Have the filmmakers ever seen a film before?

Rating: 1/10 (14 March 2007)

I have never in my life seen such a poor film as this. It's totally clear that the material from this film came from a short story, as there is so little to this movie. The "twist" of the film was something I had taken for granted throughout, as it was so clearly flagged up repeatedly. Anyone with a basic grasp of film vocabulary would never have imagined that an audience could be surprised by the ending. 1) "Will you make me disappear?" at the start of the film, asked so dramatically by Sophie would give the impression that Eisenheim might, when older, be able to make her disappear. 2) The last conversation we see between them is him asking her, very seriously, "Are you SURE you want to disappear?" which again, would suggest he is going to do something dramatic to "disappear" her. 3) We see her "murder" from the servant's point of view, suggesting that we are supposed to consider this purposefully merely from his point of view, for future witnessing purposes. 4) We see Eisenheim discussing A Plan with the same old man who then turns up as the "undertaker", and takes her body away after her "death". 5) The Emperor tells the policeman that he was framed by Eisenheim. Having written all these points down, I'm actually wondering if this film isn't an elaborate joke. A poor, poor show, that everyone involved should be embarrassed about.