By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The award-winning actress is the latest to portray one of history’s most notorious “vampires.”
Variety reports that French actress Isabelle Huppert is taking the title role in THE BLOOD COUNTESS, based on the life and legend of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth (Erzsebet) Báthory, who was convicted of torturing and killing hundreds of young women in the 16th/17th centuries, and said to have bathed in their blood to stay youthful. German New Wave artist/filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger will direct from a script she wrote with Nobel Prize-winning author and screenwriter Elfriede Jelinek; the latter’s credits include THE PIANO TEACHER, for which Huppert won the Best Actress award at Cannes. The cast also includes Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger, Thomas Schubert and André Jung, with THE DEVIL’S BATH’s Martin Gschlacht serving as cinematographer.
In the film, Huppert’s Countess Báthory reawakens and arises from the underworld, and “She and her devoted maid [Minichmayr] embark on a baroque quest through Vienna to recover the red elixir of life,” according to the official synopsis. “The book, if found and read by the vampire’s enemies, threatens their vampire realm. Hot on their heels are a vegetarian nephew [Schubert], his psychotherapist [Eidinger], two vampirologists, a police inspector, and more lively characters in this twisted and humorous vampire tale.”
“THE BLOOD COUNTESS is an immersive and delightfully eccentric vampire mystery with a vibrant cast of characters, led by the captivating Blood Countess herself,” says sales company Magnify in a statement. “The story unfolds as a highly visual, narrative scavenger hunt–playing with history, modernity, humor, and style. It is the perfect reintroduction of Ottinger’s work to a global audience that has grown in appetite for visually striking, bold and smart genre cinema.”
“This is the right time for the Blood Countess to wake up from her deep sleep and savor the present,” says Ottinger. “The world is upside down and events are repeating themselves in an eerie way. Vienna, with its historic buildings and timeless flair, is the perfect crime scene. With her sophistication, beauty, and calculation, the Blood Countess casts a spell over all those who serve her, flee from her, or pursue her.” After Robert Eggers’ successful resurrection of NOSFERATU, we can’t wait for this one!
