The Countess

Plot

A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty.

Release Year: 2009

Rating: 6.2/10 (2,654 voted)

Director:
Julie Delpy

Stars: Julie Delpy, Daniel Brühl, William Hurt

Storyline
A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty.

Cast:

Julie Delpy
–

Erzebet Bathory

Daniel Brühl
–

Istvan Thurzo

William Hurt
–

Gyorgy Thurzo

Anamaria Marinca
–

Anna Darvulia

Sebastian Blomberg
–

Dominic Vizakna

Adriana Altaras
–

Aunt Klara

Charly Hübner
–

Ferenc Nadasdy

Andy Gatjen
–

Miklos

Maria Simon
–

Helena

Frederick Lau
–

Janos

Katrin Pollitt
–

Dorothea

Anna Maria Mühe
–

Bertha

Rolf Kanies
–

Count Krajevo

Christine Mayer
–

Kaija

Henriette Confurius
–

Kayla

Taglines:
She sacrificed all for love… and sacrificed others for beauty

Details

Official Website:
Official site [Germany] |
Official site [France] |

Release Date: 25 June 2009

Filming Locations: Brandenburg, Germany

Box Office Details

Budget: $8,500,000

(estimated)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Germany: 98 min
 |
Germany: 94 min
(Berlin International Film Festival)

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Ethan Hawke was originally part of the cast.

Quotes:

Erzebet Bathory:
It would be improper for me to marry you. You're a Count by marriage, whereas nobility has been in my family for centuries.

User Review

I saw it like this….

Rating: 8/10

I did not regard "The countess" as a historical or a horror movie. I
rather saw it as a portrait of a woman. I think the movie wants to show
the very destructive effect falling in love can have when a person is
very insecure and does not have the ability to reflect its own
behavior. In some way that connects to "2 days in Paris" which also
dealt with the difficulties of love. The movie also had a feminist side
to me: on the one hand it deals with the obsession of beauty (a kind of
female issue, also an issue that matters especially to actresses). The
countess crosses ethic limits to gain or keep beauty and youth – maybe
an analogy to plastic surgery. The murderers committed by the countess
are also compared to war: is it better to kill for power than for
beauty? A political view is that the countess is not mainly sued
because she has committed crimes but because her power is so huge that
many people are happy to get rid of her (which is how politic still
sometimes works nowadays). Regarding these facets the countess is a
parable to human behavior today. It does not want to be a historical
movie. I still can see that especially Hungarians are annoyed when they
see (and hear)non-Hungarian actors in this movie speaking English (even
though the actors are not English) and saying Hungarian names in a
non-Hungarian way. As i said before it is not a historical movie and
the setting should just be regarded as a frame. I also remember reading
an interview with Julie Delpy quite some years ago where she complains
about not getting any roles in the US because her accent is "too
french". I think mixing actors from different countries she wants to
show (or find out) that (or if) a movie can work even though there is
an international cast. Regarding the countess as a parable i think that
can work. But as my boyfriend does not like watching movies in English
we watched the dubbed German version and i really don't know if the
accents would have bothered me… Anyways i can see the movie does not
really fit a genre so i understand people have troubles with it. I
prefer not to think in genres and categories too much – if you do so
too I think you will be able to enjoy this movie.