Bathory

Where’s the splatter movie about a woman who bathed in blood? Herbs, after all... how lame. Boring, no atmosphere, nothing worth remembering. The story doesn’t hold together and of the actors, only Roden sticks out, the others don’t deliver anything special, but on the other hand it’s not embarrassing (even Upír Krejčí was ok in his mini-role :-). But mainly I had the feeling that this movie lasted about three and a half hours. Never again. (12/13/2009)

Well, it turned out better than Janosik: A True Story, thank goodness for that. But not by much. Unlike the aforementioned bandit, I didn't have as much of a problem following Bathory to the end, because most of the time there was at least something and someone to watch. Primarily Anna Friel and Karel Roden. Thanks to Brabec's cinematography, quite a few scenes looked as if the director had borrowed them from Wild Flowers or, even worse, from Máj, but at least I got the impression that most of them belonged in the film and that they were not just the director's "Oh, look at the beautiful pictures" whim. The biggest minuses are definitely the "funny" characters of the monks, the annoying dreams and hallucinations... And Franco Nero. His fans will forgive him, but he didn't need to be here at all and everything would have been fine. But apparently it was necessary to attract "star" names. Well, whatever. In the end, I come out with three slightly, slightly above average stars. (11/15/2011)

I am more (or less) at a bit of a loss with Bathory. On the one hand there is finally a bit of a revival of Czech cinema with at least a slightly better and more monumental movie, however, there are also a bunch of stupid mistakes in Bathory that should never have been there in the first place. This makes Bathory just an average movie. The biggest stumbling block is undoubtedly the screenplay, which at a certain point, jumps and changes its tune from one moment to the next, and the rest of the plot whizzes past you like a high-speed Bullet train. The tension in me rose only momentarily, when Erzsebet stabbed the maid Sara with a pair of scissors just as the courtier were passing by the hall. This was really the only scene that affected me. The actors do make the movie seem less messy (especially Anna Friel, who is really the highlight of the movie), but unfortunately, it is not worth awarding the movie more than three stars. I am awarding it a clean 50%. (08/23/2008)

A major misstep and a cynical mockery of all those who believed the advertising campaign about "the most expensive Czech-Slovak film." And to dryly reply that "you definitely can't see where the money went in the film" is not enough for me this time. The "cleansing" of the legend itself is not bad at all, as Anna Friel is excellent and Karel Roden takes over every scene, but... where the plot requires a few more sentences and two more shots to explain "why and how?", Jakubisko prefers to play lyricist in mono-thematic images of "drug highs" and plenty of nudity. Together with a couple of cameramen, he "paints" the surrounding landscape fantastically, and even in the cheap exteriors of the village he doesn't hold his breath. But then there’s the memory of the battle with the Turks and the viewer is back in the land of Central Europe, where we apparently cannot be as worldly as we would like. Sometimes big shoulders, foreign names, and a big wallet are not enough, which is a pity because I was looking forward to this film. (10/09/2008)

Kindly uninitiated viewers will forgive me, but when I first read several very different books on the subject of Bathory long ago in the year 2000, I came to a similar position to the one Jakubisko presents today in his latest blockbuster. So logically, I'm excited. I see the entire negative media halo around the film as a pure reaction to the endless delaying of release dates and the general hype around the cost, which is none of the audience's business anyway. On November 9, 2009, I finally got the DVD and I can better take stock of my older movie theater experience. My basic understanding of it truly doesn't change. The biggest scarecrows of the project (Mádl and co.) were only cast in supporting roles anyway, and the entire dynamic of the story, which is by the way visually wonderfully sophisticated, is based on Jakubisko's direction and set design, camera work by Ďuriš, Brabec and Kende, music by Jirásek, and costumes by Pecharová. I, of course, appreciate Jakubisková's work for her perseverance and I fell in love with Anna Friel's performance. It made such a strong impression on me that I don't have to deal with the fact that the trio of Roden, Regan, and Matheson doesn't work that well for me. On the other hand, Monika Hilmerová was also excellent and Jakubisko's "discoveries" from Post Coita Pogodová, Greneche, and Elsnerová were absolutely fine. I have had the opportunity to watch all three versions - Czech, Slovak, and English, all the omitted scenes, and my enthusiasm for it only grows stronger. I can't wait for the planned series cut, which I hope will be dominated by Erzsébet Czobor. Moreover, knowing that since the end of the 1950s only B-movies, or at most one decent Hammer horror film, have been made on the subject of the Čachtice legend, I can safely compare Jakubisko's version with Viktor Kubal's magnificent animated film The Bloody Lady and be satisfied. (02/17/2009)