1998 / Romy Schneider forever

    "Sissi"-Movies deep-frozen

Romy Schneiders portrayal of "Sissi" conquered hearts all over the world. Repeats of the three movies about the life of the austrian Empress Elisabeth still receive high ratings today. But the ravages of time have taken their toll on these old movies. The Leo Kirch company "Taurus-Film" has taken on the task of digitally restoring the movies using modern technology for generations to come.

  The hunt for the grey veil

The at the time 17-year old Romy Schneider became famous over night following the release of the first "Sissi" movie in 1955. "The quality of the original Negatives has frayed with every copy" according to material-expert Paul Reichl from Leo Kirch's company Taurus-Film. And there have been hundreds of copies of the Sissi-Movies. The result: colors are washed out and a kind of hazy grey veil lies on the picture. The 300.000 DM expensive reconstruction has been an exciting piece of work for the involved technicians. The movie was scanned frame-by-frame and transferred on to a digital "Master tape". The colors were replenished and scratches on the movie-meterial removed. They also took care of the "flimmering" that alot of old movies develop because of the chemical change in the emulsion-coat of the movie. Distracting noise has been removed as well.
"However we tried to avoid adding a too electronical touch to the movie that would make it seem sterile", stressed Reichl.

Vacuum-packed in tinfoil

The media mogul Kirch has owned the distribution rights as well as the original Negatives of the "Sissi-Triology" since the 70s. Copys will be made from the new digital Master-Tape from now on. Following the slogan "Sissi Forever" the new Negatives are deep-frozen to be preserved for eternity. To accomplish this liquids are removed from the emulsion-coat of the movies in drying chambers, then it is rolled up and - not unlike grinded coffe - twice sealed with tinfoil
Next they are transported to Kirch's "Sanctuary"; a refrigerated room about the size of a classroom where the precious movies are stored at minues 8 degree celsius.