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It has been over a dozen years in the making. We can confirm that Isabelle Huppert has indeed remained on board, so has Sophie Rois, and they will be surrounded by Birgit Minichmayr (of Everyone Else fame) and Huppert’s About Joan co-star in Lars Eidinger in Ulrike Ottinger’s long-gestating The Blood Countess. At eighty-two years young, the German filmmaker has been receiving some much needed pre-production coin support as of late and just landed another round of coin via German funding bodies Film und Medienstiftung Nrw, Fff Bayern and Hessen Film & Medien. Tilda Swinton, Udo Kier and Irm Hermann (who passed away in 2020) were once mentioned way back in 2010.…...

François Ozon’s ode to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play and cult classic takes us on a spellbound carousel ride going round and round in circles with one man at the centre. Denis Ménochet as Peter von Kant is easily recognizable as a stand-in for Fassbinder, whose private life inspired the plot of his 1972 masterpiece. The film featured Margit Carstensen as Petra von Kant, a fashion designer who falls madly in love with a younger model named Karin (Hanna Schygulla) while living with and abusing her silent secretary Marlene.

Ozon in this free adaptation adds another turn of the screw by making the three protagonists male again, reversing the fashion industry background to the film world and the infatuation to an actor. The costumes by Pascaline Chavanne in Peter von Kant are excellent, especially those creamy suits...

More than 20 years after adapting a Rainer Werner Fassbinder play called “Waters Drops on Burning Rocks” into a movie, François Ozon has made this gender-flipped adaptation of one of Fassbinder’s greatest films, “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” in an attempt to understand Fassbinder’s real-life struggle with the power plays of love.

Fassbinder’s “Petra von Kant” was shot very quickly on a very low budget, and he used a lot of long takes; every camera movement in Fassbinder’s version of this material feels so ultra-controlled that watching it is like getting tied up in an S & M dungeon or getting slowly strangled by a python. Ozon shoots his own “Peter von Kant” with a casualness that can feel frivolous, and he uses very conventional short takes for shot/reverse shot conversations.

Fassbinder’s “Petra von Kant” revolves around a lesbian love triangle that consists of...

Save Your Tears for Another Day: Ozon Revels in the Camp Mystique of R.W. Fassbinder

It’s clear François Ozon has long been obsessed with the cinema of New German Wave provocateur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, seeing as one of his first successes was 2000’s Water Drops on Burning Rocks, adapted from an unproduced screenplay of his idol’s. Over two decades later, and working at a similar breakneck pace, Ozon attempts something nearing sacrilege in Peter von Kant, a liberal reimagining of Fassbinder’s most hysterically excessive camp masterpiece, 1972’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (read review). Whereas the original was a femme-centric snake pit featuring three of Fassbinder’s usual muses, Ozon switches the queered perspective to male and transposes bits and pieces of Fassbinder’s own life into the von Kant prism about a monstrous artist who devours all those around him in the quest to quell his desires.

From the sure evidence of his filmography—and, yes, his legendarily turbulent private life—Rainer Werner Fassbinder should be quite tickled by the thought of another, younger filmmaker deifying him in their own work. Fassbinder’s is the cinema of the submissive power dynamic, and François Ozon, no slouch either, has come to play servant to the master. What’s more elusive in Peter von Kant, his slavish reimagining of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, is what’s gained from this entangling designed to be mutually fulfilling for both parties.

Ozon has always been a fleet, engaging storyteller, but he is overly fond of pastiche, though it’s unlikely his career would’ve been so prolific without letting outside material lead his creative impulses. Still Peter von Kant is a mismatch for his sensibilities, a piece of upmarket heritage cinema with none of the subversion, danger, or nervy politics of the forebear.

The actor, who collaborated with the director on films including Fear Eats the Soul and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, also featured in Herzog’s Woyzeck

Irm Hermann, one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s closest collaborators, has died in Berlin aged 77 following what her agent called a “short, serious illness”.

The actor, who was a staple of German theatre, TV and radio, made her name for her work with the uncompromising and virtuosic director, who she first encountered while working at the German automobile association.

