Felix Austria! (2013) - full transcript

[accordion music]

- [Man] Felix is from
Modesto, California.

He was born with a
need to find something,

that was not in
those surroundings.

[festive accordion music]

- [Woman] The transition from
Brian to Felix took place

sometime during the
Pratt School of Design.

- I mean, I'm from a small town,

I never met anyone like Felix.

And he was from California,

he'd been to
Berkeley Law School,



and maybe architecture school,

but you know, just
seemed very worldly,

and when we first met,
he was still very much

into the powdered wigs,

and he wore very long nails,

I think he thought that
was sort of like some kind

of interesting tie-in to the
Viennese turn of the century,

style that he was
mimicking at that time.

Whatever that was.

And it's not like
he was in drag.

I mean, I can't explain it.

[cheerful classical music]

- [Felix] I wrote my first
letter to the Arch Duke

when I was about 19 years old.



I had never written
a letter to anyone

of great importance before.

I was quite curious,
what exactly a descendant

of the Holy Roman
Emperor's was doing

in the late twentieth century,

what exactly would make
someone like that tick.

How does one adjust to
the late twentieth century

of democratic
republican politics,

especially with the fall
of the iron curtain, 1989.

With this monarchical
royal background?

So I wrote him,
asking him just that.

I received an
immediate response,

I think it came within a week.

Dear Dr. von Habsburg,

Recently Sir Rodney Hartwell,
of the Augustan Society,

the historical organization
of which we are both members,

was kind enough to put
me in touch with you.

I am a student at UC Berkeley

and my overwhelming
interest in history

is the former Habsburg
Empire in Central Europe.

Given events on the other side
of the iron curtain in 1989,

I wonder, how you are involved
in developments there.

Especially considering your work

as a member of the
European parliament.

It would be so
interesting for me to know

how the Habsburg Dynasty is
engaged with the vast region

of it's former empire at this
juncture in the 20th Century.

In advance, I thank you,

Sincerely, for the
kindness of a response.

With best wishes, yours,
Brian Scott Pfeifle.

[cheerful music]

[upbeat music]

[lively music]

- I'm signing the
papers to change my name

from Brian Scott Pfeifle,
Pfifly, or Pfifa, even Phifle,

to Felix
Etienne-Edouard Pfeifle.

Etienne-Edouard being
the french translation

of my father's
name, Steven Edward.

So that would be
my new middle name.

So, in a way, I'm sort
of becoming french.

Do I have absolutely
no french ancestry.

- When did you
want to be a Felix?

He doesn't even
look like a Felix.

But I don't know what,

I always think of Felix the Cat.

- I really don't know
who Felix Pfeifle is.

I got to know him as Felix,

as very erudite, very
inter-continental person,

who I could converse with
on many scholarly topics,

and who himself,
wasn't an academic.

He's apparently called Brian.

I don't even see him as a Brian,

I couldn't even
imagine him as a Brian,

which speaks well for
reinvention and self-discovery,

as far as I'm
concerned, he's a Felix.

- You never told me that
you were going by Felix.

- Well, I did.

- You kept it to yourself.
Five years later.

- You kind of kept
it to yourself.

I still like the
name Brian better.

- It's hard to, I guess,
really explain it sometimes.

But that's why we love him.

He's just so special.

He's only one, Brian Felix.

- How did it go?

- Well, I think it was
completely anti-climatic.

Because, I just signed a
piece of paper that took

like 90 seconds, after having
waited an hour and a half.

And there was no, I thought
that they were was going to

be like this
heralding chamberlain

who would announce my new name.

I thought that the judge
would pound her gavel,

and give me my new name.

- There was no judge.

- There's no judge.

Just a court clerk
and a bailiff.

So, that's about it.

- That was it?

[lively harpsichord music]

- Do you remember when Felix

first talked about
Otto von Habsburg?

- Um, no, no.

And I probably wasn't listening,
to be honest with you.

- What's his name?

I can't even say it.

- I don't know it, either.

- My knowledge of Otto von
Habsburg would be zero.

- The Arch Duke.

- Otto von Habsburg.

- Yes.

[upbeat harpsichord music]

- [Felix] As the heir of
the Austro-Hungarian empire,

the Arch Duke, is also the heir
of the Holy Roman Emperors,

dating back to Charlemagne,

dating back to
the eight century.

The Holy Roman Empire
itself being founded,

so to speak, on the ashes
of the Roman empire.

The Roman empire being a legacy

of that empire of
Alexander the Great.

So, so, it's as if
in, the Arch Duke,

this person still
living among us,

I found the Holy Grail
of European history,

of European civilization
dating back to say,

the Greeks themselves.

