the
Speaker 1: years to come. Cc and the Archduchess would rarely agree
Speaker 1: on anything, but in this decision they were both equally troubled.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth could not imagine what the Emperor had seen in
Speaker 1: her that would make him choose her over her sister,
Speaker 1: But beyond that, she could see the writing on the wall, ironically,
Speaker 1: the same thing Archduchess Sophie herself had realized when she
Speaker 1: convinced her husband to see the throne to their son.
Speaker 1: Becoming an empress was in honor, to be sure, but
Speaker 1: not the life that a smart woman would choose for
Speaker 1: herself if her goal was happiness. To her aunt and
Speaker 1: future mother in law, Sophie Cecy lamented quote, I love
Speaker 1: the Emperor so much if only you were not the Emperor.
Speaker 1: The young Elizabeth knew that in accepting Franz Joseph's proposal,
Speaker 1: she was accepting an entirely new way of life, one
Speaker 1: without the anonymity or freedom that she had been allowed
Speaker 1: during her childhood in Possenhofen. But ultimately there was no choice.
Speaker 1: In the words of her mother, who I imagine was
Speaker 1: just relieved that one of her daughters had proved suitable,
Speaker 1: one does not send the Emperor of Austria packing. If
Speaker 1: there was a honeymoon phase for the happy couple, it
Speaker 1: didn't last long. Almost immediately Elizabeth was put into lessons,
Speaker 1: each second of her day meticulously planned and accounted for
Speaker 1: as she was quickly brought into the fold of Austrian aristocracy.
Speaker 1: In the movie version, this would be the moment that
Speaker 1: we get a quick montage sequence cutting between her awkwardly
Speaker 1: balancing books on her head and earning a light slap
Speaker 1: on her wrist for using the wrong spoon during a
Speaker 1: salad course. But unfortunately for Elizabeth, her life was not
Speaker 1: a coming of age romantic comedy. Instead, her lessons consisted
Speaker 1: of unlearning the parts of her childhood that she had
Speaker 1: valued the most. She was no longer allowed to associate
Speaker 1: with peasants or servants, no longer allowed to ride freely
Speaker 1: across the grounds. She was taught the latest dances in court, and,
Speaker 1: after a not so subtle remark made by the Archduchess,
Speaker 1: her new mother in law, a tutorial on how to
Speaker 1: properly brush her teeth. Friends. Joseph, her new husband, remained
Speaker 1: head over heels for his new bride, but he had
Speaker 1: an empire to run, and Elizabeth found herself increasingly alone
Speaker 1: in a palace that felt more like a museum than
Speaker 1: a home. The Archduchess hounded her every move, forbidding her
Speaker 1: to confide in anyone about her homesickness or her growing depression.
Speaker 1: After all, no one could know that the sovereign was unhappy.
Speaker 1: In a poem dated just weeks after their wedding, seventeen
Speaker 1: year old Elizabeth wrote, quote, oh had I but never
Speaker 1: left the path that would have led me to freedom,
Speaker 1: I have awakened in a dungeon with chains on my hands.
Speaker 1: She became resentful of her new family. She was treated
Speaker 1: more like a child old than a spouse. When it
Speaker 1: came to diplomatic matters. She was otherwise ignored unless she
Speaker 1: needed to be paraded around court. Cecy's depression only worsened
Speaker 1: upon the realization of another complication. Barely a month after
Speaker 1: the wedding, she was pregnant. The country was overjoyed, a
Speaker 1: new air, a new hope for Austria, But as Elizabeth's
Speaker 1: stomach grew, the light inside her diminished. As difficult as
Speaker 1: the early months of pregnancy typically are for any new mother,
Speaker 1: Cecy had the compounded stress of representing a nation to
Speaker 1: add to the morning sickness. The more she began to show,
Speaker 1: the more Archduchess Sophie forcibly paraded Elizabeth to the public.
Speaker 1: Having seemingly lost the freedom even to control her own body,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth grew exasperated with her mother in law, complaining to
Speaker 1: a lady in way quote, she dragged me out into
Speaker 1: the garden and declared that it was my duty to
Speaker 1: show off my stomach so that people could see that
Speaker 1: I really was pregnant. It was awful. Instead, it seemed
Speaker 1: to me a blessing to be alone and able to weep.
Speaker 1: The commoners continued to love the humble young Empress, but
Speaker 1: among the aristocracy, Austria Shining Star was losing her luster.
