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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‘Fights for our material survival’: documentary goes inside the battle for trans rights

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In Heightened Scrutiny, the fight driving activist and lawyer Chase Strangio is backgrounded by a deep dive into how the media has helped to push an anti-trans agenda

Trans documentarian Sam Feder’s latest feature Heightened Scrutiny is a kind of two-for-one – an affecting portrait of one of the most important trans activists of our time, and a continuation of the media critique he established through earlier films, particularly his groundbreaking 2020 Netflix doc Disclosure. It’s a powerful look at the fight over civil rights for trans people, while also posing as a critical rebuttal to supposedly center-left media such as the New York Times and the Atlantic, which have aided and abetted rightwing forces in setting off a moral panic against trans existence.

The film follows the ACLU attorney Chase Strangio as he prepares for oral arguments in the supreme court case US v Skirmetti. These arguments occurred on 4 December 2024, with the court ruling several months later in favor of Tennessee’s attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, and in effect allowing restrictions on the medical transition of trans minors in over 20 US states to remain in place. As with many other rulings in the Trump-era court, it was one that has been widely decried by legal analysts for shoddy reasoning and clear bias.

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