Berlin – Actor Lars Eidinger revealed at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday that he initially anticipated playing a vampire in Ulrike Ottinger’s new film, “The Blood Countess,” starring Isabelle Huppert. Instead, he was cast as the vampire’s therapist, a role he joked about during a press conference hours before the film’s world premiere.
“She asked me if I wanted to be in her next movie — a vampire movie — and I thought, yeah, that’s great. I expected to be a vampire. Then they sent me the script and it turned out that I’m the therapist of the vampire!” Eidinger said, according to Variety. He expressed a particular fondness for the role of the “vegetarian vampire” played by Thomas Schubert, admitting he “wanted to be the vegetarian vampire.”
“The Blood Countess” reimagines the story of Elizabeth Báthory, a 16th and 17th-century Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer, setting it in modern-day Vienna. The film follows Báthory, portrayed by Huppert, and her loyal attendant Hermine (Birgit Minichmayr) as they search for a “vital red elixir” and a book with the power to destroy all vampires, while evading authorities and others seeking the same artifact, as detailed on IMDb.
Huppert described the collaboration with Ottinger as an “adventure,” praising the director as a “visionary.” “It’s this amazing encounter between mythological stories such as ‘The Blood Countess’ and someone’s universe that is immense, imaginary, poetic, funny,” she said. Ottinger, who received an Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020, began developing the screenplay in 1998 and initiated discussions with Huppert approximately two decades ago, Variety reported.
The film also stars André Jung, Marco Lorenzini, Karl Markovics, and Conchita Wurst. According to Ulrike Ottinger’s website, the narrative involves a nephew and family rebel (Schubert), vampirologists (Jung & Lorenzini), and a chief inspector (Markovics) all pursuing Báthory and Hermine.
The Berlin Film Festival continues through February 22nd, with the fate of “The Blood Countess” and its reception remaining to be seen.