This is something of a “doing my homework” review because I feel like I should actually watch more movies with costumes by the legendary designer Piero Tosi instead of just drooling over the pictures, especially of the costumes on display. So when Kendra found me a decent copy of Ludwig (1973), I gave it a shot. Nearly 4 hours about the “mad” King of Bavaria later, and well, there weren’t as many costumes as I’d like, but the ones shown were indeed stunning. Plus, Helmut Berger as the eponymous king is super duper pretty to look at!
After watching the movie, I read how Berger and the film’s director Luchino Visconti had been lovers for years, the actor having already been in several Visconti movies (and would be in a few more). This is somewhat relevant since the real Ludwig had male lovers, never married a woman, and never had children. All his life, this royal was more interested in music, poetry, and architecture than statecraft or military matters. His mother considered him day-dreamer, which sounds more accurate than insanity IMO.
Compare that photo of the actual Ludwig II of Bavaria with these of Helmut Berger in the movie. The later is just a slightly glammed-up version, with fiiiiiine cheekbones, piercing blue eyes, wickedly arched eyebrows, and delightfully tousled hair…
Pretty good casting, even as the older king.
The movie opens with a government minister announcing the case that the king is unfit, and then the story flashes back to Ludwig’s coronation in 1864. So you know this doesn’t have a happy ending (but there’s no spoilers in history, as we always say).
The first scenes are all pomp and circumstance, showing the queen mother and her ladies in elaborate coronation robes and tiaras. More of her ceremonial garb is shown than the king’s.
Next come the crown jewels, followed by the king himself.
For most of this intro, Ludwig barely talks, he’s all emo boy in a uniform, drinking champagne and staring self-consciously into the mirror before donning his full regalia.
Our friend Maija Hallikas-Manninen took photos of several costumes from Ludwig at the Glamour: Famous Gowns of the Silver Screen exhibit of Tirelli costumes, including the king’s coronation robe. The exhibit described it as:
“Magnificent mantle in burgundy velvet embroidered all over with gold bullion wire, and edged and lined with white ermine. Embroidered entirely by hand. Fastening with cords ending in gold tassels.”
This is genuine metal embroidery, that took seamstresses for over two months to complete and cost 25 million livres at the time. These pictures show details that are just glimpsed onscreen.
That’s going to be a running theme for the costumes in this movie — lots of rich historical details that the camera does NOT linger on. It’s all there, just so you know it is, to make sure the entire ambiance feels authentic to the period. Director Luchino Visconti had helped start the Italian trend of cinematic neorealism of the 1940s-50s, a style that was known for filming on location, using working-class people as actors. Visconti’s historical films like this, and also The Leopard (1963) and Death in Venice (1971), are decadent and romantic in the visuals, contrasting to his early work, but there’s also a strong sense of realism that he demands for the historical settings and clothing. It’s such a contrast to current productions that do a half-assed job of “close enough” historical backgrounds and costumes, that create more of a modern fantasy version of whatever time period they’re supposedly set in.
Compare with the official portrait of the king. Spot on!
As king, Ludwig tries to contact composer Richard Wagner, which is delayed, so he meets up with his cousin Empress Elisabeth of Austria (aka Sissi). In real life, they’d been friends as youngsters, and in this movie, that relationship is juiced up a bit, with Ludwig idolizing her as the only woman he’ll ever love. She sees him as just her sweet little cousin, who she’ll mentor as a fellow unsatisfied royal.
Sissi is played here by Romy Schneider who legendarily portrayed the empress in the 1950s German “Sissi” film trilogy. I tried to find some interview or article explaining why she took the role or how Luchino Visconti convinced her, since she’d reportedly hated being typecast as Sissi after those early movies. Perhaps she did it because here, Elisabeth is older, more mature, jaded, not quite bitter, but she’s seen some things and she knows how the world works — this character has grown from the youthful, romantic girl in the earlier movies.
She still loves horses though! That’s where Ludwig finds her at first, riding a horse.
Sissi was known for her life-long love of riding, but I could only find this later photo of her on horseback. Still, it’s reminiscent of this scene.
To continue Ludwig’s cousin-flirting, they walk around in the snow the next day. Sissi’s green and black hat is all that’s really visible of her outfit onscreen.
This behind-the-scenes photo shows that she’s wearing velvet with an elegant and very period-accurate scalloped button trim.
