Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as Die Dame in Schwarz: Cult Guide

Dir: Franz Osten

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Franz Osten

A hunter provides meat for a monastery in the mountains and finds romance as well.

Dir: Franz Osten

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

A power struggle between mountain peasants who have been raising milk cows on common land and a village bailiff trying to gain power driving them off the land. Both have a ducal documents that states the opposite.

Dir: Franz Osten

After another successful performance at the Teatro Real, opera singer Carlo Baloni decides to spend the evening at a cabaret. The beautiful Giuseppa, with her amazing voice, appears on stage.

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

Dir: Franz Osten

This adaptation of Arnold's 1861 Orientalist epic opens with documentary shots of tourists in Bombay watching street performers. Then a white-bearded old man sitting under the bodhi tree tells the tourists the story of Gautama (Rai), son of King Suddodhana (Ukil) and Queen Maya (Bala), who left his consort Gopa (Seeta) and became a wandering teacher credited with founding Buddhism. The religious epic, with its idealized figures, takes up the narrative in flashback and ends with Gopa kneeling before Gautama asking to become his disciple.

Dir: Franz Osten

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

A historical romance set in the Mughal Empire. Selima (Enakshi) is a princess-foundling raised by a potter and loved by her brother, Shiraz (Rai). She is abducted and sold as a slave to Prince Khurram, later Emperor Shah Jehan (Roy), who falls for her, to the chagrin of the wily Dalia (Seeta Devi). When Selima is caught with Shiraz, the young man is condemned to be trampled to death by an elephant. A pendant reveals Selima's royal status and she saves her brother, marries the prince and becomes Empress Mumtaz Mahal while Dalia is banned for her machinations against Selima. When Selima dies (1629), the emperor builds her a monument to the design of the now old and blind Shiraz, the Taj Mahal. The film contains a number of passionate kissing scenes.