Ad Hoc Cinema in association with Coral Gables Art Cinema presents The Bloody Lady featuring a live score by Claire Rousay
New 2K Restoration
Lady Elisabeth Báthory lives a charmed life in a resplendent Romanesque castle, surrounded by Disney-esque wildlife and a colorful cast of obliging servants. Taking ill one day while traveling through the forest, she’s nursed back to health by a handsome woodsman, and in gratitude gifts him with her own heart. But upon returning home, Lady Báthory’s sunny disposition quickly turns murderous and vampiric once she discovers the secret to heart-less eternal youth lies in draining the blood of all the young women and men in her castle.
Widely considered one of Slovak animation’s crown jewels, The Bloody Lady is an improbable and bewitching fusion of gothic horror and classic children’s animation, retelling of the infamous Cachtická castle and Báthory folk tale which is often cited as the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Recently treated to haunting live score by celebrated indie musician claire rousay, this underseen gem is a new cult classic in the making.
The Bloody Lady is the centerpiece of Viktor Kubal: Father of Slovak Animation, a retrospective of the landmark Eastern Bloc animator’s pioneering work in much-loved children’s shorts as well as subversive – though no less groundbreaking – feature films.
Restoration courtesy of the Slovak Film Institute.
About the Artist:
Claire Rousay is a Canadian-American musician, composer, and artist currently living in Los Angeles. Rousay’s work operates in genre-spanning fashion. She is primarily known for composing highly emotive whisper-quiet musical works that heavily forefront music concrete and sound design elements like haptic sound and field recordings. These avant-garde elements are often paired with strings, piano, and electronic melodies and textures. Her albums in this vein – on celebrated labels like Thrill Jockey and Shelter Press – gained her notoriety in the international ambient and experimental community.
Rousay remains stylistically mercurial and incorporates generic elements from rock, electronic, hyperpop, noise, folk, free jazz, and more into her compositions. In some ways Rousay is always busy making music about music, and too, music about everyday life, about the ordinary.