Then the story moves to Wagner. I know this is a big part of the king’s life, but I think Wagner is shown as just a grasping, needy gold-digger, along with Cosima von Bülow. She married conductor Hans von Bülow, having two daughters with him, then Cosima and Wagner started having an affair around 1863, when her husband was conducting Wagner’s operas. In the film, this looks like a sort of consensual threesome that was only broken up because the newspapers made a scandal of it, and at that point, they beg for King Ludwig to interfere. IDK, man, IDK.
At least it’s an excuse for some good costumes, because check out these stripes on Cosima!
Here’s the costume on display, showing the back details. That amazing stripe pattern is just glimpsed for a moment, in passing, at the end of this scene, in the movie.
Back to the king and the empress, they share a moonlight horse ride and a chaste kiss, but Elisabeth wants to set him up with her younger sister, Sophie. Later, at a formal-ish family-ish drawing room setting, Ludwig thinks he’s going to hang out with Sissi but nope, she tries to push her sister at him.
Ludwig does the rounds, greeting Elisabeth’s mom, brother, and sisters. They’re mostly minor, throwaway characters, but they get excellent costumes!
First, Princess Sophie, pretty in pinkish lavender with ruffled trim, her hair styled just like Sissi’s (to be fair, so is her younger sister, it’s just a thing).
There are many extant dresses similar to what Sophie wears, and I think this one is awfully close:
I didn’t screencap the whole family, but Sissi’s older sister, Helene (called Néné), wears this beautiful purple velvet embroidered bodice. She’s just in this one scene of the movie, but she’s appropriately regal AF.
Then Sissi shows up, just to rebuff Ludwig and push Sophie at him.
Elisabeth is known for her extremely long hair, which she wore up in elaborate braids (which often gave her headaches!).
For this drawing room family visit, Sissi wears a blue velvet gown with a square neckline.
While the neckline is different, I’m reminded of this full velvet gown Sissi wore:
Ludwig next meets with Elisabeth at one of his woodland hideaways. I think it’s supposed to be one of the buildings at Herrenchiemsee, because Sissi arrives by boat, so that could be on Chiemsee Lake. Some of the movie was shot on location at the castles King Ludwig famously spent too much money building: Herrenchiemsee, Linderhof, and Neuschwanstein.
For this casual setting, Ludwig is in a green and red outfit that’s reminiscent of Bavarian folk costume. He’s not down to wear the lederhosen, but he’ll just show a touch of romantic patriotism. Meanwhile, Sissi is draped in furs over embroidered velvet and satin.
Compare Ludwig’s suit to these fellows:
This style of embroidered jacket was popular, such as:
Ludwig hangs out with Wagner, who I continue to find annoying (not a huge fan of his music either, sorry!).
Cosima livens up the joint with another stripey dress, though it’s in brown.
At least this time, we get a money shot! She stands with her back full to the camera for a nice minute so we can enjoy that stripe placement. She also asks Ludwig to give Wagner money, so I’m still not thrilled with her as a character.
She exists only to show me how hoopskirts can look good for a change! Big, fabulous skirts like that are perfect for big, fabulous rooms like this. Visconti and Tosi knew what they were doing.
I bet that gown is something like this underneath:
The green satin gown is topped with a dark green velvet mantle, and she’s properly accessorized with a hat, gloves, purse, and parasol.
The threesome have an audience with the king about their affair, and I don’t give a fuck. There’s additional scenes of Wagner leaving town then him and Cosima having an over-the-top happy Christmas, which all seems unnecessary. I’ll leave you with this photo of them looking self-satisfied into each other’s eyes, and let’s not talk of them anymore.
After seeing a naked man swimming, Ludwig realizes, yep, he really is gay, so he runs to the queen mother and tells her to arrange his marriage to Sophie. For what’s essentially their engagement party, Sophie wears this light blue satin gown — like a pale version of the deep blue velvet gown her older sister wore, because she’s a pale copy in Ludwig’s eyes.
Beautifully trimmed, as all the gowns in this film are.
Elisabeth shows up, draped in black shawls and veils. The color of this gown vexes me! These screencaps make it look more burgundy, but it looked more dark pink on my screen. Yet in the photos on Tirelli’s website, the costume looks vivid purple!
How the costume was envisioned:
As she removes the layer of black:
The costume on display:
There are quite a few similar ensembles in period imagery, such as:
While Ludwig had excitedly shown Elisabeth his plans for another castle, he seems totally disinterested in Sophie playing piano. In real life, a love of music was the one thing they had in common, and both were fans of Wagner.