Speaker 1: But they had once thought of as charming, devolved into
Speaker 1: ill mannered or even simple minded, as the court lost
Speaker 1: patience with each of Elizabeth's social blunders. Producing an heir
Speaker 1: to the throne may have given Elizabeth some political sway
Speaker 1: over those in court, but in March eighteen fifty CC
Speaker 1: gave birth to a daughter. The child had barely left
Speaker 1: her body before Elizabeth was cast aside. Again. Elizabeth was
Speaker 1: even denied the right to name her own child. The
Speaker 1: responsibility was instead taken up by arch Duchess Sophie, who,
Speaker 1: after careful consideration, named the little baby Sophie. To absolutely
Speaker 1: no one's surprised the arch Duchess didn't end her control
Speaker 1: there before little Sophie was even born. Elizabeth's mother in
Speaker 1: law had arranged for the nursery to be placed directly
Speaker 1: adjacent to her apartments, so that if the Empress wanted
Speaker 1: to visit her own daughter, she would have to do
Speaker 1: so through her mother in law. Just a little over
Speaker 1: a year later, Elizabeth gave birth to her second daughter, Gisella,
Speaker 1: and for the second time the heads at court saw
Speaker 1: a daughter and it turned away in disappointment. The desperation
Speaker 1: for an heir to the Austrian throne was great, and
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was feeling the burden tenfold. It's rumored that after
Speaker 1: the birth of Gisella, a pam flit mysteriously made it
Speaker 1: onto CC's bedside table, outlining the importance of providing an
Speaker 1: heir to the nation and the perilous position that she
Speaker 1: would be in if she were unable to perform her duties.
Speaker 1: It was never confirmed where the pamphlet came from, but
Speaker 1: all signs pointed to a certain mother in law, the
Speaker 1: woman who held the key to see C's children's nursery.
Speaker 1: Emperor Franz Joseph, being accustomed to his mother's specific breed
Speaker 1: of tyranny, didn't see any issues in any of Elizabeth's grievances.
Speaker 1: Cecy had been brought up in a world where status
Speaker 1: had remained an abstract concept. But to Franz Joseph, whose
Speaker 1: mother had raised him to be ready to lead a
Speaker 1: nation by the age of eighteen. Titles and power were
Speaker 1: in all too reel part of his world. They were
Speaker 1: his world, the very structure that held his reality a
Speaker 1: oft Cecy's complaints were as abstract to him as wanting
Speaker 1: to spend childhood summers befriending local peasant children around posting
Speaker 1: off in castle. So rather than offer any real solutions,
Speaker 1: Emperor Franz Joseph reminded his wife of duties that she
Speaker 1: could be fulfilling for the country. In one letter, he wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: I beg you for the love you bear me. Pull
Speaker 1: yourself together, show yourself in the city, sometimes visit institutions.
Speaker 1: You have no idea what a great help you can
Speaker 1: be to me in this way. It will put heart
Speaker 1: into the people in Vienna and keep up the good
Speaker 1: spirit I require so urgently and so c. C. Did.
Speaker 1: The Austrian public fell more in love with their empress
Speaker 1: as she used her free time to visit the hospitals
Speaker 1: of wounded soldiers and donate to institutions for the mentally ill.
Speaker 1: The court quietly disapproved of her new social ventures, as
Speaker 1: they all but eliminated her distance from the peasant classes,
Speaker 1: but their scrutiny did not burn as badly as it
Speaker 1: had from within the palace walls. It was also during
Speaker 1: this period, though, that Elizabeth's obsession over her appearance would
Speaker 1: begin to take a clear hold over her life. Cecy
Speaker 1: had always been slender, accentuated further by her height five eight,
Speaker 1: especially tall for a woman at the time, but after
Speaker 1: the birth of her first child, Elizabeth began to regularly
Speaker 1: practice what she called quote starvation cures to bring her
Speaker 1: weight down to what she considered a normal quote unquote
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten pounds. In addition to her extreme
Speaker 1: diet and exercise during the periods in between her pregnancies,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth also took up the practice of tight lacing, which,
Speaker 1: as it sounds, can sit of tying the laces of
Speaker 1: her corset so tightly that the Empress would be short
Speaker 1: of breath. The term anorexia as we know it would
Speaker 1: not be coined until eighteen seventy three, but Elizabeth's consistent
Speaker 1: fasting and almost compulsive need to exercise has often led
Speaker 1: to posthumous diagnoses that would indirectly come to similar conclusions.