Unreleased in the United States until now, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s epic 1972 mini-series, “Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day,” is finally headed to American shores — with a fresh restoration to boot — thanks to New York City’s own Film Forum. The family drama will enjoy a two-week engagement at the movie house, with all 476 minutes gloriously accounted for.

“Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day” includes some of the German auteur’s favorite stars, including Hanna Schygulla, Gottfried John, Irm Hermann, and Kurt Raab. And yet it’s a change of pace for the typically dark-skewing filmmaker, piling on some of his usual obsessions — class issues, money issues, fraught relationships, very different people pushed up against each other — yet still emerging with a much more optimistic worldview than we normally associate with the prolific Fassbinder. It’s not exactly light, but it’s about as light as he ever got,...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) is showing March 28 - April 27, 2017 in the United Kingdom in the series Fassbinder: The Exploitability of Feelings.By now many will have encountered Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (German: Angst essen Seele auf, 1974) even if they are not hardcore devotees of the director’s oeuvre. Along with his Brd trilogy, Ali stands as one of Fassbinder’s most acclaimed and viewed works. The film follows 60-year-old cleaning woman Emmi (Brigitte Mira) who becomes involved with much younger Moroccan mechanic Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) after one of his friends dares him to dance with her when she walks alone into the bar one rainy evening. Ali has been frequently praised for the moving performances of its leads and for how it so effectively portrays...

The 2017 Berlin Film Festival has revealed its first slate of 14 films for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections, including new work from Aki Kaurismaki (“The Man Without a Past”), Oren Moverman (“Time Out of Mind”) and Sally Potter (“Ginger & Rosa”). The festival will also screen a restored version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 TV series “Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day.”

Read More: The 2016 Indiewire Berlin International Film Festival Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During Run of Festival

So far, ten films have been invited to screen in Competition, and four films have been selected for Berlinale Special. These productions and co-productions are from the United State, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Belgium, Poland, Senegal and more.

The 67th Berlin International Film Festival will run from February 9 through 19. Further films will be revealed in the coming weeks. For more information, visit the official website.

Read More: The...

After Sundance Film Festival concludes in late January, the next big cinematic event on the globe is the Berlin International Film Festival. With Paul Verhoeven serving as jury president for the 67th edition of the festival, they’ve now announced their first line-up of titles, including Aki Kaurismäki‘s The Other Side of Hope (pictured above), Oren Moverman‘s Richard Gere-led The Dinner, Sally Potter‘s The Party (pictured below), and Agnieszka Holland‘s Spoor, as well as a restoration of a Rainer Werner Fassbinder TV show.

Check out the first titles below, and return for our coverage from the festival.

Competition

A teströl és a lélekröl (On Body and Soul)

Hungary

By Ildiko Enyedi (My 20th Century, Simon the Magician)

With Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider

World premiere

Ana, mon amour

Romania/Germany/France

By Călin Peter Netzer (Child‘s Pose, Maria)

With Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti,...

Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Sally Potter among Competition lineup.

The first 14 films have been announced for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Among directors with movies in competition are Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, Sebastián Lelio and Sally Potter.

Festival veteran Kaurismäki will debut new film The Other Side Of Hope about a Finnish travelling salesman who meets a Syrian refugee.

Moverman’s (The Messenger) mystery-drama The Dinner stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny. Based on the novel by Herman Koch, the film looks at at how far parents will go to protect their children.

Oscar-nominated Holland, who was nominated for the Golden Bear in 1981, will be at the Berlinale with crime-drama Pokot.

Potter returns to Berlin with ensemble comedy-drama The Party starring Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas and [link...

Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Sally Potter among competition lineup.

The first 14 films have been announced for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Among directors with movies in competition are Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, Sebastián Lelio and Sally Potter.

Moverman’s (The Messenger) mystery-drama The Dinner stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny.

Fernando Trueba’s comedy-drama The Queen of Spain, starring Penelope Cruz, will get its international premiere in the Berlinale Special strand.