And at the turn of
the twentieth century,

there was a cultural
renaissance at play,

in Vienna, the future
of the twentieth century

was about to be shaked.

And so all the figures
of this last great moment

in central European history,
on the precipice of collapse,

in 1918, the Arch
Duke is the last

surviving person of that era.

- [Narrator] For
seven centuries,

Austria's house of Habsburg,

was great among the living,

today it's glories exist
only among the dead.

It was the murder at Sarajevo,
of Patos, grand-uncle,

grand Ferdinand, which
touched off the world war,

then, mid-way of the war
grand Josef funeral cortage

wound through Vienna, and
Otto, a toddling baby boy,

marched behind it, between
a new emperor, and empress.

Carl and Vita, now as
other Habsburgs die

to their last rites,

goes Carl's son, young
bearer of the proudest

name in royal annuals,

Otto of Habsburg.

[knock, knock]

- Hi.
- Hi.

- C'mon in.
- Okay.

- So why don't you
tell me that dream,

from the beginning, tell
me everything that you saw

and heard and can remember.

- I dreamed that, I'm on
my way to the audience

with the Arch Duke, and
I'm dressed beautifully.

Befitting an audience
with the prince,

and I have to go to a Belgium
castle at the top of a hill,

I'm going up by myself,

but then all these
village children

start streaming around me

in traditional
world peasant dress.

As I go across the drawbridge,

Arch Duke Otto is there,

but I noticed that there are
photographers every where.

It occurs to me, that my
appointment with the Arch Duke,

is nothing more than
a photo opp for him,

with the Belgium royal family,
and these village kids.

And I am really disappointed.

[animated music]

- There's a part of you that,

I think as you are drawn to the
figure of Otto Von Habsburg,

because he is a member
of the aristocracy,

and because there's
something in you

that's drawn to the aristocracy.

And maybe you have fear

coming from a more
peasant background.

That you'll be
discovered as a peasant,

revealed, as a
fraudulent aristocrat.

Almost like Otto, himself.

A king without a country.

[traffic noises]

- Heavenly father, I
thank you for this day,

thank you for Brian
being with us.

Thank you for our food,
bless it to our bodies,

in your name we pray, Amen.

- Amen.
- Amen.

- Amen.

- Yeah, it's true.

- Huntington's disease
is a genetic late onset

nerve degenerative disease.

Even though the disease
processes may be in play

very early on, the
outward manifestations,

the symptoms and signs,
don't come on until,

late 30s or early 40s.

- [Terry] Some people with
Huntington's just struggle

with the movement part,

other people have really bad
nerve psychiatric problems.

Behavior changes,
personality changes, rages,

impulsivity, temper outbursts,
sometimes suicidality,

sometimes homicidality.

- Felix's dad has had a
challenging time with all three.

- He had loaded
guns in the house.

- Yes.

- Pistols that were loaded.

Guns in the closet,
guns under the bed,

and we never knew whether
he might actually use one.

- [Woman] Felix's
great-great grandmother

suffered from
Huntington's disease.

And passed it down to
his great-grandmother.

Who passed it on
to his grandfather,

who in turn, passed it
on to his Aunt Patty.

And his father, Steven.

- [Man] One of the things that
bothers Huntington's patients

the most is the lost
of executive function.

Nobody likes to be told
you're losing your marbles.

You're not going to be
able to make decisions

that are so necessary
for everyday life.

Everything from
balancing your checkbook

to deciding when to
walk across the street.

- [Mother] Steve, come back.

Steve?

- In the U.S., it's estimated
that there are between

35 thousand and
50 thousand people

affected with
Huntington's disease.

But those numbers
are hard to get out

for a couple of reasons.

One is, people don't
want to be found.

And, many times,
because of the stigma,

of this disease, families
don't want it known.

- I'm sure that Felix must
have mentioned Huntington's

disease when we were at
Pratt, when we were young.

I may have not been able
to process it as something

that was scary like
that at that time.

So, it might just be me,
but, I feel like I didn't

really know about it, until
we were living in Los Angeles,

and his father started, you
know, really getting worse.

And that's when he
started therapy.

It was a really,
really rough spot.

And then, it just, he kind
of stopped talking about it.

- Living at risk and seeing
that happening in your family,

you know what hell is like,

and you know what
suffering is like.

And, you learn not to
sweat the small stuff.

Why would you?

- I think the horrifying
part of it for him,

is when going to see his family,

and being so devastated
to the point of sometimes

when he comes back for a
week, he's somewhat catatonic.

- I've noticed that nobody
knows about Huntington's.

- It's not something that
I think of as a secret.

It's just something that I
don't share with my friends.