Speaker 1: In one instance, her quote starvation diet exacerbated her already
Speaker 1: declining health until she was diagnosed with quote green sickness
Speaker 1: otherwise known as anemia, which left her constantly exhausted. One
Speaker 1: physician would note, quote in the otherwise healthy woman, I
Speaker 1: found fairly pronounced swelling, especially in the ankles. He would
Speaker 1: go on to describe her condition as something rare for
Speaker 1: a woman of her position, as it had not become
Speaker 1: quote regrettably notorious until the war. He called it a
Speaker 1: deema of hunger. From such a young age, Cecy faced
Speaker 1: scrutiny of her body on a global scale. After all,
Speaker 1: at the age of fifteen, her life was forever changed
Speaker 1: after the Emperor of Austria was moved more by her
Speaker 1: beauty than that of her sister. As soon as she
Speaker 1: moved into the Imperial Palace in Vienna, all of the
Speaker 1: freedoms Cecy had grown up and joying were suddenly taken
Speaker 1: away from her, and she was reinforced over and over
Speaker 1: again by those around her with the idea that she
Speaker 1: served the nation not with her thoughts or ideas, but
Speaker 1: with her beauty, how she appeared to the people. And
Speaker 1: again not to provide a posthumous diagnosis or psychoanalysis, because
Speaker 1: I find that largely unhelpful but personally, I can imagine
Speaker 1: that the Empress found small comfort in her ability to
Speaker 1: control one tiny piece of her existence when she was
Speaker 1: so powerless everywhere else in her life. Elizabeth's obsession with quote,
Speaker 1: health and beauty would unfortunately only compound over time, But
Speaker 1: after it became evident that she was pregnant with her
Speaker 1: third child, she was forced to stop her excessive diets
Speaker 1: and tight lacing, at least for the time being. To
Speaker 1: her family, this pregnancy was welcome in more ways than one.
Speaker 1: In a letter from CC's mother to the Archduchess, Ludvika
Speaker 1: confided that, in regards to CC's tight lacing quote, c
Speaker 1: C has now become so reasonable and conscientious about lacing
Speaker 1: and tight clothes, a matter that always worried and bothered me.
Speaker 1: I myself believe that it can have an effect on
Speaker 1: one's mood. For an uncomfortable feeling like constant embarrassment may
Speaker 1: truly put one out of sorts. In eighteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth finally gave the Empire and her mother in law
Speaker 1: the air they had so long desired, Prince Rudolph of Austria,
Speaker 1: and although the child was born healthy, the birth took
Speaker 1: a difficult toll on the Empress's body. Deprived of the
Speaker 1: opportunity to breastfeed thanks to the Archduchess, who insisted that
Speaker 1: it was only suitable for royalty to use wet nurses,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth suffered from terrible fevers that caused chronic headaches and fatigue.
Speaker 1: The recovery from the birth was so traumatic that the
Speaker 1: royal doctors discouraged Elizabeth from having any more children for
Speaker 1: the sake of her own health. Following the death of
Speaker 1: her first daughter, who succumbed to a fever at the
Speaker 1: age of two, and the subsequent postpartum illness after the
Speaker 1: birth of Prince Rudolph, Elizabeth's mental and physical health began
Speaker 1: to deteriorate rapidly. Her refusal to eat only exacerbated her
Speaker 1: illness us, and after exhausting all of the other options,
Speaker 1: Cecy was sent to Madeira as a last hail mary
Speaker 1: attempt to alleviate her symptoms, though to almost everyone's shock,
Speaker 1: upon landing on foreign soil, the Empress's condition actually began
Speaker 1: to improve. The fever stopped, her color returned, and Elizabeth's
Speaker 1: general demeanor was brighter than it had been in years.
Speaker 1: She spent her free time reading and writing, learning to
Speaker 1: play new instruments, and taking up more than one new language.
Speaker 1: She also wrote frequently to her family, including to the
Speaker 1: ex fiance of her younger sister, that man King Ludwig
Speaker 1: the Second you might remember from our episode The Swan King.
Speaker 1: Even though the marriage had fallen through between Ludwig and
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's sister, most likely because of Ludwig's interest exclusively in
Speaker 1: the opposite sex. Ludwig and Elizabeth were main close friends
Speaker 1: throughout their lives, cousins who shared a love of beauty
Speaker 1: and who felt comfortable with one another, commiserating in their
Speaker 1: desires for a more romantic and artistic way of life,
Speaker 1: and talking about the ways they felt trapped within the
Speaker 1: walls of their palaces. Perhaps it had been the warm air,
Speaker 1: or the proximity to the ocean, or the distance from
Speaker 1: a certain mother in law that had caused the turnaround
Speaker 1: in Elizabeth's health when she was in Madeira. But as
Speaker 1: soon as she returned to Vienna in eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: she almost immediately fell ill again. The root cause of
Speaker 1: her ailments was becoming harder to ignore. The years away
Speaker 1: in Madeira had changed her. She was no longer the
Speaker 1: timid teenager who had silently watched her life slipped through
Speaker 1: her grasps and into the hands of her mother in law.
Speaker 1: When she returned to Vienna, Elizabeth knew that there was
Speaker 1: a power that she had. Even the Archduchess could not
Speaker 1: argue with that. Elizabeth had performed her duty and provided
Speaker 1: an air to the Austrian throne. Now the crown needed
Speaker 1: Elizabeth as a symbol for the nation, one that was bright, youthful,
Speaker 1: but most importantly beautiful. Elizabeth could not perform her duties
Speaker 1: while quite literally withering away in Vienna. Her intense shyness
Speaker 1: wanted anything but to be put on public display. But
Speaker 1: her image was also her one ticket out of the
Speaker 1: walls of Viennese court, and so, with a passing regret
Speaker 1: at the thought of leaving her children, the Empress turned
Speaker 1: her back on Vienna, never to call it home again.