More to follow…

Competition

A teströl és a lélekröl (On Body and Soul) (Hungary)

By Ildiko Enyedi (My 20th Century, Simon the Magician)

With Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider

World premiere

Ana, mon amour (Romania / Germany / France)

By Călin Peter Netzer (Child‘s Pose, Maria)

With Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti, Carmen Tănase, Adrian Titieni, Vlad Ivanov

World premiere

Beuys - Documentary (Germany)

By Andres Veiel ([link...

Award Winning Director Wolfgang Becker (“Good Bye Lenin!”) will open the festival at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre with “Me and Kaminski” bringing outstanding German cinema and its stars to Los Angeles from October 20 to 23rd.

Full Program Line Up Announced with a selection of the best new German, Austrian and Swiss Cinema

Celebrating its 10th year, German Currents features an expanded program including screenings of ten La premieres, conversations with prolific German directors, writers and actors, as well as the return of the free family matinee film screening for local schools.

“Me and Kaminski” starring Daniel Brühl and directed by Wolfgang Becker

2016 has been a successful year for German language cinema, not only in Europe, but across the globe. Beginning on Thursday, October 20th 2016 German Currents will open this year’s 4 day festival with the red carpet event Los Angeles premiere of Wolfgang Becker’s (“Goodbye Lenin”) five-time...

When observing its material from something of a remove, it could easily be argued that Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands is a bit drier than its amazing subject deserves. While I don’t wish to spend too much time in a review of someone else’s documentary extolling the virtues of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s massive, emotionally bruising filmography, it’s worth noting the division between those films, many of which are seen herein via clip form, and Christian Braad Thomsen’s document, the film at hand. Being that this is subtitled as his “Personal Recollections,” it’s only natural for the picture to favor his and others’ direct experiences with Fassbinder over anything else; even the most prominent interview with the eponymous figure is Thomsen’s own work. We get this in the “info-dump” style, the sort of documentary filmmaking one might be able to immediately picture: talking-head...

At long last, a worthy digital transfer has been granted the rather grim and horrific Tenderness of the Wolves, an obscure title from the extensive universe of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, here serving as producer. The fourth title assembled under Fassbinder’s production company Tango-Film, Ulli Lommel takes on directorial duty for what stands as the his most notable title. But Lommel’s contributions take a back seat to leading star and screenwriter Kurt Raab. Both members of Fassbinder’s extensive cinematic troupe, having starred in 1969’s Love is Colder Than Death, along with several future affiliations, the film’s production history proves to have its own potent elements dictating the final memorable outcome.

Padded out with a ton of notable Fassbinder faces, it’s a wonder this title isn’t more well-known, even as a cult favorite. But its explicit homosexual content, derided as harmful and negative at the time,...

The Merchant of Four Seasons

Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Germany, 1971

Rainer Werner Fassbinder had a true talent for probing insights into the deep despair and disenchantment of the human condition. His characters were doomed people, ones fellow German New Waver Wim Wenders speaks of as helpless and hopeless. Such descriptions perfectly suit those in Fassbinder’s 1971 film, The Merchant of Four Seasons, which is out now on a new Criterion Collection Blu-ray. Here, Hans Epp (Hans Hirschmüller) has just returned from duty with the French Foreign Legion. Home in Munich after being gone about a year, he is first greeted with a less than enthusiastic reception from his mother (Gusti Kreissl). As he tells of friends lost in the fighting, she counters with, “The best are left behind while people like you come home.” This is just the tip of the iceberg for what Wenders says is...

“We’re all pigs,” remarks a character late in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1971 classic The Merchant of Four Seasons, on observation one could apply to most of the desperate and disparate characters littered throughout the German New Wave master’s oeuvre. In this instance, the comment is made by the protagonist’s familial successor. Fassbinder’s flaccid fruit vendor shrinks into the shadows of his own periphery, a failed patriarch reduced to the general fate of mediocre men in times of societal resurgence, (here specifically in the 1950s, the post-war period of the German economic miracle) marked for replacement by a trusted friend, stepping in to pinch-hit. Regarded as one of Fassbinder’s best early titles, it is one of his most accessible Sirkian inspired melodramas earning notable critical applause during an impressively fruitful period, imbued with the director’s favorite themes concerning dwindling personas of those foolish enough to...