This costume was described at the Glamour: Famous Gowns of the Silver Screen exhibit of Tirelli costumes as: “Day dress in apricot faille with floral motif in white bugle beads. Skirt embellished with two scalloped bands of the dress material at the bottom.”
It’s another style typical of the period, rather like this painting:
As if to encourage his marriage, folks in the court (not clear who, but the queen mother might be involved) pay for an “actress,” aka prostitute to visit the king. Madame Lila von Buliowski has bad table manners and wears flashy clothes, and she proves that you can’t seduce someone while wearing a hoopskirt (OK, it doesn’t help if you’re a woman trying to seduce a gay man ;).
Ludwig shows Sophie the crown jewels, and he introduces her to Wagner as if to get the composer’s approval.
Ludwig and Sophie were only engaged for about a year, and yes, he called it off. But it’s possible that she wasn’t into it either and had at least one, if not several, other fellas in mind. A year later, Sophie married the Duke of Alençon and had a rather satisfactory life.
But we get one last scene with Sophie, where she accuses her sister of being Ludwig’s true love. Sissi disabuses her of that notion. This scene is also notable because we see all the hair, both Elisabeth’s famously long hair, plus her sister’s.
Elisabeth’s hair was well documented.
So Ludwig officially calls off the engagement and gets down with the boys. But first, his mom converts to Catholicism in 1874, and his younger brother Otto is going mad after having served in the Franco-Prussian War. The former felt irrelevant, while the later could have been used to make more of a point about Ludwig’s supposed madness or to refute it. Oh well.
Getting on with some gay business, the king has pleasant affairs with his servant Richard Hornig, and then an actor, Josef Kainz. Ludwig invites Kainz to the Linderhof Palace, where the king has built the Venus Grotto on the grounds.
I was amazed to learn this was a real thing, not just a fantasy sequence invented for the movie! It’s an artificial rock structure that’s themed after the first act of Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser. There really is a shell-shaped boat and swans, and the special lighting was run by the first permanently installed power plant in the world. The Venus Grotto is closed for repairs as of 2024, but maybe you can visit it one day.
Kainz hangs out and performs some of his stage monologues for Ludwig, who is increasingly ill and hiding out in this palace.
Their actual relationship lasted about a year. According to the film, Kainz sold Ludwig’s letters, which became more “proof” that the king was incapable of ruling.
Because Ludwig won’t talk to anyone, Elisabeth seeks him out, going from palace to palace with her lady-in-waiting in tow, both wearing black 1870s bustle gowns (btw, it’s too early for her to be in mourning; her son Rudolph doesn’t die until 3 years after Ludwig does). These costumes are the first visual indication that time has passed, other than Ludwig looking sick.
The Glamour: Famous Gowns of the Silver Screen exhibit of Tirelli costumes describes this gown as:
“Walking dress composed of sortie and skirt. Sortie in silk ottoman with floral motif in black velvet, plastron and cuffs with cascades of black velvet trimmings; shoulders and back embroidered with tiny jet beads. Original sortie from second half of 19th century from the Fondazioni Tirelli Trappetti Collection. Skirt in black silk satin with bouillonné motif on the front and train in silk ottoman. Hat in black cloth edged with black astrakhan. Small veil in black point d’esprit tulle.”
This is a classic look, found in many period fashion plates:
And extant gowns:
At the next castle, still looking for Ludwig, Sissi seems to be wearing a different hat and veil, and she’s not wearing the beaded mantle. But I think that’s the same gown, only this promo pic has a blue cast.
It looks black onscreen.
They’re walking through the Herrenchiemsee, up the State Staircase, modeled on the Ambassadors’ Staircase at Versailles, which was demolished in 1752.
And then they pass through the reproduction of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors — this one is a few meters longer than the original.
Ludwig refuses to see Elisabeth, so no more interesting costume content. Then he gets drunk and plays games with boys wearing lederhosen and not much else. Apparently this scene was censored from the start because it’s too homosexual. IMO, it’s not as explicit as the musical Hair, which hit Broadway in 1968. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, the movie ends with Ludwig’s last remaining friend Count Dürckheim trying to advise and save him to no avail. The government ministers declare Ludwig unfit to rule, and the next day, he’s found mysteriously dead, which is announced as a suicide.
Have you seen Ludwig? Are you tempted to because of these costumes or Helmut Berger?
Find this frock flick at:
Great film! And the costumes are awesome