Speaker 1: If Elizabeth's fixation on beauty had begun as a simple snowball,
Speaker 1: she had by this point escalated it to the point
Speaker 1: of bringing down an avalanche. The Empress had an endless
Speaker 1: list of exceedingly intricate beauty regimes that make today's capitalist
Speaker 1: regimen of beauty bloggers look like child's play. The hours
Speaker 1: of daily exercise never ceased, even at the behest of
Speaker 1: multiple doctors who examined her throughout her life. In each
Speaker 1: of her residences, she had the staff builled gymnasiums so
Speaker 1: she would be able to exercise without interruption. As the
Speaker 1: Empress grew older, she would require new ladies in waiting,
Speaker 1: ones that were younger, for the ones that grew older
Speaker 1: with her could no longer keep up with her rigorous training.
Speaker 1: Her extreme dieting was equally grueling. To maintain her emaciated figure,
Speaker 1: the Empress took to only eating dairy products and inspecting
Speaker 1: each of the cows she received milk from, requiring them
Speaker 1: to travel with her wherever she went. Elizabeth would use
Speaker 1: nightly face masks of raw veal and strawberries and take
Speaker 1: bath this in warm olive oil to keep her skin
Speaker 1: smooth and without wrinkles. Elizabeth's niece Marie Larish described the
Speaker 1: process by saying, quote, once the oil was almost boiling
Speaker 1: and she barely escaped the dreadful death of many a
Speaker 1: Christian martyr. Often she slept with damp clothes over her
Speaker 1: hips to maintain her slenderness, and for the same reason,
Speaker 1: she often drank a dreadful mixture of five or six
Speaker 1: egg whites with salt. Caesi's hair, which had grown over
Speaker 1: time from a dark blonde to a rich chestnut, was
Speaker 1: the crowning glory of the Empress's appearance. Pun intended. It
Speaker 1: fell in thick waves, said to have reached all the
Speaker 1: way down to her ankles. She took the idea of
Speaker 1: a wash day and truly ran with it. She had
Speaker 1: a full day scheduled every month solely dedicated to washing
Speaker 1: her hair, not to mention the daily three hours brushing
Speaker 1: and stiling necessary just to maintain it. In between those days.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was so obsessive that she would have her hairdressers
Speaker 1: show her the brush that they used after they completed
Speaker 1: their task, and she would inspect how much hair she
Speaker 1: lost each session. One hairdresser took to hiding a strip
Speaker 1: of adhesive to the inside of her clothes so that
Speaker 1: she could hide any rogue hairs that fell out as
Speaker 1: she went. One of Elizabeth's hired scholars once commented, quote,
Speaker 1: your Majesty wears her hair like a crown instead of
Speaker 1: the crown. To this, Elizabeth replied, except that any other
Speaker 1: crown is more easily laid aside. Elizabeth's beauty routines took
Speaker 1: up substantial portions of every day, but she didn't simply
Speaker 1: sit there and watch the time pass. Instead, she used
Speaker 1: the time to educate herself, hiring scholars and readers to
Speaker 1: teach her several new languages, including Hungarian, which proved especially
Speaker 1: useful after Austria was defeated by Prussia in the Seven
Speaker 1: Weeks War. The loss had reawakened Hungary's desire for independence,
Speaker 1: and Emperor Franz Joseph saw that the unrest would not
Speaker 1: be quite as easily quelled as it had been when
Speaker 1: he had begun to rule. However, this time though, he
Speaker 1: had one thing in his arsenal that was new cc.
Speaker 1: If there was one thing that the Hungarian people felt
Speaker 1: more passionately about than their disdain for the Emperor, it
Speaker 1: was their love for the Empress, and the feeling was mutual.
Speaker 1: In the early years of their marriage, the couple had
Speaker 1: visited Hungary during peacetime, the Empress had fallen completely in
Speaker 1: love with the Hungarian people and their way of life.
Speaker 1: Unlike life in the conservative Viennese court, the Hungarian aristocracy
Speaker 1: was bold, confident in their diamonds added couture in a
Speaker 1: way that would have been shunned back in Austria. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: was smitten. After that early trip, CC would ask for
Speaker 1: a Hungarian lady in waiting to accompany her on her travels.
