Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as The Cigarette: Cult Guide

Dir: Germaine Dulac

Adapted from a play by Romain Coolus, whose work Germaine Dulac had covered as a theater critic at the turn of the century, this atmospheric and socially inquisitive film tells the tale of an independent, sexually liberated woman who is torn between her husband and her lover. Controversial at the time of its release, Antoinette Sabrier finds Dulac using her bold sense of visual rhythm to achieve a complex portrait of a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage and a nuanced investigation into human intimacy, with her characters' emotions expressed through then-innovative cinematic techniques such as slow motion and associative montage.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Étude cinégraphique sur une arabesque perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Visual structure composed of variations on the arabesque: arcs of light, water spouts, spider webs, burgeoning trees, flowers and foliage, a woman's smile, arms stretching, an arm giving rhythm to a rocking chair.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

An avant-garde dance short, integrating slow motion, and cutting between the movements of a ballerina, close-ups of machinery and images of nature.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

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

Coveted by two different men, a woman turns to a third man instead.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

A small town during the 15th century. A band of smugglers settle in the abandoned Grey Tower. At a city auction a mysterious stranger buys the tower. Rumors has he is sent by the devil.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

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

An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

Brazen embrace of fashionable costume and glamour creates a witty celebration of Orientalism and cinema itself.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Le Diable dans la ville perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The only existing cinematographic document about the important bailaora from Barcelona Carmencita García, who performs two dances in front of the audience: "Córdoba", by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, and some sevillanas with castanets.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

A destitute, drunk woman appears to yearn for the life of a streetwalker.

Dir: Germaine Dulac

Obsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.