Acclaimed composer provides sombre Slovak animation film with stunning soundtrack
The Bloody Lady (Viktor Kubal, 1980, 1u12min)
Viktor Kubal (1923-1997) is considered the father of Slovakia’s animated film. His showpiece is Krvavá pani, or The Bloody Lady. The National Film Institute Hungary: “If there is a single jewel worthy of discovery in Slovak animation, then The Bloody Lady is certainly it.”
The film is based on the gruesome folk tale about Elisabeth Báthory (1560-1614), the best known serial killer in Slovakian and Hungarian history. She even achieved a macabre record in the Guinness Book of Records, as a murderer with the most deaths to her name. The reason for her compulsion to kill: hoping to remain eternally young, she was convinced that bathing in blood would make her skin youthful.
claire rousay
claire rousay has been praised by The New York Times, which included her album Sentiment in its Best Albums of 2024 ranking, in the good company of Charlie XCX and Nala Sinephro. She recently made the cover of our favourite monthly magazine, The Wire, which described her music as “intimate, emotionally raw and unflinching”. Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) is a fan (see also: their collaboration on the single How Sweet I Roamed) and gifted her a load of instruments after hearing that her flat had been burgled during a tour.
De Standaard on Sentiment: “The Canadian-American has made one of the most devastating albums of the year. Heartbreakingly beautiful.” Latest feat: a little death, about which Pitchfork wrote: “rousay’s most polished and straightforward work, one that seeks to take her from collagist to capital-C Composer.”
claire rousay x The Bloody Lady
“When I watched The Bloody Lady for the first time, I was distracted by the music of composer Juraj Lexmann. The film only revealed its secret when I turned off the sound. Suddenly, I had no idea anymore about how I should feel about what I was seeing. That uncertainty allowed me to project my own experience onto the images”, says rousay (CA/US).
Along the way, an unexpected personal connection turned up: a year earlier, on tour, rousay had made field recordings in the forests around the ruins of the Báthory castle. rousay: “I checked the location on Google Maps and was amazed to see that I had made recordings there. A cosmic coincidence.”
Those recordings also found their way onto the soundtrack. Bad Seeds icon Warren Ellis had this to say: “I found myself living inside this wonderful record one day, and decided I needed to own a real copy. Variously described by others as dreamy, menacing and haunting.”
Fun fact I: Swedish black metal band Bathory is named after Elisabeth Báthory.
Fun fact II: The Báthory castle is better known as Čachtice Castle, which was used as the location for the film Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau. That film was provided with a live soundtrack during BRDCST 2024 by black metal legend Attila Csihar.