Unless, they come
from my childhood.

I don't know why.

I don't know.

- There's a lot of risk
to coming out about this.

Because unfortunately,

there are people who
are very judgemental.

So if you out yourself,
you take the risk

that people then define
you by the disease.

- Brian has a 50/50%
chance of getting it,

and so does Shelly, have
a 50/50% of getting it.

I've chosen to believe in
what I think God has chosen

for them is that neither one
of Shelly or Brian will have it

- [Mom] I'm not going to be
concerned about the children.

It's 50/50, the flip of a coin.

[light music]

- [Felix] When I was in college,

I received a letter
about an article

I had published in a
historical journal.

The letter was from a Hubert
Hinkel, who professed himself

to be a fan of all things
Habsburg and Austrian.

I thought, oh, now
he's a bit dappy.

And so we began a correspondence
that lasted a few years.

Until Herbert Hinkel died.

Afterward, a large package
arrived on my doorstep.

It contained nearly
sixty years of letters

between Herbert Hinkel
and the last crown prince

of the Austrian-Hungarian
empire,

Arch Duke Otto von Habsburg.

Herbert had left the
archive to me in his will.

And I call it, my
imperial archive.

It's in full form right now.

And, it's fullest form,
yet, because I've added,

a couple of pieces,
pieces of my own.

There's a lithograph
of the imperial crypt

where the Habsburg's
are buried in Vienna.

And then, there is the imperial
residence, the Hofburg.

Those were mine,
otherwise, all this stuff,

came from Herbert Hinkel.

- He received the imperial
archive really early in school,

and I remember when he got
it, I mean, it was a big deal.

- He moved from San Francisco
to my apartment in Los Angeles

and with him, carried
this box of memorabilia

he had collected over the
years, including the letters

between the correspondence

between Herbert Hinkel,
and Otto von Habsburg.

- Felix hired me to organize
the imperial archive.

He basically gave me this
worn box, that the archive

had been traveling around
in for a number of years,

and all of these very important
papers were just in the box.

And basically he wanted
someone to take the archive,

to organize it, and to make sure

that it was protected
for posterity.

- With Felix, I believe that
it's an aesthetic quest.

Which is tied in strongly
into his whole notion of

looking for history
that's missing.

And of course to understand
the entire concept

of how these three men interact,

one has to understand
that history is a fiction.

For Felix, there is that
recognition of the myth,

and the appreciation of
it, but also the desire

to understand
something tangible.

Something personal
in the history.

[light music]

- Herbert Hinkel's
relationship to the Arch Duke,

I think, was in reality
never fulfilled.

The letters lasted
about 60 years,

but it's pretty evident
that Herbert Hinkel

actually never
met the Arch Duke,

and I thought that in so far,

that Hinkel had left me the
archive, which in reality,

was the opening to
this personal portal

to the Arch Duke himself.

I had an obligation to fulfill
Herbert Hinkel's dreams.

[light music]

for someone to have left me
something so dear to him,

and without having met Herbert
Hinkel personally myself.

I had to get as close
to him as I could

to satisfy my curiosity.

[light music]

So I set out to trace the
lives between the letters.

[subway clangs]

Coincidentally, when I
started this journey,

I was the same age as my
father when he first started

showing signs of
Huntington's disease.

I imagined there was a
sudden subconscious fear

that I needed to embark on this

before it was too late for me.

Is that Herbert
Hinkel, you think?

- I think so, yes.

- Oh, I see, the history of

the von Mulllenbuher,
von Hinkel family.

- Have you read it?

- Not closely at all.

- Herbert Hinkel mentions
that in one of the letters,

his family has
been in the service

of the Habsburg's
dating back to 1438.

- Oh really?

- Showing that his loyalty
survives in the United States.

You know, on this
side of that land.

- It's interesting that he's
always alone in every photo.

- Yeah.

- He was always so mysterious.

- What do you suppose this is?

- Mrs. Currie?

- Why would he be holding
someone else's wife

in a portrait, though?

[laughter]

- I don't ask
questions like that.

- Well, I have to.

- If you look at why
someone like Herbert Hinkel,

a very average
well-educated American,

would carry on a decades
long correspondence

with the Arch Duke of
Austria-Hungry, a crown prince,

Otto, becomes for Herbert
Hinkel, a man that represents

a lost chivalry, that
respects the modern era,

but at the same time,
seeks for a conduit,

to a lost and forgotten past
that Hinkel finds relevant

and important not only to
himself, but to the world,

then there's Felix
Pfeifle, who is an estet,

who has studied Austrian
history and culture.

Who is very much taken
by the importance of

what was developed before
the first world war,

and what was lost with
the first world war.

