Actors
Anna Friel – Erzsebet Bathory
Stage, screen and theatre actress, Anna Friel (Roz Harmison) has garnered awards and critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Following a busy 2004 in North America (opposite Rob Lowe in the CBS one off romantic comedy Perfect Strangers, winning over audiences as defense attorney Megan Delaney in Barry Levinson's gritty courtroom drama The Jury for Fox, as a heroine addict struggling with a custody battle in Gary Yates' Niagara Motel, and as Eddie Griffin's melodic Irish sweetheart in Irish Jam), Anna announced her pregnancy at the start of 2005. The first half of that year kept Anna busy in the UK filming GOAL before giving birth to a beautiful baby daughter Gracie Ellen Mary on July 9th with partner, actor David Thewlis. No rest for the wicked… GOAL 2 beckoned and Anna returned to work in Spain in the Autumn, bringing baby Gracie to her first film set. The first half of 2006 has kept Anna out of the UK again, filming the most grueling role of her career to date… that of legendary Countess Elizabeth 'Bathory', reported to be the greatest murderess in history. This was a long and arduous but expectedly highly rewarding shoot in and around the Czech Republic and the beautiful castles of Eastern Europe under the direction of iconic Slovakian director Juraj Jakubisko. Meanwhile, whilst we await the release we have a more glamorous image of the star gracing our screens in the form of the highly successful Pantene campaign currently running. GOAL 2 will be released by BVI worldwide in February 2007.
Born in 1976 in North West England, to language teaching parents, Anna grew up speaking fluent French. She first joined Oldham Theatre Workshop in 1989, performing in numerous productions in theaters across England. The following year, she was cast on the BBC series In Their Shoes, and also starred in Alan Bleasdale's critically acclaimed mini-series G.B.H.
During the next two years, the teenager amassed a long string of UK television credits that led to a gritty regular role, that of Beth Jordache, on the phenomenally popular series Brookside. During her last year on Brookside she garnered the coveted National Television Award for Best Actress, after which a number of fantastic television performances followed - including her much admired depiction of Bella Wilfer playing opposite Steven Mackintosh in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.
In 1995, Friel made her first foray into the world of feature film with Stephen Poliakoff's movie The Tribe, starring opposite Joely Richardson and Jeremy Northam. Other films followed including The Stringer, The Land Girls with Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack - Rogue Trader starring alongside Ewan McGregor, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer, Sunset Strip, Watermelon, Barry Levinson's An Everlasting Piece, The War Bride, for which she was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; the critically acclaimed Me Without You and the recent time-travel adventure for Paramount, Timeline alongside real life partner David Thewlis, Paul Walker, Billy Connoly and Gerard Butler.
In 1997, Friel returned to the stage at the Almeida Theatre in Look Europe with Harold Pinter. Two years later, she starred on Broadway in Patrick Marber's Closer, alongside Ciaran Hinds, Rupert Graves and Natasha Richardson, and was honored with a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play as well as Special Achievement Award for an Ensemble Performance. More recently she starred in the London stage play Lulu at the Almeida for which she received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2002.
Film character
Erzsebet Bathory, born in 1560, came from one of the most powerful Hungarian aristocratic families, the part of which also Polish king Stefan Bathory and Transylvanian prince Gabriel Bathory were. Her husband Ferenc Nadazdy, whom she married when she was 15 years old, held a no less important position - he served as an army advisor and commander of Emperor Rudolf II of the Habsburg dynasty. Erzsebet gave birth to five his children; daughters Anna and Katarina and son Pavel reached the adult age, but Andrej and Orsloya died when they were small children. Ferenc succumbed to his war injuries in 1604.
Erzsebet lived in the period of power and religious wars; her life was not easy, particularly after she became a widow possessing a great fortune. Hungary was divided into the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, with Bratislava as its capital. Upper Hungary included Slovakia and a part of Poland; Transylvania, ruled by Transylvanian prince and Polish king Zikmund Bathory, and his nephew Gabor later, formed its eastern part. The relation between the Habsburgs and Ottoman Empire had been rather peaceful until the beginning of the Fifteen-Year War in 1591. Erzsebet's husband Ferenc Nadasdy took an important part in Hungarian politics when the war against Turks started.
However, the original plans were a disaster; Turks could not be forced out definitely, the country was plundered after permanent war hardships, Transylvania was in chaos. In the last years (1604-1606), the civil war started as a matter of fact. That time Istvan Bocskai fought not only to end the military conflict with Turks, but also for the freedom of protestant religion, i. e. against the Habsburgs' effort to recatholicize the country. The both wars end in 1606; nevertheless, the internal struggle between the Habsburgs' followers and Hungarian nobility continues in the whole country.
The legend of Erzsebet Bathory depicts the countess as a cruel murderess of young virgins, bathing in their blood in her quest for eternal youth. This is not all - with help of some her maids she tortured the innocent girls with lighted candles, red-hot iron or she poured ice-cold water on them when it was freezing cold. Complaints against her got to the emperor's ear, who ordered Palatine Gyorgy Thurzo to investigate the whole matter. Thurzo, who promised his friend Ferenc to protect the family after his contingent death, contributed greatly to revealing the countess's alleged deeds. First he tried to save the large Nadasdy-Bathory fortune, and Erzsebet was forced to write a testament in the benefit of her children. But after some time he suddenly appeared at her seat in Cachtice, and then he claimed that he had caught her in the act. He immediately started investigation, which he ended as fast as it started. Many witnesses gave evidence in court, but the process against Erzsebet never took place. Her convicted assistants were executed and she was detained - interned in the tower of Cachtice castle, where she died after four years in 1614 without hearing her sentence.
Who was Erzsebet Bathory in reality? Was she really "a bloody countess" as some historians call her? Or was she an educated woman speaking several languages, with enthusiasm for healing? A noblewoman of luminous beauty, who was also so wealthy that she continuously irritated many ladies with her original tailored dresses made in Italy? A sadistic murderess or the victim of the then conditions full of dark intrigues netted by somebody powerful and longing for her fortune? A cruel, merciless countess or a vulnerable lonely widow, or possibly both?
In the place of Cachtice castle, which was said to be the most impregnable seat in Central Europe, there are only ruins nowadays. Cachtice castellet disappeared completely; there stands only the museum with a portrait of the region countess Erzsebet - a portrait of debatable quality, from which we cannot even determine her age. A sad, melancholic face looks at us sensuously; lips pressed hard together suggest that she was a vital woman, while her big eyes are a sign of her boldness and sense for romance…