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 ...

Lucy Lawless: ‘I’ve got bag lady hair. I look like I’ve just had sex in a dumpster’

The actor and director on struggling with Dostoevsky, her love of Maggie Smith and flossing in her car

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Lucy Lawless, 57, studied drama in Canada. In the 1990s she starred on television in Xena: Warrior Princess. She went on to appear in Battlestar Galactica, Spartacus, Parks and Recreation, Agents of SHIELD and Salem. Her films include Spider-Man, EuroTrip, Boogeyman, Bedtime Stories and Minions: The Rise of Gru. In 2024 she made her directorial debut with Never Look Away. She plays Alexa Crowe in the crime series My Life Is Murder; all four series are now available on DVD and digital. She is married for the second time, has three children and lives in New Zealand.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Laziness.

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