The Marquise of O (1976)

Recommended

West Germany/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Die Marquise von O...

Director: Eric Rohmer

Writers: Eric Rohmer, Heinrich von Kleist

Cinematographer: Néstor Almendros

Cast: Edith Clever, Bruno Ganz, Edda Seippel, Peter Lühr, Otto Sander, Eduard Linkers, Ruth Drexel

Based on Heinrich von Kleist’s 1808 novella, Rohmer’s elegant, cool, and thoroughly captivating period film follows the eponymous widow’s quest – after mysteriously falling pregnant, despite being chaste since her husband’s passing – to find (and possibly marry) her unborn child’s rapist father, much to the chagrin of her disbelieving, position-conscious family. Iain.Stott