The Countess (film)
| The Countess | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Julie Delpy |
| Produced by | Andro Steinborn Christopher Tuffin Julie Delpy Matthew E. Chausse |
| Written by | Julie Delpy |
| Starring | Julie Delpy Daniel Brühl William Hurt Anamaria Marinca |
| Music by | Julie Delpy |
| Cinematography | Martin Ruhe |
| Edited by | Andrew Bird |
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Production
company |
X Filme International
Social Capital Films EMC Filmproduktion Fanes Film The Steel Company Tempête Sous un Crâne X-Filme Creative Pool |
| Distributed by | X-Verleih Bac Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 min. |
| Country | France Germany |
| Language | English |
The Countess is a 2009 French-German drama historical film written and directed by Julie Delpy. It stars Delpy, Daniel Brühl and William Hurt. It is based on the life of Elizabeth Báthory.
The film is the third directorial effort by Delpy, who has said of the project that "it sounds like a gothic [story] but it's more a drama. It's more focusing on the psychology of human beings when they're given power."
In 1560, Erzsébet Báthory is born to Hungarian general George Báthory of Ecsed. From an early age, Erzsébet's parents raise her to accept hardness and cruelty. As a teenager, Erzsébet is impregnated by a young peasant lover and is forced to watch as he is brutally tortured and executed before her eyes; Erzsébet's mother takes the child away from her directly after its birth, ensuring that she never sees it again. Erzsébet is later married to the Hungarian baron Franz Nádasdy, with whom she has three children. After Nádasdy's return from the Ottoman-Hungarian Wars, he succumbs to a disease he contracted abroad and dies.
Erzsébet, now the sole heir of her husband's estate, seeks recognition from the Hungarian Habsburg, King Matthias II. Matthias consents reluctantly due to his considerable debt to the Countess. At a ball, she meets Count György Thurzó's son, István, and falls in love with him. After a night together, István is forced by his father to end the relationship and marry the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Denmark. Erzsébet believes that age difference is to blame for the failure of the relationship. After an incident in which she is splashed with blood after striking a female servant, Erzsébet starts to believe that bathing in the blood of virgin girls can help her to reach eternal youth and beauty. To this end, her staff capture and brutally kill peasant girls to obtain their blood.
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Wikipedia