The Essential Watchlist Similar Cinematic Experiences to Die liebe der Bajadere: Cult Guide

Dir: Svend Gade

A model in an expensive clothing shop quarrels with another model, and an expensive gown is ruined. To pay for it, she asks her father, an artist, for the money, but in order to get the money, the father gets mixed up with art thieves and is caught and arrested.

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

Dir: Svend Gade

Writer James Langham and his wealthy wife, Claudia, quarrel and are divorced. Claudia moves into a posh hotel and renews her acquaintance with Alphonse Marsac, an old European friend with an eye on her fortune. Alone in the family mansion, James goes to an agency and rents a "wife" to be his daytime companion and housekeeper. Claudia finds them together one evening, and, suspecting the worst of an innocent relationship, impulsively informs Alphonse that she will marry him. James goes after her, sweeps her from a moving train, and marries her for the second time.

Dir: Svend Gade

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

In Czarist Russia, young peasant boy Stepan is sent to Siberia for allegedly insulting Grand Duchess Tatiana. Upon his release years later, he joins the Bolshviks, who are now fighting to overthrow the royal family. After they succeed, the royal family, including Tatiana, is condemned to death. The Bolshevik official in charge of carrying out the executions turns out to be none other than Stepan. Complications ensue.

Dir: Svend Gade

Danish silent movie-star Asta Nielsen formed her own production company to make this film, in which new elements are combined with features (and a few lines) familiar from Shakespeare's version of the legend. The most important of these changes sees Hamlet made into a female character - a princess forced to masquerade as a man by her scheming mother; from this follows Hamlet's secret passion for Horatio and rivalry with Ophelia for his love. Queen Gertrude is here presented as conspiring in her first husband's murder, and the old king's ghost does not appear - young Hamlet merely hears a voice from the tomb and (apparently) dreams of him. In addition, Hamlet now kills Claudius (in a fire) immediately upon returning from Norway with an army led by old school- friend Fortinbras, and it falls to Gertrude to engineer Hamlet's death in the fencing match as well as kill herself by accidentally drinking the poisoned wine.

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

Dir: Svend Gade

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Svend Gade

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

A luxury-loving daughter of an impoverished upper class family, Mimi Le Brun, falls in love with Jerry Chandler, a poor Yale man with the ambition to be a writer. Jerry proposes, but Mimi turns him down in favor of Andy Fuller, an oil millionaire. When Jerry inherits a ranch from his uncle, he and Mimi decide to be married, anticipating that Jerry's windfall will make them rich. Arriving at his ranch on their honeymoon, they discover, to their shock and disappointment, that the place is neither comfortable nor profitable. Despite her feelings, Mimi stays on, and she and Jerry try to make a go of it. As their first Christmas together approaches, Jerry goes into the hills for a tree. While he is gone, Andy shows up and persuades Mimi to go away with him. As she is leaving, she sees a signal fire on the mountain and, realizing that Jerry is in trouble, rounds up a rescue party. She saves Jerry's life and, overcome with the sudden intensity of her love for him, gladly nurses his hurt leg back to health, anticipating a long and happy life together.

Dir: Svend Gade

Playboy novelist Sebastian Maure falls for Ghirlaine Bellamy, a product of a wealthy--and puritanical--society family, a girl so prim and proper that she's known as "The Blonde Saint." One night at a dinner party, she informs Maure that she is engaged to young Vincent Pamfort and is leaving for England the next day to marry him. Maure tricks her into meeting him on board a boat going to Palermo, and before they get there he suddenly grabs her and jumps overboard. They wind up in a fishing village on a small island and before long find themselves caught up in a cholera epidemic and a local criminal gang.

Dir: Svend Gade

A stern old woman, who owns the largest factory in a small town and has ruled both the factory and the town with an iron hand, finds herself battling with the wife of her nephew, the man she has picked to succeed her.