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

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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 ...
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Iranian director Jafar Panahi wins Palme d’Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident

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Panahi, long censored and previously imprisoned in his home country, took top prize as Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent also honoured

The dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has won the top prize at the Cannes film festival for his drama It Was Just an Accident, inspired by his stints of imprisonment at the hands of the Iranian government.

The film was the first made by the director after being released from prison in 2023 – although he has continued to direct over the years despite being expressly forbidden to do so. In 2011, a year after his first arrest, a copy of his drama This Is Not a Film was snuck into Cannes on a USB stick hidden in a cake.

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