[subway rumbles]

- His name was Herbert Hinkel,

and was friends with
the last crown prince

of the Austrian empire.

- What side, what
building did he live in?

- 184.

Herbert Hinkel
lived in this area,

in Sullivan County, New York,

actually in a place
called Parksville,

but apparently there's
nothing in Parksville.

I'm just trying to
find someone who lived

on what was then
called, Neville's Eske
Road in the 1970s.

His name was Herbert Hinkel.

Do you know the name?

Okay.
- I don't know.

- And that creates a
triangle of three men,

who, who are concerned with
identity and reinvention.

Who want to connect with a past
that has been pushed aside,

by a myth-making or
myth-controlling history.

As Herbert Hinkel did in
his very personal way.

And as Otto from Habsburg does
in his very political way.

And as Felix Pfeifle does
in his very aesthetic

and almost, well, let's say it,

an iconoclastic post-modern way.

Stepping into areas that
are not politically correct.

Ripping open the seams
of hidden vistas,

that connecting desire
to move history into some

realization of that
which isn't recorded.

- Oh my God, okay.

So, Herbert Hinckel did
not own a 48 acre estate,

in Parksville, New York,

as he said to the
Arch Duke that he did.

I am, none the less, going
to try and find people

in that hamlet there,
who may have known him.

[traffic grinds]

I'm looking for someone who
lived in Parksville in the 1970s

His name was Herbert Hinkel.

You don't know?
- No.

Have you lived in
Parksville a while?

- Oh, about eight years.

- Oh, just eight, all right.

So, okay, well maybe I'll just
order a cheeseburger then.

Herbert Hinkel claimed in
these letters that I have,

that he owned a 48 acre
estate on Castle Hill Road.

He had this correspondence
for about 60 years

with this Austrian prince,
and they have this,

they had a long, for
like six decades,

from the 1930's to the 1990's,

the prince wrote to
him, and he wrote back.

So he tells the
prince in his letters

that he had this
big estate here.

So I came to see what it looks
like, and now I can't find it

- Oh, I see.

- I think he was looking for
something larger and finer,

and gilded, and there it was.

But beyond Habsburg, is the
very fair sense of justice,

that Felix has knowing that
there is another story out there

equally compelling,
and it's Hinkel.

And Hinkel is a nobody.

Absolute nobody.

But here he is, as
counter-weight to Habsburg,

he can see the relationship
and how rich it is,

and how doubly weighted it is.

Like a mobile art piece,
done by Arp or Calder,

like one thing can be blue,
you know in this shape,

another thing yellow,
and that shape,

but they have to be,
they have to be hanging,

and tied in by these strings,

and he's one of these people
who makes these strings.

[light music]

- I'm looking for someone who
lived on Castle Hill Road.

And his name was Herbert Hinkel?

- All right,
- Do you know the name?

- He lived with Brahm?

- That's it!

- They moved up from Long
Island, they moved there,

and then, the Brahms,
there was two brothers,

Mike and Tony, and
Joey and Robert.

And then Tony moved to Florida,

his family moved down there

because his uncle
had a lot of money,

they lived off
the uncle, really.

- The uncle being
Herbert Hinkel?

- They lived off his money.

- And he had a lot of money?

- Yeah.

- By the way, do you
know that house number?

- Well you can't miss it,
In case I don't.

- Once you get to
the top of the hill,

if you start down
on the other side,

it's a dead end road.

Then you went by my
place and theirs.

- You know, I've been here
already 65 years, if not more.

And there was no Herbert
Hinkel on this road at all.

- You know, I don't
know of anybody really

new came on this road.

I mean, I know of him, and
I may have met him once.

- Really?

- But that's about
it, yeah, okay.

- But he never lived here.

You're looking to find a, what
is, something from Europe,

or whatever, wherever
he came from?

- Well, I'm trying to find out

what kind of life
Herbert Hinkel had.

Like where did he
live, and who knew him?

- For what reason, though,
what kind of person,

what, what was he,
a doctor, a lawyer,

what was he going to be?

- I know, he was just someone,
he was a property manager,

an average American
who wrote letters

to the last crown prince of
the Austria-Hungarian empire.

And Herbert Hinkel had this,

almost life-long exchange
of letters with him.

I am getting mixed
reports everywhere.

Everyone I run into, has
something different to say

about Herbert Hinkel
and the Brahm--

Oh, here it is!
Right here!

This the yellow house
with brown trim.

Apparently this is
exactly where he lived.

[lively old European music]

Just as I thought to myself,

that I'd been the custodian
to Herbert Hinkel's dreams,

I wondered about where my
father stood in my dreams.

