Therapy For A Vampire

"Therapy for a Vampire" ("Der Vampir auf der Couch") is a movie by Viennese director and writer, David R�hm. Aided by detailed albeit eccentric vintage costuming and scenic views of Austria and Switzerland, the sultry cinematography of Martin Gschlacht depicts a Vienna ripe for the vacationing. It is no wonder it picked up the Audience Prize at last summer's Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.

"Therapy for a Vampire" will play in the Boston area beginning on June 24, 2016. It is an official selection for the Zurich Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Minneapolis / St. Paul Film Festival, and Secret Film Festival, Santa Cruz.

It is Vienna, Austria in 1932. Count Geza von Kozsnom (Tobias Moretti) is a world-weary vampire who has become disenthralled with his existence among the undead. He blames his bloodthirsty wife. Countess Elsa von Kozsnom (Jeanette Hain) is cursed never to see her own reflection. Viktor (Dominic Oley) is an inept boyfriend and skillful artist obsessed with inaccurately painting his jealous girlfriend Lucy (Cornelia Ivancan). Lucy wants Viktor accept her for the woman she is. The lynchpin to their interactions is none other than Dr. Sigmund Freud (Karl Fischer), who unintentionally introduces the quartet to each other. Shenanigans ensue as they use and abuse each other in their struggles to obtain their hearts' darkest desires. David Bennent plays the lovelorn manservant Radul.

"Therapy for a Vampire" is billed as a romantic comedy, but it is much more than that. The writing is clever and frequently references the horror genre classics such as "Norferatu" (1922), "Dracula" (1931), and even "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). The depth of the characters' emotional struggles run deeper than the typical rom-com fare. R�hm's comedy elements are subtle and couched in morbid severity.

The acting is a great deal stronger than that of a flimsy romantic or horror film. Moretti gives a strikingly likable performance as the Count. He is at turns vulnerable and frightening. It is no stretch to believe that he is haunted by his past, as still capable of murdering an entire town without a thought.

Ivancan plays the eye candy in this film, but she endows Lucy with much more potency than the average love interest. She's not written to be fully three dimensional, but Ivancan gets further than the standard two.

More than just a about miscommunication between partners, "Therapy for a Vampire" tackles what it means to be "normal." As in any horror/fantasy flick, the rules of vampirism in this reality are set up to explain their traits. These rules are presented late, and do not help our heroes detect threats. The human characters blatantly ignore the obvious signs that their preternatural acquaintances are vampires. It would be lazy to assume that the humans assumed that pre-reveal vampires were merely peculiar rich people with a differing standard of acceptable behaviors. Rather, it is hints at poor editing amidst a sea of otherwise excellent artistic choices. Either give us our clues when trouble begins, or trust the audience to figure it out on their own.

As in all translations, some of the nuances are lost from one language to the next. The film remains entertaining despite English's incapacity to fully capture the subtleties of the German text.