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

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)

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

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.

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.

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