Long thought to have vanished, the relentless Countess Báthory is forced to abandon the calm of the shadows. In present-day Vienna, she joins forces with her subordinate Hermine and her nephew Rudi Bubi, a vegetarian vampire. In that city, on a journey of baroque exuberance and lurking fangs, they relentlessly search for the whereabouts of a book capable of extinguishing all evil in the universe — something that, truth be told, would not suit them at all. A film by Ulrike Ottinger, starring Isabelle Huppert.
And we begin with a tale of she-devils. Through a canal beneath the city of Vienna, a formidable vampire navigates in search of the red elixir of life. Isabelle Huppert, as beautiful as ever with her pale, delicate skin, plays Baroness Báthory, who, with her devoted maid, is searching for a book that will solve all the world’s problems; for this reason, they try at all costs to ensure it never sees the light of day. The great Austrian filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger returns with a baroque, tragicomic universe, featuring hilarious characters and fantastical moments. The cast also Includes Conchita Wurst, best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest with “Rise Like a Phoenix”, and she emerges suddenly in the film when, at a certain point, she performs this song, which has already become an anthem for the Eurovision world. A film of metamorphoses and transformations, these extraordinary characters bring to life a Dantesque adventure, with a high degree of sophistication and a relentlessly fast pace. (Miguel Valverde)