Speaker 1: She would also make an effort to learn the language, culture,
Speaker 1: and history of the Hungarian people, and in return, the
Speaker 1: people of Hungary were more amenable to the compromises that
Speaker 1: would eventually give birth to the Austro Hungarian Empire. In
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, it was decided that Hungary would no
Speaker 1: longer be ruled by Austria. It would be an independent kingdom,
Speaker 1: albeit a kingdom where the king and queen were Franz
Speaker 1: Joseph and Elizabeth. After their coronations, Elizabeth allowed herself to
Speaker 1: become pregnant for the final time to solidify the compromise
Speaker 1: and establish their joint rules securely over both nations. In
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, CC gave birth to her fourth child,
Speaker 1: Marie Valerie, on Hungarian soil. Now thirty years old, Elizabeth
Speaker 1: was no longer beholden to her overbearing mother in law,
Speaker 1: and she was finally allowed to raise the child herself,
Speaker 1: far away from the Viennese court. Predictably, Elizabeth nearly smothered
Speaker 1: the child with all of the love and affection that
Speaker 1: she had never been able to give her three older children.
Speaker 1: The two living elder children of the Empress grew resentful
Speaker 1: of their younger sister, who was the obvious favorite of
Speaker 1: their mother. Rudolph especially would start to show extreme jealousy
Speaker 1: towards his sister, until the young Murrae Valerie became afraid
Speaker 1: of her older brother. Altogether, Elizabeth predictably sided with her youngest,
Speaker 1: making her elder son hate his little sister all the more.
Speaker 1: Despite her lacking relationship with Gizella and Rudolph. In Budapest,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was finally getting everything she had always wanted with
Speaker 1: Marie Valerie. Unfortunately, for her, the hardest was still yet
Speaker 1: to come. If you're a frequent listener of this podcast,
Speaker 1: the name Prince Rudolph might sound a little familiar. He
Speaker 1: was the subject of an episode we did on the
Speaker 1: Maryling Incident, a murder suicide between Prince Rudolph and his
Speaker 1: seventeen year old mistress Mary Vitt Sarah. If you want
Speaker 1: to learn more, I highly suggest going back to that
Speaker 1: episode for a listen for Elizabeth, the tragedy would forever
Speaker 1: alter the course of her life. The days following the tragedy,
Speaker 1: the Empress held herself together as best she could. She
Speaker 1: kept her emotions buried under careful lock and key, a
Speaker 1: practice that had been fortified by years of royal trained repression.
Speaker 1: But once the tears began to fall, there was no
Speaker 1: stopping them. The Archduchess, her mother in law, had long
Speaker 1: since died by this point, but her talents were still
Speaker 1: visible in Elizabeth's spiraling depression. After watching her only son
Speaker 1: be interred in the Imperial crypt, she remarked to her
Speaker 1: favorite daughter, quote, after now all these people who from
Speaker 1: the hour of my arrival here have said so many
Speaker 1: bad things about me, will have the satisfaction after all
Speaker 1: of seeing me pass on without leaving a mark on Austria. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: the Viennese court found reason to blame Elizabeth for the
Speaker 1: tragic suicide of her son. Some, like Elizabeth herself, blamed
Speaker 1: the madness of the Vittelsbach line, while others sought to
Speaker 1: scapegoat Elizabeth's travels and her dissociation from court, for they
Speaker 1: neglected Rudolph to suffer enough to drive him to suicide
Speaker 1: In the end, the reason didn't matter to Elizabeth. As
Speaker 1: soon as her youngest daughter was married, Elizabeth, free from
Speaker 1: any more familial responsibility, boarded a ship and spent the
Speaker 1: rest of her days attempting to sail herself away from
Speaker 1: a life she no longer wanted to live. The Empress
Speaker 1: would spend the next nine years traveling from port to port,
Speaker 1: her worsening depression making her impulsive and borderline self destructive.
Speaker 1: In her travels. There were multiple reported incidents of her
Speaker 1: attempting to break into random people's homes, prompting the Emperor
Speaker 1: to write to his wife after an especially hostile being
Speaker 1: ean niece, where she was almost chased from the establishment
Speaker 1: by the old woman who lived there. Quote, I am
Speaker 1: glad that your niece indigestion has passed so quickly, and
Speaker 1: that you did not also get a beating from the
Speaker 1: old witch. But sooner or later, that is exactly what
Speaker 1: will happen, for one does not simply push one's way
Speaker 1: uninvited into people's houses. The Empress's behavior didn't end there.
Speaker 1: When the weather would shift at sea, Elizabeth would demand
Speaker 1: to be tied to a chair on the deck amidst
Speaker 1: the harsh wind, rain and thunder. I do this like Odysseus,
Speaker 1: she would say, because the waves tempt me. Her erratic
Speaker 1: behavior pushed the limits of what even royalty could feasibly
Speaker 1: get away with, but that had probably been her aim.
Speaker 1: For so long. Elizabeth had been told how to dress,
Speaker 1: how to behave, how to simply exist in a world
Speaker 1: that she had never wanted to be a part of.