And although he's still alive,

he's been a shadowy
presence in my life.

And somehow, I just have to
jettison those anxieties.

[car rumbles]

Six, two, two, two, five.

Six, oh, there it is.

- Hi!
- Hi, nice to met you, finally

- Nice to meet you.

- He was always in my life.

He always lived with us,
as if he were a second dad.

- This is why Herbert
Hinkel is mysterious to me,

because you were his family,

although you weren't
really related to him.

And so, I always wondered,
you know, who was his family?

- You know, we never
really met his family.

- When I think of my childhood,

only thing I can remember
is him, holding me,

and no one else.

- We always felt that he
would always be around.

He was like a second dad.

- Ladies and gentlemen, I think
that anything that happens,

Tony would really
pale against that.

The wonderful ceremony
we have today.

[Interviewer] - Tony do you
have any insight into why

he chose your
family over his own?

- Me, [chuckles], me.

You know, I mean,
it's the way we met.

You know, I helped him.

To him, I saved his life.

We did everything together.

Went out to eat,
we went to movies.

And it was no sexual thing,
I mean don't get me wrong.

I don't go near any men.

[laughter]

But, um, we just hit it
off, and we stayed together.

[harmonica music]

- Herbert Hinkel, 72, was on
his way to work at a nearby

Costco store, when he was
hit by a 1987 Toyota Camry.

Oh, I think he was jay walking.

I went into Costco and
asked if there were someone

who might had known
Herbert Hinkel,

and in fact, the woman
with whom I was speaking,

his supervisor, knew him,
and she remembers him

being killed in
front of the store.

She said that in the
back of the store,

they planted a tree for him,

and that there's a plaque there
in memory of Herbert Hinkel.

[harmonica music]

That's the wrong plaque,

I think the supervisor got him
confused with Beverly Miller,

or Beverly Miller's
planted as Hubert Hinkel.

[harmonica music]

I have to say that
when the family told me

about his funeral,
what moved me the most,

was when they said that
the hearse was driven by,

the coffin was driven by,
Costco, by the front of Costco

And then in front
of the entire store,

which they had closed down,
especially for that moment,

the hundred or so
employees of Costco,

came out to salute
Herbert Hinkel.

This is so sweet.

I just about melted,
because in it's own way,

it's Herbert's royal send off.

You know?

Herbert seemed like
truly such a rich person,

and his truly quirky way,

and ultimately such a Mench.

[serene horn music plays]

Poor Herbert.

[bee buzzes]

- Felix called me up and said,

I would really like you
and Boris to come to

the first meeting I have
with the genetic counselor

to decide whether I'm
going to take a test

to find out whether
I have Huntington's.

I think him being Boris'
god-father, has that,

sort of represents
that he is this person,

that will not be genetically
pre-disposed to Huntington's,

so there's a kind of delight
that he shares in that,

and that he's family,

but he's not sort of tainted
by this horrifying thing.

- [speaking in a
foreign language].

- [Michelle] Predictive
Huntington's testing means

that you don't have any symptoms
and you're at 50/50 risk

for developing
Huntington's disease,

and you want to know
if you have the gene.

- We all carry
Huntington's gene.

Everyone has two, you
got one from your Mom,

you got one from your Dad.

And so, people who actually
have Huntington's disease,

one of those, they're
called alleles,

on the chromosome,
is a expanded.

So when that expansion
occurs, you get the disease.

Yes, no, that's it.

Black and white.

- [Matthew] There's a
baseline fear there.

Do I have this illness.

And do I want to
know if I have it?

I've seen Felix go from

being okay with dealing
with it, to not okay.

- [Friend] There
was a part of him

that was slightly
self-destructive.

Thinking at the end of the day,

if I have it, I'm gonna die,
and I'm gonna have a horrible

life, so why not taste
that darkness a little bit?

- [Friend] This is badness.

- In New York?

- No, in, Austria.

- Oh.

- Did you paint this?

- Yeah.

- I don't remember this.

My very first Habsburg dream,

I dreamt that I was in the
imperial vault in Vienna,

when the family was
burying the empress,

and there is in Vienna,
this ancient imperial vault,

where almost all the
Habsburgs are buried.

[upbeat harpsichord music]

- [Felix] The family
is standing there.

In total silence.

In front of them, is the
coffin of the empress.

I'm on the other
side looking at them.

But I'm invisible to them.

[upbeat harpsichord music]

[applause]

- I want to thank you so
much for coming tonight.

It's really special to
me that you can be here.

