The Blood Countess review – Isabelle Huppert reigns supreme in a surreal vampire fantasia

Vienna turns into a playground of camp, cruelty and aristocratic disdain in a blackly comic take on the Báthory legend – with Huppert gloriously suited to the title role From the dark heart of central Europe comes a midnight-movie romp through the moonlit urban glades of Euro-goth and camp from German director Ulrike Ottinger. As for the star … well, it’s the part she was born to play. Isabelle Huppert is Countess Elizabeth Báthory, 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer, legendary for having the blood of hundreds of young girls on her hands and indeed her body, in an attempt to attain eternal youth. The “blood countess” has been variously played in the past by Ingrid Pitt, Delphine Seyrig, Paloma Picasso, Julie Delpy and many more, but surely none were as qualified as Huppert who importantly does not modify her habitual hauteur one iota for the role. Her natural aristocratic mien and cool hint of elegant contempt were never so well matched with a part. She gives us the ...

‘A reminder that we can resist’: hard-hitting documentary takes aim at anti-trans rhetoric

Heightened Scutiny is a new film premiering at Sundance looking at the troubling rise in anti-trans legislation and the mainstream media outlets who have helped stoke the fire

A new documentary at the Sundance film festival delves into the fight to preserve access to gender-affirming care for minors via the US supreme court, with a major decision due in June 2025, and details the mainstream media’s role in legitimizing anti-trans legislation.

Heightened Scrutiny, directed by Sam Feder, argues that the fear-based ideology underlying bans on hormone therapy or puberty blockers for minors has been pushed not only by conservative activists but center-left publications such as the New York Times, the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal, whose articles have fixated on surgery, potential regret or risks. As the film notes, such therapies, with the same side effects and risks, are prescribed for other conditions and only raise alarms when applied to trans youths, and the rate of “detransitioning” is less than 1%.

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