The Marquis Of O (1976) DVD

This Cannes Grand Prix-winning film was a major departure for the great French director Eric Rohmer, who temporarily abandoned his usual studies of lovelorn and philosophically inclined compatriots in favour of a German-language costume adaptation of a novel by Goethe's contemporary Heinrich von Kleist.

Visually ravishing (it was inspired by 18th-century painting, and the cinematographer is the great Nestor Almendros, who works wonders with candle-light), it tells the story of a widowed noblewoman (Edith Clever) who inadvertently finds herself pregnant two years after her husband's death, a situation guaranteed to inflame the prejudices of the era (not least those of her family) - especially since she genuinely doesn't know who the father is, and has to place a newspaper advertisement inviting him to come forward. Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, Downfall) is the charming Russian count who seems to know more about the marquise's predicament than she herself does.