This fund raiser is
to provide seed money,

I've been working
for the last year

to get an appointment
with the Arch Duke,

and I finally nailed him down
for 2 o'clock September 5th,

[applause]

- Unsure whether this is a
Hinkel or a Habsburg crowd

that I'm addressing,

[laughter]

but we've got to give,

we got to dig deep,

we've got to do it
for Herbert Hinkel,

and we've got to do it
for Felix Pfeifle, thanks.

[applause]

- All right!
- Madness.

[applause]

[cheerful music]

- I have two suits.

There's this suit, and this
suit, also apropos Austria.

- I don't know,
what do you think?

All rose for me, feedback.

There is this suit as well.

- I think that's more evening.

Yes.

- Um, I think it
is, this is the one,

- I think it is, just because
I think of, in terms of color.

Oh my God, I never seen
so many ties in my life.

- Okay, so,

- Boring.

- Two,
- Boring.

- That's
Boring.

That's a little bit more fun.

- Dr. Habsburg always
wears printed ties,

Nice!
- Sweets, what about this?

That's nice, and this one, too.

- Isn't that beautiful?

No bow tie?

- You know what, I think that
would look really smashing.

Oh, that's perfect.

- Oh that's right,
we don't care about

whether that's the outside.

- Nope.

[lively music]

[cute traditional waltz music]

- I don't know it's
coincidental prose it is,

but in any case,

all roads seem to lead
back to Vienna for me.

The nickname, of
Austria, historically,

has been Felix Austria.

And that dates back, to
about the 16th century,

when the Habsburgs were
expanding their world empire,

through pivotal
strategic marriages.

- [Airport Announcer] [speaking
in a foreign language]

- Someone said, in Latin,
may all others wage war.

But you, happy Austria, will
marry, that is, in Latin,

[speaking in a foreign language]

[Austrian operatic singing]

- I miss that guy's voice,
the street tram voice.

[speaking in a foreign language]

That was the voice
I heard every day.

[Austrian operatic singing]

It's so exciting to be
here in Vienna, finally.

And also, at the Cafe [speaking
in a foreign language]

where I used to come as a
student, when I lived here.

And, have goulash
again with paprika.

And German as they
say, [speaking in a
foreign language].

Which sort of means,

the place where your
heart or soul resides,

and Vienna is certainly
like that for me,

and I haven't been
here in 12 years.

I feel like I haven't been home,

or I neglected to visit my
mother for over ten years.

[classic music]

This is Gustave Klimt's
portrait of Fritza Riedler.

And, what I like about it,

is behind Mrs. Riedler's head,

you can see this headdress
where he literally quotes,

the Vilascas' portraits of the
Spanish Habsburg princesses.

These are Vilascas' portraits
of the Spanish Habsburgs,

which became iconic
images of the baroque era.

The Vilascas' portraits
are also iconic depictions

of the Habsburgs
because it captures them

at the height of their power

when they ruled Spain
in the New World,

but also it captures
them at a moment where

their inner breeding
furiously with each generation

you can see that the family

becomes a little bit
more degenerate looking.

For instance, here's Phillip,
the fourth king of Spain.

His jaw and his lip are
the Habsburg jaw and lip.

They're becoming a
very unhandsome lot.

Finally, by 1700, the
Spanish branch died out,

because as they have
inner bred so many times,

that had made the males
in the family impotent.

Genes work in mysterious ways.

[operatic music]

I don't understand the
complexity of one's genes,

but I'm reminded of the
journey I've been on,

and the question I had to face.

I went to one
appointment about getting

tested for Huntington's.

I thought that I was really
ready to confront it all,

I was just so clear about it.

And after that one
appointment, I never went back.

But I feel confident
that I don't have it.

Well, pretty confident.

[classic music]

[horse clip-clops]

I just woke up, and I
can't get back to sleep.

And, I just realized, why.

I dreamt that I'm in Otto
von Habsburg's library.

- Good afternoon, Heir Pfeifle.

- Good afternoon,
Dr. Von Habsburg.

- I'm glad you could
join me this afternoon.

I have something which
may be of interest to you.

- The Arch Duke unfurls
this gorgeous leather banner

that depicts the
code of arms from his

57 imperial and royal titles.

- Heraldry, almost reads like
a map of European history.

History and maps are
so very important.

Probably you know that
we had the tradition

of maintaining all the
shields of our dominions

in one coat of arms
over the course

of the second millennium,
there are 57 here.

Here, for instance, are the
[speaking in a foreign language]

Which became Spain.

We ruled there from the late
15th century to the early 18th

during Spain's golden
era, of course.

[lively music]

[shirt rustles]

- I wonder what we
should do about,

maybe I should call him and see
if we could film there with,

or should we just go?

[iron thumps]

Oh, no!

Oh, shit!

[piano music]

- How's our position?

