Frauenopfer (1922)

For some time, an old count has had his eye on the granddaughter of his castle steward. But young Maria is in love with Walter, a young painter who is only moderately talented as an artist. The two marry and have a child. The count, however, will not give up his desire for Maria, and now chooses another way to ingratiate himself with her. Since Walter’s paintings sell very poorly, the count regularly buys up his entire body of work through a front man, giving the young family some financial breathing room. But the old man demands a price for this escape from their money troubles: he wants nothing more and nothing less than Maria’s favors. One day, the count lures Walter away from their town with a bogus commission, so that the old man will finally have a clear path to the newly married mother. Maria is deeply unwilling inwardly, but is nevertheless prepared to give (almost) anything for her husband’s success and their family’s happiness. When the old man harasses her so violently and ungallantly, and Maria recalls her painter husband’s conviction that nothing matters more to him than the truth, she sees no other way out than to seek death by suicide as her personal sacrifice as a woman. Maria chooses a dagger and stabs herself in the heart.