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 ...

June Lockhart obituary

American stage and screen actor who enjoyed huge success on the television shows Lassie and Lost in Space

June Lockhart, who has died aged 100, started her career in films, but made her name after switching almost exclusively to television. Having been given little chance to scintillate in the movies from her debut as a child in 1938 until 1947, she shone on the small screen in scores of popular series, above all in Lassie.

Taking over from Cloris Leachman in 1958, Lockhart continued in the show until 1964. She played Ruth Martin, married to the farmer Paul Martin (Hugh Reilly), and the adoptive mother of seven-year-old Timmy Martin (Jon Provost), whose collie was the titular hero of the series.

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