Top-Tier Alternatives In the Shadow of Die klugen Frauen: Cult Guide

Dir: Jacques Feyder

Mr. and Mrs. Noblet run a boarding house on the French Riviera. One day, they are led by circumstances to welcome a little boy Pierre, whose father is in jail, into their home. Which makes Louise Noblet all the happier as she can't have children herself. But, after a while, Pierre's father is released from prison and reclaims his son... Time passes and Pierre, now a young adult, lives in Paris more or less on the wrong side of the law. He has a mistress, Nelly, who does not say no to other men's money... Louise, who still loves Pierre as her own son, wants only one thing - to help him get by.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

A group of people who knew each other years before discover that members of the group are being killed off one by one by someone who calls himself (or herself) The Green Ghost. The survivors gather at an old mansion to find out who is doing the killing and why, and discover that the murderer is a member of that very group.

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

Dir: Jacques Feyder

French version of MGM romance, His Glorious Night: A princess in the old Austro-Hungarian empire rejects her arranged marriage and falls, instead, for a dashing cavalry captain.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

A parody of the serial thrillers popularized in the US with Pearl White and Exploits of Elaine, in France with Les Vampires: Hero and assistant rescue girl from sinister gang.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Si l'empereur savait ça perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

Tells the story of the Spanish invasion of Flanders

Dir: Jacques Feyder

A theater electrician's love to a ballet dancer is tested when he is elected minister.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Le pied qui étreint perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

Pierre (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence (Marie Bell), and her whims of luxury life. Pierre has gone too far and put the family firm in jeopardy. They ask him to expatriate. To avoid scandal, Pierre joins the Foreign Legion. In Morocco, near the desert, Pierre goes with his comrades of the Legion to a bar-restaurant-brothel, owned by a shady character, Mr. Clement (Charles Vanel). Clement lives more or less with Ms.Blanche (Françoise Rosay) who is a fortune teller with cards, as a hobby. But Clement is also after his girls now and then. Pierre is still obsessed with Florence but he meets Irma (Marie Bell), one of Clement's girls, who is the double of Florence except for hair color. Irma has had an accident and has lost part of her memory at a certain point of her recent past, and Pierre slowly persuades himself she is Florence, but cannot remember it. Advised by Ms.Blanche, Irma finally accepts to act as if she was Florence because she is falling in love with Pierre. Near the end of his contract with the Legion, Pierre receives news from France. He has inherited a fortune. He asks Irma to come to France with him, and they make plans. But Clement tries to rape Irma and Pierre has to kill him.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

A poor vegetable peddler in Paris runs afoul of the law and finds himself ground up in the cogs of the corrupt French judicial system.

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

Dir: Jacques Feyder

Carmen has neither a past nor a future. She lives only in the present. For her love is of no importance, just a passing whim. Love's essence is precisely the variability that Don José hate most of all. This version is filmed in Spain, far from picturesque style, instead dry and tragic.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

3 men fall in love with a woman from a window photograph .When they find her living as a recluse in an isolated Hungarian mansion, they decide against a visit because she wouldn't live up to their idealized images of her.