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.

"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.

History is so full of questions - what if such and such occurred, or if so and so had lived and not died, or if the weather had not been so bad on the date in question. There are all over the place, and Franklin Roosevelt dismissed this as "iffy" history. But people have hopes, dreams, and imaginations. Sometimes these run away with them.On January 30, 1889 Crown Prince Rudolf Von Hapsburg of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in his hunting lodge at Mayerling with his mistress Baroness Marie Vetsera. Rudolf was married to Stephanie, sister of King Leopold II of Belgium. They had a daughter, but were unable to have other children - such as a male child (Austria had a male only rule about its Emperors since the death of Maria Theresa, a co-ruler with her husband and later her son in the 18th Century). Rudolf therefore did not care about how his open affair with the Baroness affected his despised wife. However, the Vetseras were nouveau rich minor aristocracy, and it displeased the Emperor Franz Josef and the Empress Elisabeth ("Sisi"). The Emperor and his Prime Minister, Count Taafe, also wanted Rudolf to be more active in pursuing his regular duties at court and in the empire.Rudolf was considered more liberal than the Emperor by many people. He may have been approached about taking the leadership of a separation movement from Hungary as potential King, but if he did nothing came of it.That January day a shot rang out in the middle of the night. Some equerries ran to Rudolf's room but he answered the door and said nothing was wrong. Then, about six hours later, a second shot rang out. This time Rudolf was found with the top of his head blown off. Marie was dead from a shot in the skull too, but she was on her bed. Mayerling (it helps that the scene of the tragedy sounds poetic) has been the subject of several films and television shows and many books. This writer uses the name as his nom-de-plume on another website. There is a fascination with that tragedy - one can see it as that of two young people who died rather than give each other up due to a demanding father. One can see it as the end of the hopes of liberalism in the old Austro-Hungarian Emprire. One even has a sense of the richness of the royal families of Europe in 1889 by the setting in that lodge. It is open to so many interpretations or feelings.The 1936 film with Danielle Darrieux and Charles Boyer is the better version, but this 1968 version with Catherine Deneuve and Omar Sharif is actually quite good. It takes the view that Rudolf was a potential reformer and liberal, and that the reactionaries spurred on the events that led to the deaths. Franz Josef (James Mason) is shown hand-in-glove with the reactionaries (even screaming about Rudolf's friendliness with Jews), and not sympathetic about the need his son might have for Maria's companionship (given the really unlikeable Stephanie). Rudolf tries to make a deal - as an inspector general for the army checking out army weaponry and maneuvers. But nobody pays attention to him. The result is a total collapse of spirit leading to his suicide pact.He does try to escape with Maria. Bertie, Prince of Wales (James Robertson Justice) is visiting - can Rudolf and Maria flee to England for diplomatic immunity? But Bertie knows the drill - when you are finished enjoying yourself go back home to the wife and mother (Alexandra and Victoria). He also knows that the brouhaha of giving shelter to Rudolf and his mistress would not sit well with Lord Salisbury's government, or the government of Germany (Austria's ally) under Otto Von Bismarck.So the film ends with that final suicide, although to enhance the romance the dying Rudolf grabs the hand of his dead lover as a last snub at his father.Was it like that? My romantic side wishes it was. But the evidence shows Rudolf was a weakling, who played with liberalism but really did not believe in it. Franz Josef (a hard working monarch, with his own side-friendship with actress Katherine Schratt) always mourned his wayward son, but he was ashamed of Rudolf's cowardice - what always bothered the old emperor was that Rudolf took six hours to turn his pistol on himself after shooting Maria. He could not make up his mind of doing the honorable thing (completing the suicide pact) or fleeing. Rudolf was a coward to the end.

The dashing Omar Sharif was born to be a crown-prince, or at least look the part to perfection (is he of royal Egyptian blood?), while Catherine Deneuve takes your breath away in every scene she's in, most notably as they watch "Giselle" at the theater. An Oedipus complex is hinted at here, and I suppose not all sons (not even only sons!) kiss their mothers on the lips (or it could be an Austrian thing, who knows?). But given his lifestyle of high living, promiscuity and dalliances with radical politics, coupled by an addiction to morphine and the off-chance of insanity in the blood, I don't think the end was as bittersweet and romantic as the movie portrayed it to be. No doubt the prince was a depressed, politically-impotent man who saw no promise in a future which included a loveless marriage, a domineering father and a mother who was never there--no big deal to most, but this was an only child used to getting his way most of the time. I'm sure Maria Vetsera, practically a child in love for the first time, was only too flattered to have been chosen by the prince to die with him. All in the name of love, of course.