The Marquise of O

The Marquise of O (Die Marquise von O..., 1976) is a German-French historical drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Éric Rohmer adapted Heinrich von Kleist's 1808 novella with deliberate fidelity — the pacing and restraint are Kleist's own, carried into film. Edith Clever plays the Marquise; Bruno Ganz is the Russian Count.

Russian troops take a German city. A count saves the Marquise from soldiers, then leaves. She later discovers she is pregnant and cannot account for it. Her father expels her. With no other recourse, she places a newspaper notice asking the father of her child to come forward.

Rohmer keeps the camera at a distance and lets the worst of what happened stay offscreen — the way Kleist's prose did. The film is a study in guilt and honor, not incident. It claimed the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1976. Stream The Marquise of O (1976) online on iFILM.