Hand-Picked Alternatives Movies That Echo the Spirit of Das Grand Hotel Babylon: Cult Guide

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

In Old Vienna in the days prior to The Great War, a beautiful woman, Hannerl, has her choice of two men. The first is a dashing young army officer who can provide blazing romance and little long-time security. The other is an older man, influential in the affairs of Austria, who could provide wealth...and tender devotion. Hannerl thinks about it.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Der weisse Pfau perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Lord Cross is a respected and always very serious gentleman. In society he is therefore called "the man without a laugh". One evening, when he and his snobbish girlfriend from the British upper class visited the variety show "Zur Goldenen Kugel" in the somewhat disreputable London district of Whitechapel, in which its director Navratil tried to make the audience laugh with a comic buffo, the Lord's eyes fell immediately on a young gypsy girl. She is called Maryla and dances to the violin.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

On its maiden voyage in April 1912, the supposedly unsinkable RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Atlantic perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Kinder der Finsternis - 2. Kämpfende Welten perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Attorney General Trevor's second wife is found stabbed to death in his safe. Due to a ring with the initials DG, which is also found in the safe, the suspicion initially falls on Donald Gordon, the fiancé of Trevor's daughter.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

Baruch Mayr, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor. Due to this behaviour his father bans him from his family. Baruch, who joined a small burlesque troupe is discovered by an Austrian Erzherzogin (archdutchess) who introduces him to the director of the most important Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater. Baruch receives a contract there and becomes more and more an assimilated jew. But his relation with the Erzherzogin isn't approved by the Austrian court, so they have to end it. When an old friend of his father, who is always traveling from one Jewish community to the next (and has told him first about the theatres in the world), Baruch becomes a little bit homesick and returns for a holiday to his old shtetl to see his folks and to pick up his childhood sweetheart. But his father wants him not to enter his house, so he returns to Vienna, with his bride. But his old friend does not stop trying to convince his father of his errors.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Europa postlagernd perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

Fred Hopkins, a jeweler's assistant, replaces the pearl necklace Lord Reading bought as a wedding present with a worthless imitation. A hunt begins, which the flower seller Rahel and the jumping jack dealer David are able to end by finding the jewelry. Hopkins, who is convicted, then commits suicide for fear of being punished with poison.

Dir: Ewald André Dupont

During a fancy masquerade, Hella Swendsen finds out that her fiancé is the son of a woman who died of alcohol problems and at the same time he breaks up his engagement. Later during the party, she meets the man who considers himself guilty of the woman's death. This man tells her the tragic story of her life.