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Germany, 1972

“Fassbinder is Petra von Kant.” So says frequent star and muse Hanna Schygulla as she discusses Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s working methods and his identification with his characters, both male and female. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a notable case in point. Based on Fassbinder’s own complicated relationship with Günther Kaufmann, the genders are reversed for what became this tale of passion and despair between a successful fashion designer and the younger beauty who enters and upends her personal and professional life. Originally written for the stage, specifically for Margit Carstensen, who would take on the title role in the play and film, Bitter Tears is a fascinating examination of sexual intensity and infatuation gradually undercut by acrimony and deceit.

Though Fassbinder’s play was generally unsuccessful, he nevertheless moved full...

Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in the summer of 1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant didn’t open to ecstatic reception. Treated with the sort of contempt that artistic endeavors later recuperated as being ‘ahead of their time’ are often subjected to, conservative audiences dismissed it as bleak and artificial, while queer audiences denounced it as an exploitational freak show. Decades later, time has come for a reexamination of one of Fassbinder’s finest achievements, arriving early on in his titles inspired by the works of Douglas Sirk, for which the title of this most certainly evokes. Shot in ten days, and presumed to have been written by Fassbinder by hand on a flight from Berlin to Los Angeles, it features three of his most beloved actresses, each with whom he shared a different type of relationship. Bitchy, catty, melodramatic and pretentious, it’s...

New films from Hal Hartley, James Franco, Gus Van Sant among lineup.

Eighteen features - including seven documentaries - have been selected for the Berlinale’s Panorama programme.

Among the selection are new films from Hal Hartley, Doze Niu Chen-Zer, Jk Youn and The Yes Men.

Hartley concludes his filmic trilogy with Ned Rifle while Justin Kelly’s Gus Van Sant-produced debut I Am Michael stars James Franco as a gay activist in the 1980s.

54: The Director’s Cut

USA

By Mark Christopher

With Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Mike Myers, Sela Ward, Mark Ruffalo

World premiere

Chorus

Canada

By François Delisle

With Sébastien Ricard, Fanny Mallette, Pierre Curzi, Geneviève Bujold

European premiere

Der letzte Sommer der Reichen (The Last Summer of the Rich)

Austria

By Peter Kern

With Amira Casar, Nicole Gerdon, Winfried Glatzeder

World premiere

Dora oder Die sexuellen Neurosen unserer Eltern (Dora or The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents)

Switzerland / Germany

By Stina Werenfels...

Perhaps Criterion has been paying attention to my Best Movies posts. Next week sees the release of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita on Blu-ray, which was the first installment in my Best Movies feature and a title I'll be reviewing later this week, and now my third installment, Kihachi Okamoto's The Sword of Doom will be arriving on January 6 with a new high-definition digital restoration. Unfortunately the Sword of Doom release won't come with any new features, though the film, Hiroshi Murai's cinematography, Masaru Sato's score and an audio commentary from Stephen Prince will do for me as that is a title that simply must be part of my collection. Also coming in January is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant on January 13, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg on January 20, Preston Sturges's 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story starring Claudette Colbert...

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Germany, 1974

The tragically brief filmmaking career of Rainer Werner Fassbinder consists of great quantities, varying qualities, and an insatiable artistic vigor. With more than 40 completed works in less than 20 years, Fassbinder was a dynamo of creativity. He fluctuated in and out of any number of generic constructs, experimented with a variety of formal devices, and told an eclectic assortment of stories. With so many great films to his credit, it’s hard for any one movie to lay claim as his finest achievement. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, his second of four films released in 1974, is one that puts up a good fight though. At the very least, it certainly ranks among Fassbinder’s most purely charming and emotionally effectual.

“Happiness is not always fun” declares an opening title, and as Ali progresses from there, the path of...

The Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its opening today, on February 7, 2013 at 7.30 pm. After a few words of greeting from Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann and Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, the Festival will be officially opened by Jury President Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, China) and Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick. The International Jury – whose other members are Susanne Bier (Denmark), Andreas Dresen (Germany), Ellen Kuras (USA), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Tim Robbins (USA) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece) – will also be introduced during the gala. Anke Engelke will again host the evening. This year’s music will be provided by Ulrich Tukur & Die Rhythmus Boys. 3sat will be broadcasting the opening live. Ziyi Zhang in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Wong Kar Wai Following the gala, Wong Kar Wai’s epic martial-arts drama The Grandmaster will have its international premiere. The director and his leading actors,...

Another day, another trio of announcements from the Berlin International Film Festival (February 9 through 19). First off, this year's Berlinale Camera has been presented to Haro Senft, "one of the pioneers of New German Cinema as well as a tireless advocate of German children films... He was the initiator of Doc 59, a group based in Munich at the end of the 1950s; many of its members went on to sign the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962." His 1961 documentary short Kahl was nominated for an Oscar and Bruno Ganz gave his first performance in a major role in Senft's first narrative feature, Der sanfte Lauf (1967).

"In 1971 he resigned from all his positions related to film policy and devoted himself unlike anyone else to developing a culture of children's films. With his films Ein Tag mit dem Wind (1978) and Jacob hinter der blauen Tür (1987) he set the standard for the genre." Because Senft can no longer travel,...

Because Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant is one of my favorites by the late German director, I’m reprinting here this email from Ira Sachs, whose IFC Center Queer/Art/Film series is screening the film tonight at 8:00 Pm. It’s being presented by choreographer Jack Ferver, who has written a fantastic intro to the film.

Dear Friends of Queer/Art/Film,

“That little girl’s finger is worth more than the lot of you.”

For this month’s August screening, we’re thrilled to finally be able to present a film by the visionary gay German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, especially one as rich and rewarding as the queer classic The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. Featuring the astonishing Margit Carstensen as a lesbian fashion designer who manipulates her assistant, daughter, mother, and lover– it’s beloved by our guest presenter,...

MoMA’s film exhibitions for June include a look at the influence of melodrama and soap opera on cinema, as well as some of Finland’s best documentaries.

Good to note is that the price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket with the presentation of the film ticket stub within 30 days of the date on the stub!

June 4-19, 2011: Drama Queen: The Soap Opera in Experimental Cinema

Through filmmakers such as Eija- Liisa Ahtila, Dara Birnbaum, Stan Brakhage, Ximena Cuevas, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hollis Frampton, George Kuchar, Kalup Linzy, Tony Oursler, Yvonne Rainer, Douglas Sirk, Andy Warhol, and John Waters, “Drama Queen” tackles the cinematic reinvention, deconstruction and parodying of melodrama within experimental filmmaking.

The series’ titles include:

Far from Heaven. 2002. USA. Written and directed by Todd Haynes. With Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson. 107 min.

Coming Apart.

MoMA’s film exhibitions for June include a look at the influence of melodrama and soap opera on cinema, as well as some of Finland’s best documentaries.

Good to note is that the price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket with the presentation of the film ticket stub within 30 days of the date on the stub!

June 4-19, 2011: Drama Queen: The Soap Opera in Experimental Cinema

Through filmmakers such as Eija- Liisa Ahtila, Dara Birnbaum, Stan Brakhage, Ximena Cuevas, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hollis Frampton, George Kuchar, Kalup Linzy, Tony Oursler, Yvonne Rainer, Douglas Sirk, Andy Warhol, and John Waters, “Drama Queen” tackles the cinematic reinvention, deconstruction and parodying of melodrama within experimental filmmaking.

The series’ titles include:

Far from Heaven. 2002. USA. Written and directed by Todd Haynes. With Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson. 107 min.

Coming Apart.

Lust, power, murder, the quest for eternal youth and a dash of lesbianism – no wonder the story of Erzébet Báthory appeals to film-makers so much

Deep within the preposterous Euro pudding that is Bathory, there lurks a would-be revisionist account of the woman cited in the Guinness World Records as having killed "the most number [650] of victims attributed to one murderess". In between Anna Friel's mad wigs, a babel of accents and a parade of indistinguishable Magyars, Juraj Jakubisko's film suggests Erzsébet Báthory was a sort of Renaissance Florence Nightingale figure who had an affair with Caravaggio. She didn't mean to stab her hairdresser with a pair of scissors! Those bathtubs of virgins' blood were nothing but water tinted red by herbs! She was framed!

