"Fellini of the East" Directs Báthory Picture

Slovakian director Juraj Jakubisko will launch his own project about the life of Erzsébet Báthory with Hungarian participation

The story of the defenseless widow Juraj Jakubisko

The shooting of the English-speaking picture about the bloody countess of the 16th century will start in November on Austrian, Czech, Slovak and Hungarian locations, and a Romanian location is also possible.
The director announced at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that he will no longer wait for state support, and, having   signed the agreements with British and Hungarian partners, the film has entered the final phase of preparations. 70% of the budget is already in place, and the producers hope that by involving Austrian and German companies, the missing amount can be covered.

The coproduction partners of the romatic thriller written by 67-year-old Jakubisko are Lunar Films and Film and Music Entertainment on the British side, and Mythberg Films lead by József Berger on the Hungarian side.

Historic-political crime story with A-list stars

The production contacted Mythberg Film as a potential Hungarian partner, producer József Berger told filmhu.   The size and the conditions of the Hungarian involvement in the project has not been decided yet, the details are to be settled during the summer. In Berger’s view the sum for a 10% share can be collercted, primarily from tax benefits and foundations.

The scheduled fall start is in fact a pre-shoot, the project itself is still in the preparation phase. яндекс The film takes place in all four seasons, since the story spans a long period of time, Berger said. The filmmakers intend to portray the process during which the wealthiest and most influential woman in Hungary was trapped and was stripped of her wealth and her freedom.

 

She was finally walled in The single authentic portrait of Erzsébet Báthory

The film also features the 30-year war: the feud between Hungarians and Turks is presented through big battle scenes, which are to be shot in Hungary. This might mean work for Hungarian stuntmen. Sárospatak and Hungarian castles are potential locations.  

As for the cast, negotiations are still under way, but the names have not been disclosed yet.   Berger said that the British casting team is thinking in terms of A-list stars.

Báthory, the movie star

Erzsébet Báthory has served as an inspiration for many vampire stories. Her figure has appeared in several films, mostly in horror movies. The 16th-century countess, who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, hoping to find the secret of eternal youth, appeared in Necropolis, an Italian film from 1970 under the name Marthory. We can see her in the company of   Frankenstein, Montezuma, Attila the Hun, Satan and Minotaur in this somewhat bizarre film made   up of several episodes.

An English film was shot in the same year by the misleading title Countess Dracula, which was a supernaturaladaptation of the Báthory story. The third adaptation was a Belgian film in 1971 by the title   Daughters of Darkness. Erzsébet Báthory appears here as a 300-year-old vampire, and consumes large quantities of fresh blood. In 1974 the Polish Walerian Borowczyk made a French movie, Contes immoraux, which presentedfour erotic stories, one of them was the portrait of Erzsébet Báthory.

Báthory’s figure has appreared in several films since, mainly in horror B-movies. There are several projects in the planning phase that would focus on the life of the countess. One of the most recent and promising projects, Bathory, would star Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The screenplay was written by Delpy herself, and the film would be her directorial debut.