Review of The Countess (2009) by Aurora E — 04 Oct 2013

In "The Countess," the bad news is that Erzebet Bathory(Julie Delpy, who also wrote and directed) has been promised in marriage to Ferenc Nadasdy(Charly Hubner) since she was born. The good news is that they make a great team with him being the only competent military leader able to defeat the invading Turks while her business prowess makes them so wealthy that even King Matthias(Jesse Inman) borrows from them. But since this is the 1500's, sudden death is a fact of life which claims Ferenc. As a highly sought catch as a widow, Erzebet has more than her share of suitors like Gyorgy Thurzo(William Hurt) but rejects him. That does not mean she is willing to give up on sharing her bed as she takes the younger Istvan(Daniel Bruhl) as her lover.

With the talky "The Countess," Julie Delpy does not show the same ability for historical dramas, what with the panoply of accents, that she has shown for detailing the emotional perils of the modern age in her other films. But she does pull off a neat narrative trick here by documenting how unreliable a narrator can be, especially from a second hand source, thus letting the viewer make up his mind as to what really happened, just as all the characters have already made up their minds beforehand. At the same time, we get to see how certain myths came into existence like vampires and Snow White.