Ulrike Ottinger Says The Blood Countess Lost Up to 20 Minutes Against Her Wishes
German director Ulrike Ottinger says her vampire film The Blood Countess was cut by as much as 20 minutes against her wishes. She made the claim at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where a retrospective of her work is currently being shown, according to Variety.
The film, called Die Blutgräfin in German, stars Isabelle Huppert as a vampire countess who resurfaces in present-day Vienna. Lars Eidinger and Birgit Minichmayr co-star. It had its world premiere at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, in February.
Ottinger said her preferred version ran 15 to 20 minutes longer than the release cut. She said she only made the cuts because everyone around her was pushing for them. The shorter running time broke the film's rhythm, so she had to recut the whole picture to restore its balance.
She also called it the most expensive film she has ever made. Ottinger said she wanted 40 shooting days but was given 30, with a crew of more than 100 people. Huppert, she said, stayed with the project for 20 years.
Ottinger compared the cost of making films over her career. When she produced her own films, she said, she could make them for between €2.5 million and €3 million. Meeting all the requirements now, she said, means a budget of at least €7 million to €8 million.
Those requirements are shaped partly by public money. Since 1 January 2025, Germany's federal film board, the FFA, has allocated production support automatically, based on a film's admissions and festival success. Before that, the board's own jury chose which projects received the money, as Variety reported in its coverage of Ottinger's remarks.
The Tokyo programme gives audiences a wider look at her career. The retrospective includes Ticket of No Return and Under Snow (2011), which was shot in the snow country of Niigata prefecture and on Sado Island. Ottinger's comments on The Blood Countess came as part of that festival appearance.
For readers who follow film, the story is a reminder of how many people shape a finished picture. A director's cut, a shooting schedule, a budget and a public funding rule each leave a mark on what reaches the screen. Ottinger's account of her own film is her account.