Speaker 1: Now she had no son, no future for her in Austria.
Speaker 1: She was a woman with nothing to gain, no one
Speaker 1: to please, but more importantly, nothing to lose. Who would
Speaker 1: stop her? The answer would come nine years later on
Speaker 1: the Quas de mont Blanc in Geneva, Switzerland, as Luigi
Speaker 1: Lucheni sat outside the Hotel beau Ravage with a heavy
Speaker 1: weight in his right sleeve, waiting for his target to emerge.
Speaker 1: At one pm on September, the Empress left the Hotel
Speaker 1: beau Ravage, dressed in all black, as she had every
Speaker 1: day since her son's death. She began walking with her
Speaker 1: lady in waiting the Countess stare down towards the ducks
Speaker 1: to board their ship to Montroux. Despite the desperate please
Speaker 1: from the Swiss police, Elizabeth refused to travel with a guard.
Speaker 1: Her persistent shyness made her wary of causing a commotion
Speaker 1: with added security, but even so, some historians remark that
Speaker 1: she simply felt she had nothing to lose. The former
Speaker 1: Empress Eugenie of France perhaps best described CC's final years quote,
Speaker 1: it was as if one were going driving with a ghost,
Speaker 1: for her spirit seemed to dwell in another world. Spotting
Speaker 1: the two women, lu Chennie pushed his way through the crowd.
Speaker 1: Once within reach of the Empress, he wasted no time
Speaker 1: pushing her parasol the way to confirm her identity. Then
Speaker 1: he plunged his makeshift dagger directly into Elizabeth's heart. A
Speaker 1: collective shock rippled through the crowd as the Empress fell
Speaker 1: to the ground. Onlookers attempted to help the women. The
Speaker 1: porter from their hotel even came out to check on them,
Speaker 1: urging the women to return to their rooms so the
Speaker 1: Empress could be examined by a doctor. But by this
Speaker 1: time Cecy had already managed to get back to her feet.
Speaker 1: She had assumed a madman had just shoved her to
Speaker 1: the ground, and desperate to minimize the amount of people
Speaker 1: who could recognize her, Elizabeth simply thanked the scattered by
Speaker 1: standards and let the countess lead her back down towards
Speaker 1: the docks. It wouldn't be until Elizabeth collapsed on the
Speaker 1: deck of the steamship that the countess would realize the
Speaker 1: severity of the Empress's injuries. By the time the crew
Speaker 1: managed to assemble their makeshift stretcher and carry her back
Speaker 1: to the hotel, it was already too late. When the
Speaker 1: doctor slid her vein, there was no blood. Elizabeth, the
Speaker 1: Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, was dead. How
Speaker 1: can you kill a woman who has never hurt anyone?
Speaker 1: Those were the words Franz Joseph would repeat to himself
Speaker 1: in the days following his wife's murder. The Emperor's first
Speaker 1: reaction to Elizabeth's death had been grief. He sat stunned
Speaker 1: as the news washed over him. Aids attempted to relay
Speaker 1: the information. There was a telegram from her lady in
Speaker 1: waiting details on the transport of the body in autopsy,
Speaker 1: and that is when grief warped into confusion. That confusion
Speaker 1: then morphed into bitter relief, for in the years since
Speaker 1: their son's death, Franz Joseph was no stranger to Elizabeth's
Speaker 1: despondent view on life, which is why he was so
Speaker 1: surprised to learn that his wife had not taken her
Speaker 1: own life, but rather that someone had taken it from her.
Speaker 1: His Empress his Cecy had been assassinated. That brief relief
Speaker 1: that his wife was free now from the pain and
Speaker 1: torture that she felt, boiled off quickly. Anger was all
Speaker 1: that was left. How can you kill a woman who
Speaker 1: has never hurt anyone? Only forty eight hours prior, the
Speaker 1: young anarchist Luceni had not planned to kill the Empress
Speaker 1: at all. In fact, he had only traveled to Geneva
Speaker 1: because he had planned on killing the Duke of Orleans,
Speaker 1: only to find that the Duke had left before Luccenni
Speaker 1: had even arrived. It was only after newspapers picked up
Speaker 1: on the Empress's whereabouts in Geneva that he decided to
Speaker 1: alter his plans. The man was caught quickly after fleeing
Speaker 1: the scenes, showing no remorse for his actions. I am
Speaker 1: an anarchist by conviction, he told the Swiss police. I
Speaker 1: came to Geneva to kill a sovereign, with the abject
Speaker 1: of giving an example to those who suffer, and those
Speaker 1: who do nothing to improve their social position. It did
Speaker 1: not matter to me who the sovereign was whom I
Speaker 1: should kill. It was not a woman I struck, but
Speaker 1: an empress. It was a crown that I had in view.
