The Countess (2009)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Great Film overall

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The acting is so awful, watching and especially hearing (accents and voice acting reminds me of dubbing in cheap B movies) Julie Delpy is so cringeworthy. Even William Hurt looks lost. The story unfolds in a monotonous boring way, terrible script. Delpy should take lessons from successful actors turned directors like Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson,... to see how it is done.

It's amazing that a film with such an intriguing story, breathtaking sets, and gorgeous costumes can be so god-awful! With the singular exception of William Hurt, the acting is just bad. Julie Delpy delivers her lines with the enthusiasm of a child forced into doing the school play. I've seen more convincing acting in porno movies. The actress portraying her witch lesbian lover is even more dismal, if that's even possible. I was hoping to be drawn into a thrilling telling of the "true" story of the Countess Bathory, but instead wasted over an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back. Avoid this movie like the plague!

This movie rocks because it manages to be both a lavish, complex period movie and a psychological horror movie at the same time. Julie Delpy does a fantastic job in the role of a complex woman from a brutal period in European history, and her performance somehow gracefully manages to be both sympathetic and monstrous. Bathory is one of history's most prolific and sadistic mass murderers, but historians are ultimately unsure of who she really was, and to what extent she was responsible for the atrocities for which she is credited. Most agree that the whole "beauty treatment bloodbath" thing is a myth made up by later generations to spice up the story, so I was surprised that a telling supposedly rooted in fact ended up going that route, but I loved the idea of a Bathory who is a real person and not just a 2-dimensional fiend. Great sets, costumes, and performances from a well-written script make The Countess an engaging and informative portrait of a woman whose vanity and blood lust have become the stuff of legend.

I haven't seen the film yet, I was thinking of seeing it this week, but given some of the things I've read in the reviews, I may not bother. The story recounted in the film is NOT a true story at all. Countess Elizabeth Bathory existed and she was indeed charged with a number of supposed murders, but the charges were never properly proved. In fact no evidence was properly presented - her 'trial' was a politically motivated set-up. She was an extremely rich and powerful woman living at a time when in most societies, but especially Eastern European ones, wealthy and powerful women were hugely resented by their male counterparts.Once she was widowed Countess Bathory chose not to remarry as she did not want another man to take control of her lands. She wanted to rule her estates herself - and she was a very capable ruler. Unfortunately powerful men in Hungary (and the Austro-Hungarian Empire) were greedy for her lands. They could not dispossess her legally, so they hatched a plot to have her charged with terrible crimes. Her servants were tortured and forced to accuse her, however, no credible evidence was ever presented. It was enough however, for her lands to be confiscated.As for punishment, she was NOT bricked up in a room and fed through a hole in the wall. That is fantasy. She was confined to a few rooms in one of her castles, a kind of house arrest. Sadly films like this perpetuate the myth and falsehoods about a woman who, although tough and sometimes hard on her servants, was never guilty of the horrendous crimes of which she has been accused. I am so sick and tired of seeing history re-written and fabricated that I probably won't go and see it now - and I would warn anyone who thinks they are going to see something 'historical' that it just isn't.