Looks like the dream pairing of Tilda Swinton and Isabelle Huppert for German director Ulrike Ottinger’s take on the story of Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory has been put on the backburner for now.
Despite previously speaking optimistically about a 2010 production start date last year, Swinton now tells Outside The Frame that “[there’s] a seed in the ground that Ulrike Ottinger and I have been occasionally watering but again, I don’t know when or if that will come up. But yeah, that’s something that we’ve been playing around with the idea of.”
Titled “The Blood Countess”, the film was first conceived at last year’s Cannes Film Market with updates from Ottinger’s website noting the addition of Irm Herrmann, Peter Kern, Eric de Kuyper, Nicholas Ofzcarek, Sophie Rois and Udo Samel to the exciting pairing of Swinton and Huppert, who’ll play the titular countess and her devoted maid Hermine respectively. Pretty much amazing right? These two could probably play chess and we’d kill to see it.
Bathory herself is apparently an icon in the vampire mythology standing alongside Vlad The Impaler as real-life inspirations for characters such as Dracula. In reality, the countess is best known as being one of the most prolific female serial killers in history reportedly accountable for up to 600 murders, actions seemingly motivated by her belief that bathing herself in the blood of virgins would retain her youth. Ottinger’s story, however, will evidently steer in a more fantastical direction if the following synopsis courtesy of STYD is to go by:
Impatiently awaiting the arrival of her devoted maid Hermine, the countess Erzsébeth Báthory, also known as La Comtesse Sanglante, a tigress in human disguise, ascends into the open daylight. At breathtaking speed, the two women race through a Vienna of ghoulish beauty.
Their entourage: Báthorys nephew Bubi, a vegetarian vampire who refuses to follow family traditions, his therapist, two wacky vampirologists, some members of the duelling fraternity “Vampiria”, an all-female music ensemble, and many more. “Wiener Blut”, Viennese blood is shed by the buckets while the hearts of the present Habsburgians and Viennese beat high. This is a cracked journey to the roots of a myth that has lost nothing of its appeal: to the Vampyre Empire! Naturally, the showdown takes place at Vienna´s “Prater” – during a midnight supper on that fair´s famous Ferris wheel.
Ottinger also discusses the project in greater detail on her official website in a Director’s Statement which is accompanied by what looks like early concept art, location scouting and script abstracts — though, as you can see, it’s pretty underwhelming for now. Kurt Mayer and Heino Deckert are producing with Michael Haneke regular Christian Berger performing cinematography duties and Maud Nelissen scoring. We got our fingers and toes crossed for things to pan out here.
Interestingly, fellow European thespian Julie Delpy also recently played the Bathory character in 2009’s “The Countess” alongside Daniel Bruhl and William Hurt in what sounds like a more realistic take on the tale.