Speaker 1: He had requested the death penalty at his sentencing, but Switzerland,
Speaker 1: having outlawed capital punishment, sentenced Luceni instead to life in prison.
Speaker 1: He would hang himself in his cell eleven years later.
Speaker 1: He spared no thought for the woman behind the title,
Speaker 1: nor had he seen the frail ghost drifting beneath the parasol.
Speaker 1: But then again, neither had Austria. When the Empress's body
Speaker 1: arrived in Vienna five days later, arguments immediately followed over
Speaker 1: the inscription on the coffin The original text read Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Empress of Austria, which caused an outcry from the citizens
Speaker 1: of Hungary, until the plaque was changed to read Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Even in death,
Speaker 1: her life was still measured in the ways it affected others.
Speaker 1: Before her death, Elizabeth had told Murray Valerie quote, and
Speaker 1: when it came time for me to die, lay me
Speaker 1: down at the ocean's shore. Of course, this last wish
Speaker 1: was never carried out. Her body was laid to rest
Speaker 1: in the Imperial Crypt, just as her sons had been
Speaker 1: nine years earlier. In December, Franz Joseph celebrated the fifty
Speaker 1: year jubilee of his reign, though celebrate might be the
Speaker 1: wrong word. The country was still mourning the loss of
Speaker 1: their empress, but their grief was also reserved for what
Speaker 1: her death meant for Austria itself. The death of Prince
Speaker 1: Rudolph marked the beginning of the end of the Austria
Speaker 1: Hungarian Empire. The country was left without an heir, and
Speaker 1: after the assassination of Elizabeth, their unshakable emperor was left
Speaker 1: with another crack in his already crumbling foundation. The end
Speaker 1: of the empire was within their sights, and Elizabeth's death
Speaker 1: was just another nail in its coffin. The actual woman
Speaker 1: inside the crypt was of little import In the years
Speaker 1: to come. Elizabeth's death would be used as fuel to
Speaker 1: fire propaganda during World War One. In a piece published
Speaker 1: under the headline Revenge for Elizabeth, the author rights to
Speaker 1: the Austrian forces being sent to the Italian front. Austria's
Speaker 1: warriors feel the strength within them to defeat and smash
Speaker 1: with iron hand the raised hand of the murderer. It
Speaker 1: is Lucenese spirit which leads the army of our enemy.
Speaker 1: May Elizabeth Spirit lead our spirit? From more propaganda to
Speaker 1: Hollywood blockbusters. Portrayals of Elizabeth typically fall in one of
Speaker 1: two categories. The first is the Empress as a regal
Speaker 1: sovereign unfairly taken before her time after giving nothing but
Speaker 1: love and tolerance in her rule. This version of the
Speaker 1: Empress found its way into war propaganda, but also into
Speaker 1: government affairs, such as the Order of Elizabeth, which Franz
Speaker 1: Joseph created following her death to award women for acts
Speaker 1: of religious and charitable work. The second version of Empress
Speaker 1: Elizabeth is the legacy of CC. It's more mythologized version
Speaker 1: of her life then inaccurate historical account. People portraying her
Speaker 1: as a victim of circumstance, the tragic byproduct of a
Speaker 1: system that took a bright young woman and tried to
Speaker 1: shape her into what the Crown wanted. In that way,
Speaker 1: people often equate Elizabeth with Princess Diana, the people's princess
Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. I think it's a fair comparison.
Speaker 1: But I also think that maybe people don't realize that
Speaker 1: those comparisons also hinge on the most easily consumable narrative
Speaker 1: versions of who those people actually were. The simple fact
Speaker 1: is that most portrayals of Empress Cecy emphasized just how
Speaker 1: much the myth relies on portraying her as an innocent victim.
Speaker 1: The name Cecy itself evokes this idea of a young
Speaker 1: girl full of hopes and dreams, a girl who's surprised
Speaker 1: when she wins the heart of an emperor who's meant
Speaker 1: to marry her sister. The name Elizabeth just doesn't elicit
Speaker 1: the same emotional response. But then again, Elizabeth did not
Speaker 1: exist for the entertainment of others. Her life can't be
Speaker 1: wrapped up in a neat, little beau because she wasn't
Speaker 1: the perfect sovereign, nor was she the humble, compassionate woman
Speaker 1: of the people that she's often painted as. The truth is,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was a complex woman. She married an emperor at
Speaker 1: sixteen and had three kids. Before the age of twenty one.
Speaker 1: She was alone in a strange and overbearing, restrictive formal court.
Speaker 1: She lost two of her children, but she also had
Speaker 1: a genuine love for nature, for the places she visited,
Speaker 1: and for the languages and cultures she immersed herself in.
