The Blood Countess and the Beginnings of the Feminist Movement
Writer/director/producer/musical scorer/actress Julie Delpy brings to the screen a character from history that few know. The film is based on the true history of the woman known as The Blood Countess, but after viewing this film it is obvious that the actual figure on whom the story is based was a brilliant political mind, a woman of noble breeding who could read and write in four languages, who once widowed was able to successfully defend her lands from the warring Turks and exact control over the reigning Hungarian King Matthias. But back to the history of the character as written by Delpy. 'Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian) (1560 - 1614) was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. She is considered the most prolific female serial killer in history and possibly the most prolific of any gender. She and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls, with one witness...
Lacks passion, rewrites history
For a movie about blood, The Countess is surprisingly lacking in passion. The characters seem distant and it is very difficult to believe this countess, so ruthless and successful as a power broker and commander of both king and armies, was tragically consumed over a jilting by her young lover--enough to bleed virgins in an attempt to regain a youthful vigor.
The story is unconvincing and, also, a puzzling misrepresentation of the circumstances that produced one of history's most infamous serial killers. Although I heard first about Bathory from this movie, on looking further, it seems The Countess is fictitious not only in terms of the warped romantic justification for her killings, but the machinations behind her rise to power is downplayed, as is social context of her cruelty, and the complicity of servants and family members. Even the tools she chose to kill and torture are apparently fictitious.
So with lackluster acting and sickening scenes of depravity...
the price of love
Julie Delpy writes, directs and stars in "The Countess", a tale loosely based on the infamous Hungarian Countess Erzebet Bathory (also known as Elisabeth Bathory).
The director wanted the audience to look at the life and tribulations of the countess through a female lens, while trying to banish all those perceptions of Bathory being evil into something that has nothing to do with witchcraft and the dark side at all, but it is actually the countess descents into madness because of her lover and her enemies.
I think Julie Delpy has achieved that and she is perfect in her role as the normal-turned-to-a-madwoman Countess Erzebet Bathory. You can see she loves life, her subjects and after the mourning of her husband's passing, she does seem normal until she meet Istvan Thurzo (Daniel Brühl). She fall madly in love with him although he is much, much younger than her.
Still, Istvan loves her too. And that's when the problem starts as people begin to talk and...
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