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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‘It was the Nasa of puppetry’: how we made 1990 kids movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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The performers and director of the original TMNT film describe how they battled hellish costumes and slippery sets to bring their tale of family bonding and kung fu to life

Steve Barron (director): [Hong Kong production company] Golden Harvest didn’t know whether to use creature suits or hand-drawn animation like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The cartoon series was becoming quite popular so they thought: “Maybe the cartoon characters could come into a live-action film?” I thought: “No. This has to be real and in the sewers where it’s moody.” I didn’t get anything cinematic from the cartoon. I did from the comic book.

Josh Pais (Raphael): They flew us to London to get body casted. I was in the back room of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop with my arms out to the side suspended by ropes. They started covering my body in plaster and did the back of my body first. Then they started my front, neck and my face. They put straws in my nose so I could breathe. The plaster gets warm as it sets and everything was heating up. I couldn’t hear and things started accelerating so I went inward. Later, they said they kept me in longer than they needed to see if I’d freak out.

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