Speaker 1: In the final years of her life, she existed more
Speaker 1: than she lived. She was drifting from port to port,
Speaker 1: chasing the open air as it found her. After her death,
Speaker 1: her daughter Marie Valerie found a small comfort amidst the
Speaker 1: cruel chaos, saying quote, now it has happened as she
Speaker 1: always wished it to happen, quickly, painlessly, without medical treatment,
Speaker 1: without long, fearful days of worry for her dear loved ones.
Speaker 1: On the deck of the steamship on Lake Geneva, Elizabeth
Speaker 1: spent her final conscious moments staring at the open expanse
Speaker 1: of the bright blue sky above her. But even as
Speaker 1: the sky began to fade, the sound of waves, which
Speaker 1: she had long associated with home, lulled her to sleep.
Speaker 1: That's the tragic story of Empress Elizabeth of Austria. But
Speaker 1: keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear a
Speaker 1: little bit more about how Cecy's legacy continues to persist today.
Speaker 1: In the one hundred and twenty years since Elizabeth's death,
Speaker 1: there have been countless adaptations of the Empress's story across
Speaker 1: stage and screen, but perhaps none quite as peculiar as
Speaker 1: the two thousand fourteen short film for Chanel by Carl Lagerfeld,
Speaker 1: titled Reincarnation. Lagerfeld, who coincidentally was born on September nine,
Speaker 1: thirty three, exactly thirty five years after Elizabeth's assassination, is,
Speaker 1: of course the famous designer and fashion icon associated with Chanel,
Speaker 1: Fendi and strangely detachable collars. The short film centers around
Speaker 1: the most famous portrait of Empress Cecy, painted by Xavier
Speaker 1: Winterhunter in eighteen sixty five. It's a painting where diamond
Speaker 1: stars adorned the Empress's intricately plated brown hair and her
Speaker 1: voluminous star adorned white ballgown. Lagerfeld uses this portrait of
Speaker 1: CC and the matching venture Halter portrait of Franz Joseph
Speaker 1: with his iconic imperial beard and in full military regalia
Speaker 1: as vehicles to tell the origin story of one of
Speaker 1: Coco Chanel's designs through the lens of a lowly bellhop
Speaker 1: and bar maiden employed in an Austrian hotel in the
Speaker 1: early nineteen fifties. The opening shots of the film have
Speaker 1: the portraits hanging in the lobby of the hotel. Only
Speaker 1: inside the frames the faces are actually Pharrell Williams and
Speaker 1: karadel Avine, who are dressed and posed identically as their
Speaker 1: historical counterparts. As the hotel bustles to life, we see
Speaker 1: Kara Quote reincarnated as a mischievous nineteen fifties bar maiden,
Speaker 1: and Farrell reincarnated as a much more subdued bellhop who
Speaker 1: spends the majority of the first act of the movie
Speaker 1: pressing an elevator button and not showing emotion. It's only
Speaker 1: when the film Reach is its second act that we
Speaker 1: see the characters inside the portraits come to life. As
Speaker 1: the clock strikes midnight, the portraits themselves suddenly lose their
Speaker 1: subjects to the hotel lobby. The film proceeds to waltz
Speaker 1: around the room, Cecie's flowing white gown fanning out from
Speaker 1: her frame with each twirl, as shots cut to Farrell
Speaker 1: singing along to this song he wrote especially for the film,
Speaker 1: titled ce ce the World Get It See See Coco Chanel.
Speaker 1: The lyrics are a play on Chanel's iconic logo with
Speaker 1: the interlocking CS. He sings, could she be the girl
Speaker 1: to help me see See the world, while a blonde
Speaker 1: child in the background chants slightly menacingly, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: see cee over and over again, in rhythm with the music.
Speaker 1: What's interesting about the film, in my opinion, is Lagerfeld's
Speaker 1: use of C C in an almost manic pixie dream
Speaker 1: girl away, reducing her down to a character that exists
Speaker 1: solely to push for El's character toward the story. Even
Speaker 1: when Kara gets turned to sing her verse, it's still
Speaker 1: in the third person and she's singing the same lines.
Speaker 1: Could she be the girl to help you see see
Speaker 1: the world? Not could I? But could she? If you
Speaker 1: want to find out how the rest of the film ends,
Speaker 1: you can find it for free on YouTube. But I
Speaker 1: think in the context of telling CC's story and the
Speaker 1: continuation of her legacy, I'll leave you with this parting thought.
Speaker 1: Even as the child chants see c in the background,
Speaker 1: even as Kara del Avine's presence on screen physically dwarfs
Speaker 1: for Els by the sheer size of her gown, in
Speaker 1: the end, CC's name and image are once again being
Speaker 1: used to fit someone else's narrative. It's enough to make
Speaker 1: you wonder would they even notice if the real CC
Speaker 1: wasn't there at all. Noble Blood is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: The show was written and hosted by Dani Schwartz. Executive
Speaker 1: producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales,
Speaker 1: and you can learn more about the show over at
Speaker 1: Noble blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M