I know Dr. von Habsburg looks
well situated, am I okay?

- [Camera Person] Yeah, okay.

- Can I turn just a
little toward him?

- [Camera Person] Yeah.

- So, is that okay?

- But aren't you
then uncomfortable?

- I'm okay.

- Well, I could tell
you so many stories.

And they are all
interesting, uninteresting,

They've of the past,

including some with some
supernatural things.

- As you may know, part of
the reason I came today,

is because of this
wonderful archive of letters

I have of yours
from Herbert Hinkel.

- Hinkel, yes.

- Well, it's nearly sixty
years of letters that I have.

- Yes.
Starting in 1937.

What would be the interest
in writing someone like

Herbert Hinkel, who is a
fairly ordinary American.

- Certainly.

Nowadays, few people answer
their letters anymore.

But today, it is a simple
act of question of courtesy,

and respect to somebody
who takes the trouble

to write to you, that
you have to write back.

[lively music]

Well, I would tell
you, of course,

when I go back as far as I can,

it's always politics.

[quiet chattering]

[lively music]

- [Felix] The Archduke
and the Duchess

were assassinated
right about here, or?

- Right here.

- In the car?

- A little bit over.
- Just over on the bridge.

- Just right here.

[lively music]

- [Otto] All I was doing, was
always a question of survival.

As soon as I started,
really, to develop,

there was already the
fight for the homeland.

Because I had a homeland.

I still have it somehow,
at the bottom of my heart.

- Can you describe your
families' last moments?

At Schonbrunn Palace?

During the revolution?

- Well it was a very dark day.

No electric light anymore.

You moved in darkness.

There were some young soldiers
standing still in front,

to protect my father.

My father, then, he insisted
that they should go home.

And I have read at some
point, that your mother,

the Empress, was
determined to stay,

and not to renounce the throne,

- Yes.
Even in the face of danger.

- She was a very courageous
person, you know.

And she just said, we can't.

And well, afterwards,
we couldn't.

[upbeat music]

- It was a nice coup
that you liberated here.

- Oh, yeah.
[laughter]

- You see, Hitler was always
interested in taking Austria.

He hated the Habsburgs
from the beginning.

Because as he wrote in his
Mein Kampf incidentally,

that the Habsburgs were
friendly with the Jews,

friendly with the
gypsies, and so on.

[lively music]

- Why did you change your
identify to Dr. von Habsburg?

- Because it was
easier to achieve

what I wanted to achieve.

You know, the title is something
in the present situation,

which faced a lot of problems.

[lively music]

- [Felix] So the people
who honor their history

have a future?

- Yes, exactly.

And those who forget
it, have none.

- Have a problem.
Exactly.

[footsteps]

- I think it's over here.

I just really enjoyed being
with Otto von Habsburg.

It was actually fascinating
to see how much time in a day

he could devote to
his public presence

and public duties, as it were.

Oh, it was completely
exhausting.

There were a couple of
moments where I thought about

Herbert Hinkel, and I
thought, oh, Herbert Hinkel.

If he could only see me now.

- Dad, look, here, what's today?

- I don't think he knows.

- Do you know, what is,
do you know what today is?

- It's father's day.

- It's Sunday today.

June 19th.

- Can you open it?

- You are probably gonna
have to read it to him.

- Mm-hm.

- Good, Dad.

- Can you read that, Dad?

- Okay, good.

- That's a cute dog.

There you go.

Okay we have to go
to the restroom.

C'mon.

C'mon, Dad.

C'mon, Dad.

[birds chirping]

- [Melanie] I went to
a Huntington's seminar,

or a guess it's not
called a seminar,

but an educational
meeting at UC Davis

with the Pfeifle family.

And, I have to say, that
it wasn't a pretty picture.

And that you could see them
all at different stages.

And I know for Shelly and
Brian to look at that,

and know that they
might have it,

and look head on at something
they might have to deal with,

is, you know, not
an easy thing to do.

[accordion music]

[door clicks]

- My uncle's boyfriend
had been murdered,

and I dreamt that I
was with my uncle,

and an elaborate
funeral cortege,

and my uncle seemed to
be the principal mourner.

And, I realized that Eddie,

my uncle's boyfriend,
was a Habsburg.

And, my uncle, therefore,
has inherited his rights,

and, in so far that my uncle
does not have children,

and I'm the next
of kin, as it were,

I am, therefore his
heir, and the heir.

The ultimate heir.

- Let's put together the
fascination with the Habsburgs.

The idea of your own
inner sovereignty,

and the feeling of apartness,

that I think stems from a
history of differentness.

