Bathory: Countess of Blood (2008)

Very disappointing...

Touches You

Memorable, crazy movie

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A long, rambling, shambling, doddering, staggering chaos of a film, blighted by (amongst other things): (1) impenetrable Middle European accents, most of them genuine but three put on ~ by Miss Friel, her husband, and her lover; (2) a narrative style that was very much like listening to a boring drunk recounting a shaggy dog story; (3) a schizoid attitude toward the countess herself ~ ambiguity is all very well, but to switch sides several times in the course of one story just makes the storyteller appear 'flakey'; (4) a sub-plot about two spying monks which ... well, which beggared description in its absurdity; (5) visual imagery and editing which frequently resembled pop videos; (6) so on and so forth.

Life is too short.This is a fifth rate TV mini-series, with admittedly high production values, hacked together into a really dull, over long (2hour 21 min) feature presentation.Even though Anna Friel is in it, and for some people (me) it's always going to be a draw; but, rose colored memories of leather jackets, patricide, and touching moments of sexual discovery aside, it's still a turd. Abject in most respects.Don't. There are so many better things to spend your time on.Believe me.

Things that I liked about the movie:The main actress was really good. The music was impeccable. Amazing scoring. Costumes and photography were very good.What I did not like:The story is completely misrepresented. It seems like the whole purpose of the film/plot was to exculpate Bathory from all the crimes is said to have committed. But without any real evidence and proofs. So what's the point? I was looking forward to watching a movie about countess Bathory, and the crimes she committed, not a nonsense beautified version of her personality to the extremes. Bathing in herbs? Yeah, right. The nobles back then could do anything they wanted without consequences, why this movie tries to convince us that Bathory is an angel is out of my comprehension.300 witnesses were questioned and testified about her crimes.So, all in all this movie is a big disappointment. I would really want to see a movie about Bathory with a proper and not misleading plot.

I saw the film yesterday and it charmed me. It is a very attractive version of the life of countess Elizabeth Bathory, one in which she is not a murderer but a victim of a plot carried out in order to spoil her of her fortune in the medieval Hungary. Anna Friel made a great role. She a stunning beauty as the countess Bathory, in front of our eyes seems to be the real countess who somehow managed to come in the present times. The passionately love story with the painter Caravaggio is very catching. If I would have lived in the 16th century and I would have seen Anna Friel as the countess Bathory I had fallen in love with her for sure. The rest of the actors and the director did a good job. Apart of Anna Friel I liked Hans Matheson especially, who played Caravaggio.