Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Countess

French actress turned writer and director Julie Delpy took a more ambitious project with her third feature about a notorious 17th century Hungarian countess, Erzebet Bathory. A headstrong and wealthy countess falls in love with a young man which provides his father an opportunity to hatch a devious plan with tragic consequences. While the countess makes for a compelling character, writer and director Delpy fails to find a focus and balance on whether to make the countess a tragic heroine or deranged villain which affects the tone of the film. She tries both going from drama to horror but it derails the film before its conclusion. Delpy the actress is more successful but can't save the film because of its inherent problems. The international cast includes Daniel Brühl, William Hurt and Anamaria Marinca amongst others. 1001 Films' coverage of films on DVD.

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