- If, in this dream,
I feel I am the heir,

and therefore the future
sovereign, you know,

but, perhaps it's about,
finding my inner sovereignty,

you know, my command
of my own life.

[traffic hums]

[beeping]

- Hi.
- Hello, good morning.

You didn't tell me that
Dad was in the hospital.

Oh, honey, I'm sorry.

Well, he seems to come
unhinged every holiday.

But now mother said
that he's in restraints.

Uh.

Okay, thank you, bye.

He did actually have
the presence of mind

to respond to the
nurse when she said,

"Steven, where are you?"

And he said, I'm
in the nut house.

So he does understand.

Otto von Habsburg fell
down the stairs headfirst

in his house and
isn't recovering well.

He is after all, 97 years old.

And, I don't know if my father

is going to come
out of the hospital.

And so, I don't know how
much time I might have left.

[quiet music]

I recently talked to a psychic.

Which I don't usually
do [chuckles].

I don't usually
talk to psychics.

I don't even know if I believe

a word they say, but I did.

I had an appointment with one.

And I asked him, because
I have gotten word that

the Arch Duke would probably
not be living much longer.

And because this journey has
assumed a very important,

if not, nearly dominate
role in my life,

I asked the psychic what
he thought might happen

with my engagement of
the Arch Duke's legacy

after Otto dies.

And, the response from
the psychic is that

when he dies, it dies.

Which was surprising to me.

So, that's where
it hangs right now.

That's at least the
psychic's opinion, so.

[reflective music]

[lamp clicks]

[lamp clicks]

[monitor speaking
in foreign language]

- I'm watching the live
coverage from Vienna

of the funeral of
Otto von Habsburg,

It's a five hour program.

[dramatic classical music]

[monitor speaking
in foreign language]

- They're on the panel
of three experts,

is the author of [speaking
in a foreign language],

Black Book of the Habsburgs.

It's a book about the black
sheep in the Habsburg family.

And he's on here as sort
of a Habsburg expert.

When really, I should be,

on that panel.

I just haven't written a book.

[dramatic operatic vocals]

[singing in foreign language]

[dramatic classical music]

- It is interesting for me to
be sitting here watching this,

as they walk the
last mile with Otto.

I think that's a beautiful
ritual in funerals

that isn't done
very much any more

where you walk the last
mile with that person.

And here, it's being done,
and even though I'm not there,

I'm glad to know that I
walked that last mile with

Otto von Habsburg
the last ten years

in my engagements with him,

and formed the connection
that I had with him

that was really meaningful.

[classical operatic vocals]

[lamp clicks]

What happened to that shirt?

And why do I only
have one white shirt?

Oh here, here it is.

This is disgusting,
that's gross.

Shoot, I can't find a proper
white shirt to wear to this

memorial mass today at the
Hungarian Church in Los Angeles,

so, I'm gonna have to
jury-rig this tuxedo shirt.

Look at this, I don't even
have matching anything.

But I'll cover it
up with the tie.

So you won't even see the--

Stupid things--

Oh my gosh, what a
sad looking church.

What if no one is there?

Oh well.

- [Priest] I have
come to believe that
you are the Messiah,

the son of God, he who is
to come into the world.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you,
Lord Jesus Christ.

[Praying in a foreign language]

- I am trying to reach Tatiana,

because I have had a,

it's been an especially
difficult past week,

not because Otto
von Habsburg died,

but because just a number of
projects that were supposed

to come through for me have not,

and I'm just on the verge
of having to regroup

in a very serious way, and I'm
considering just going back

to Modesto for awhile.

It's not pretty.

I can pay this right
here and get a sticker?

- This one, no.

No.
- Why?

Delinquent.

My most frequent
callers of creditors.

It's interesting that
this whole chapter

with Otto's death
literally in the last week,

and me feeling
like on some level

I'm finished with Los Angeles.

It's not giving back
to me right now.

This city, and I think it's a
good time to be away from it.

Also, as it happens, a good
time to help my mother.

The last several months have
been especially difficult

for my whole family
and for my mother,

where my father is concerned.

And I know she needs my help,

I know she wants
my company so much.

She's so alone there.

So it would be a good time to
take a break from Los Angeles.

70, look at that.

That's me, that's me.

Now, the amount
that's listed there,

is that because it includes
all my parking tickets?

$763?

So much money.

The fees.

Wore out the door.

Ah, a thousand, forty-eight.

It's because I waited
so long to pay them,

that they just--

All right, am I supposed to
move the car or something?

Why isn't anyone parked
over there any more?

Just because I waited
so long to pay them.

And they just, they
increased exponentially,

just, it's insane, insane.

Ah!

I don't even, don't
want to talk about it.

[harmonica music]

[cheerful music]