From Mayerling to Sarajevo (Max Ophüls, 1940) (Patreon)

I just read that From Mayerling to Sarajevo was a flop with both audiences and critics. Although this surprises me, the more I think about it I can understand why viewers of the time may not have appreciated Ophüls' rather unique depiction of recent European history. Even if we compare Sarajevo to contemporary historical films, it's evident that Ophüls was attempting something quite removed from the dutiful staging of known events that so often passes for cinema.

Although one does not realize it until nearly two-thirds of the way into Sarajevo, Ophüls' title is a perfect encapsulation of the film's implicit philosophy regarding historical events. It's not just that time is characterized as an endless chain of traumas, although that is certainly part of Ophüls' artistic viewpoint here. (We can compare it to Paul Klee's famous Angelus Novus, the angel blown backwards into the future, watching calamity upon calamity pile up in his wake.) More precisely, Ophüls argues that the present is largely formed by the traumas of the past, producing an inexorability of things, largely because those traumas tend to stay repressed or ignored. Franz Ferdinand would not have been in line for succession had his cousin Rudolf not committed suicide in 1899, possibly for love.

In other words, the empire has no use for common humanity, certainly not from its leaders. Ophüls's depiction of the romance between Archduke Franz Ferdinand (John Lodge) and Sophie Chotek (Edwige Feuillère) is rather idealized, as is the film's portrait of the Archduke as a liberal reformer. Historians have argued that while he had certain democratic sympathies, he also felt that some realms required autocratic rule. But if we consider that this is a 1940 film and, as the brief coda makes clear, that this story is being staged in the context of the Nazis' attempt at world domination, we can see what Ophüls is trying to do. He's giving viewers an Archduke for the moment, sketching out a sense of noblesse oblige that contained the potential seeds of a democratic Europe. In other words, Sarajevo claims a historical trajectory that may be interrupted or diverted, but has always been there and always will be.

As a thematic adjunct to this idea, Ophüls draws very clear lines regarding those who support the Archduke and Countess Chotek and those who do not. Sophie is loved by Franz Ferdinand's aunt, the Archduchess Marie-Thérèse (Gabrielle Dorziat), and the Archduke himself is shown as being greatly admired by the military and by his servants. In other words, those of lower status, but who actually conduct the business of the Habsbergs' empire, regard the Archduke as a wise but down-to-earth leader. By contrast Emperor Franz-Joseph (Jean Worms) and his court functionary Montenuovo (Aimé Clariond) are shown to be actively working against Franz Ferdinand behind the scenes. Sarajevo even implies that they may have had a hand in his assassination.

The entire plot of Sarajevo is known to viewers ahead of time. We know Franz Ferdinand will be killed. There are moments in the film that could be taken as congratulating the viewer for his or her "foresight," knowing in advance what the characters cannot. But Ophüls employs this back-shadowing judiciously, arguing that past events cannot be changed, but their meaning can be. The film aims to provide context for "why we fight" in 1940. Of course, Ophüls had no way of knowing what lay in store for France just a few months later.