Báthory has been portrayed on film some 30 times since 1970, has lent her name to a Swedish black metal band and, since she could...

Tilda Swinton likes to make films in between organising flash mobs (google it). She’s comfortable in arty stuff and Hollywood. She’s what you’d call a brilliant actress.

According to director Ulrike Ottinger via her own website, Swinton will be playing the infamous mass murderer Elizabeth Bathory in a movie entitled The Blood Countess. Even more intriguing is Elfriede Jelinek has co-written the script!

The film has also lined up French legend Isabelle Huppert, Udo Kier, Sophie Rois, Udo Samel, Irm Hermann, and Nicholas Ofczarek. A fine European production! Elizabeth Bathory murdered hundreds of young girls believing their virgin blood would keep her young for ever. It didn’t and she spent her remaining years locked in a room in her castle. She became a legend and infamous historical figure!

This looks very promising. Ottinger’s director’s statement on the website gives a glimpse into what sounds...

Another name has been added to the ever growing list of folks who are looking to bathe in the blood of young virgins. I mean who wouldn't want to, right? We feel bad for the poor jackass who has to wash all those damned towels afterward.

Over on director Ulrike Ottinger's website word has come that Tilda Swinton (Constantine, The Chronicles of Narnia) is the latest actress to star as the psychotic Countess Elizabeth (Erzsebeth) Bathory in The Blood Countess (Die Blutgrafin).

Swinton will be joining the previously announced Isabelle Huppert (pictured below with Swinton), Udo Kier (Suspiria), Sophie Rois, Udo Samel, Irm Hermann, and Nicholas Ofczarek.

Synopsis

Impatiently awaiting the arrival of her devoted maid Hermine, the countess Erzsébeth Báthory, also known as La Comtesse Sanglante, a tigress in human disguise, ascends into the open daylight. At breathtaking speed, the two women race through a Vienna of ghoulish beauty.

According to Director Ulrike Ottinger's website, Tilda Swinton (Constantine, The Chronicles of Narnia) will be the latest actress to star as the psychotic (yet lovely) Countess Elizabeth (Erzsebeth) Bathory in The Blood Countess (Die Blutgrafin). She'll star alongside Isabelle Huppert, Udo Kier (Suspiria), Sophie Rois, Udo Samel, Irm Hermann, and Nicholas Ofczarek. You'll find the full synopsis below, alongside a look at Swinton and Huppert meeting the producers at last year's Cannes market. "Impatiently awaiting the arrival of her devoted maid Hermine, the countess Erzsébeth Báthory, also known as La Comtesse Sanglante, a tigress in human disguise, ascends into the open daylight. At breathtaking speed, the two women race through a Vienna of ghoulish beauty. Their entourage: Báthorys nephew Bubi, a vegetarian vampire who refuses to follow family traditions, his therapist, two wacky vampirologists, some members of the duelling fraternity "Vampiria", an all-female music ensemble, and many more. " More...

Berlin – "John Rabe," an historic biopic about the German business man who saved 200,000 Chinese civilians from the Nanking massacre, is the front runner for this year's German Film Awards – or Lolas – with seven nominations.

The film's nominations include best film, best director for Florian Gallenberger and a best actor for star Ulrich Tukur as Rabe.

Steve Buscemi also picked up a nomination as best supporting actor for his role as an idealistic American doctor who helps Rabe. It was one of the few Lola nominations ever given to a non-German actor.

Uli Edel's Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated terrorist drama "The Baader Meinhof Complex" picked up four Lola noms, including best film and best actress for Johanna Wokalek.

"Chiko," a gangster movie by first time director Ozgur Yildirim, surprised many by also nabbing a best film nom along with ones for Yildirim's screenplay, for lead actor Denis Moschitto and for editor Sebastian Thumler.