Hand-Picked Alternatives Movies That Echo the Spirit of Le pied qui...

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 visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Die klugen Frauen perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Simultaneously filmed German language version of the French classic La Kermesse Heroique, in which women of a 17th century Flanders town ,after the men have run off, win over the invading Spanish by collaborating and offering hospitality.

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.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

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

A wealthy Indian jewel merchant and an American woman fall in love, only for her family to stand in their way of getting married.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

A man whose wife has died remarries, and his new wife has a daughter of her own from a previous marriage. The man's young son, however, who loved his mother deeply and misses her terribly, resents his father's new wife, not wanting her to take the place of his beloved mother, and makes life miserable for his new stepsister..

Dir: Jacques Feyder

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

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

Dir: Jacques Feyder

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

After two years as a Czarist British agent posing as a Russian Commissar, he rescues a Russian countess from her Bolshevik captors.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

Willi, a brash young lieutenant in the Austrian Imperial Guard, bent on an evening of pleasure, visits a gambling parlor and house of ill-repute. He meets Laura, a sweet innocent girl and spends the night with her, leaving her money in the morning. Devastated to realize that he found her a mere convenience, she becomes the mistress of Herr Schnabel, an unpleasant but wealthy gentleman. Never quite getting over Laura, Willi is goaded by her into gambling with Schnabel and losing more money to him than he can possibly repay. Laura is unaware that Willi must either pay his debt by the next day or take the only other honorable way out: committing suicide.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

An unhappily married woman is caught up in scandal and murder when her affection toward a young man is misinterpreted.