Before Ulrike Ottinger’s camera starts rolling, the images already carry weight. For “Die Blutgräfin” (The Blood Countess), she produced four screenplay volumes filled with drawings, photographs and collected material. The volumes are almost too heavy to carry, she tells Austrian Films. Here lies a key to her cinema: images are not merely illustrations of what characters say.
On 29 October 2026, “Die Blutgräfin” opens in German cinemas, following its world premiere on 16 February at the Berlinale Special Gala. Isabelle Huppert plays a vampire who, together with her maid, played by Birgit Minichmayr, pursues a dangerous book in present-day Vienna. An opportunity to look at the work behind it: how do you create a cinema that does not conceal its artifice?
Thinking through images
The artist, who grew up in Konstanz, lived in Paris from 1962 to early 1969, painting and learning etching techniques from Johnny Friedlaender. She came to film through painting, photography and performance; in 1973 she moved to Berlin. Her 1977 female pirate film “Madame X: An Absolute Ruler” was followed by the Berlin Trilogy, comprising “Ticket of No Return”, “Freak Orlando” and “Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press”. Alongside these, she made documentaries such as “Taiga” (1992) and “Prater” (2007). Invention and exploration are equally integral to her work.
Her 2007 exhibition at the Deutsche Kinemathek showed that her images do not remain confined to the screen: alongside photographs and collaged workbooks, Ottinger presented film costumes as theatrical installations. Design can be understood here as part of the thinking process, not as embellishment added afterwards.
Jelinek’s sentences, Ottinger’s montage
Language, too, is assembled through montage in her work. Her connection with Elfriede Jelinek goes back a long way: in 1983, Ottinger directed “Clara S.” (Clara S.) at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and designed the set. For “Die Blutgräfin”, her own screenplay was already written when she asked Jelinek for help with the Austrian dialogue.
Ottinger described to the Austrian Film Institute how they worked on the dialogue together. Afterwards, Jelinek sent passages of text and gave her a free hand in using them. Ottinger adopted some, but not all, and emphasised their different approaches to writing. Jelinek is accordingly credited for contributing to the dialogue. This is not an adaptation of a Jelinek text, but a meeting of two ways of working.
Artifice takes work
Who creates the image is also part of it. Jorge Jara designed the costumes, Christina Schaffer the sets, and Martin Gschlacht was the cinematographer. Ottinger had already worked with Jara on “Freak Orlando”. According to Ottinger, costume work for the new film began a year before shooting. The clothes were to span the period from the 17th century to the present: vampires do not have to stick to one era.
This does not, however, mean unlimited freedom. Speaking to the Film Institute, Ottinger described losing locations and making changes for budgetary reasons. After cuts, she has to re-establish the connections within the screenplay. The artificial world demands very concrete work — and money.
In her director’s statement, Ottinger describes the vampire as a symbol of people and institutions that sustain themselves at the expense of others. This offers one possible way into her artifice: it is intended to make power relations visible, not to let reality disappear behind beautiful fabrics.
Original reviewed by the editors · 25 October 2026
