Must-Watch List in the Vein of Jettchen Gebert's Story: Cult Guide

Dir: Richard Oswald

In the third part syphilis is also at the center of the action. This time a landowner falls ill. He proves to be a real fiend, tyrannizes his wife and seduces the daughter of the forester he employs. When the young woman thinks she can't find a way out, she seeks suicide. Finally, the despot also dies and, post mortem, takes his son with him into the misfortune. The latter believes that he too is suffering from syphilis and is soon obsessed with this delusion.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Es werde Licht! 2. Teil perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The second syphilis film poses the moral question: namely how far an illness should be considered a human disgrace. The protagonist of this story, a young doctor, believes that only characterless people can contract the disease through reprehensible actions. At a meeting in honor of a venereologist, a violent dispute erupts between the doctor who applies moral categories and a colleague who argues more objectively. Two events make the dogmatic young doctor think: his sister marries a syphilitic who has not yet been completely healed, and he himself falls ill as a result of a kiss from a young woman who also suffers from syphilis. But the doctor is healed and reconsiders his previous attitude.

Dir: Richard Oswald

In ancient, Tsarist Russia. Fyodor Protasov's marriage to his wife Lisa is over. However, the Russian Orthodox Church does not approve of a divorce, and so Protasov fakes his own suicide, before Lisa move in with her lover Viktor Karenin. Fyodor himself becomes a "living corpse".

Dir: Richard Oswald

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

A scholar defends prostitution before the World Court.

Dir: Richard Oswald

In order to win a bet, British gentleman Phileas Fogg attempts to circle the globe in eighty days, along with his French servant, Passepartout. Fogg is wrongly suspected of having robbed the Bank of England and faces the risk of arrest.

Dir: Richard Oswald

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

Paul Mauthner, a painter, has syphilis. A quack who promises a cure cannot help. Paul seduces his brother's wife and infects her with syphilis. While he then flees, the young, infected woman dies of the disease. The daughter born of this liaison, also infected, is admitted to a special clinic and can be cured there.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A variation of the famous Oscar Wilde tale in which Dorian Gray's soul is manifested in a painting instead of his own body.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Around the World in 80 Days perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.

Dir: Richard Oswald

Two male musicians fall in love, but blackmail and scandal makes the affair take a tragic turn.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.