Bathory (2008)

  This one has been in my Saved queue for over a year with no release date.  That is bullshit.  So I'm not going to say precisely how I got to see it.  Maybe it's easier to find in other countries.  It's worth checking out.

I was supposed to have been watching a Russian sci-fi movie called Stalker but the disc was cracked and wouldn't play past the halfway mark.  Now it's going back to the bottom of the queue.

I heard about this movie last year.  Film School Rejects was doing a Movie World Cup and this was the submission for Slovakia.  Countess Bathory was one of my favorite historical figures so into the list it went even though the movie didn't make it far at all (got beat by LotR:  Return of the King).

The whole movie is in English, which I think is cheating, but whatever.  I know there are a lot of you out there who dislike reading a movie.  The costumes and sets are gorgeous and overall, the production is amazing.

There aren't a lot of special effects so it never devolves into campy creature-feature schlock.  I thought everyone involved with the movie did a great job, especially Anna Friel as the title character. 

Countess Bathory was the wealthiest landowner in 16th century Hungary, which was at war with the Ottoman Empire and also had some internal struggles between the Protestant Hungarian nobles and the Catholic Hapsburgs.  While her husband, Ferenc, is off fighting, Erzsebet is home seeing to the health and disposition of the serfs and running 17 castles.  As a present, her husband sends her a captured Milanese painter as a spoil of war.  His name is Caravaggio.  She and the painter strike up a friendship, sparking rumors of an affair.

The gossip only grows worse from there, fueled by a greedy neighboring landowner named Thurzo who has always wanted a piece of the Countess.  After being shut out completely, Thurzo starts building a case of withcraft against her, alleging that she bathes in the blood of virgins to retain her youth and beauty. 

The results of this smear campaign are pretty much the only reason anyone now remembers her at all.  Whether or not she actually killed people is moot at this point.

The movie paints a very sympathetic picture of a strong-willed, intelligent woman, nonetheless with a violent temper, who is being railroaded out of her money and property.  An interesting take on the legend, to be sure.