Ulrike Ottinger says she was pressured to cut 15–20 minutes from The Blood Countess, her vampire film starring Isabelle Huppert […]
Ulrike Ottinger says she was pressured to cut 15–20 minutes from The Blood Countess, her vampire film starring Isabelle Huppert (Greta). And once that footage was gone, she had to re-edit the whole movie to get it flowing again.
Speaking at the Tokyo International Film Festival, as reported by Variety, Ottinger was unusually honest about the process.
“The film originally had a wonderful rhythm, exactly as it was. Then I began cutting it because everyone was forcing me to. Once I started shortening it, the rhythm no longer worked,” she said.
That meant rebuilding the film at its shorter length. She does, however, stand behind the result.
“From my point of view, it’s perfect now, but it was a big job to rework it again,” Ottinger explained.
Dread Central wasn’t so taken with what ended up on screen. In her review, Mary Beth McAndrews called the film “beautiful nonsense,” praising Huppert’s performance and the visuals while finding the story and tone disappointing.
But who knows what that original version would have looked like? Would it have just been a longer version of our disappointment, or is there something special there that we’ve never seen? Hearing a filmmaker explain that removing footage disrupted a rhythm she felt was already working makes me want to see it for myself.
There’s no announcement of a longer cut, but now I’m curious about the version sitting out there in the ether.
The film follows Huppert’s vampire countess through modern-day Vienna, with Strand Releasing planning a theatrical release in spring 2027.
