Der Student von Prag

Plot synopsis:
Being praised as the finest fencer in his University is not enough for Balduin (Paul Wegener). As everyone around him at the University praises him for his accomplishments as a swordsmen and celebrates him, Balduin plants himself on a bench where he can be alone. Scapinelli (John Gottowt) quickly pulls up on his carriage and notices Balduin pouting by himself as the rest of the student body is celebrating and dancing. He sees his opportunity to take advantage of Balduin for his own gain. Scapinelli starts pitching his idea to Balduin. While in negotiations, a mysterious wandering girl (Lyda Salmonova), a lower class women, watches, as Balduin and Scapinelli discuss ways to better Balduin's life. After being very easily convinced, Balduin leads Scapanelli to his home. As they are walking down a road, a young lady, the countess (Grete Berger), gets into an accident. Balduin sees his opportunity to rescue her. He quickly dives into a pond, where she was dumped by an out of control horse, grabs the stunned young lady, and brings her to the shallow. Since he rescues her, she makes him a promise to meet with him again. As soon as the men reach Balduins home, the negotiations begin. Scapanelli pulls a contract out from his coat. The contract states that in return for love and gold Scapanelli may take any one item from Balduins home. To help Balduin make up his mind, Scapanelli pulls out a never-ending bag of gold. The gold flows at an alarming rate out of Scapinellis sleeve, which, much to the amazement of Balduin helps to seal the deal. Agreeing to the seemingly beneficial terms, Balduin signs the contract. Scapinelli immediately goes for what he wants. He walks over to the mirror tat is hanging on the wall, touches up and down the side of the mirror, stunning Balduin, as Scapanelli removes his reflection from the mirror, essentially taking Balduins soul. Despite fearing he has made a big mistake, Balduin makes the best of his newfound wealth. He goes to the local club, drinks, dances, and is courted by women all around him. Balduin is soon called on by the count (Lothar Korner) to have him come to the counts abode. Balduin has a conversation with the countess when he arrives, unknowing that he is being watched by the a wandering girl. As they are talking, the wandering girl has climbed up to the balcony and watches them from behind the pillars and banisters so she can stay hidden. After they both leave, the wandering girl grabs a piece of evidence that Balduin has carelessly left behind. Balduin soon finds himself falling for the countess and attempts to arrange another meeting with her. Balduin is soon faced with the reality of his agreement with Scapinelli, when his double, which looks just like he does, stalks him and interferes with his attempts to impress the countess. As he and the countess, forced to meet in private, are meeting again a graveyard, Balduins double make his presence known. Seeing a double of Balduin frightens the countess and she runs away. Haunted by his own reflection, Balduin struggles to lead a normal life. The wandering girl soon brings to the attention of the counts uncle, Baron Waldis-Schwarzenbrg (Fritz Weidemann), that the countess and Balduin have been meeting in private. She brings the note that she found after Balduin and the countess had met on the balcony and shows him. Angered by this, the count challenges Balduin to a duel. Hearing the rumors of how good Balduin is at sword fighting, he is asked by the Baron to please not kill the count. Balduin agrees not to kill him but his double does not. The next morning, on his way to the duel, he comes in contact with his double again. Noticing the swagger behind the doubles appearance and the cleaning of his sword, Balduin soon realizes that his double killed the count. Completely mortified by this, Balduin runs away and buries himself in bottles of alcohol and his money at the same club he was at before. This time instead of him celebrating his new life, he is watching as the wandering girl and everyone else around him enjoys their night. Realizing he isnt going to get the countess being depressed in the club, Balduin heads to her house. He gets to the outer gate of her house, because there is no way to get through the gate, Balduin is forced to climb over the fence. When he finally makes it over, Balduin is faced with another obstacle; the countess room is not on ground level. Finding a ladder nearby, Balduin scales the wall. He makes it to her balcony and sees her in her room. His plan works and the countess kisses him passionately until the double reappears through the window. Balduin finally loses it and runs all over town, outside of the countess house, up the road, finally to his new home. When he gets into his house he frantically searches for something, finally coming across a gun in one of his drawers. In a desperate attempt to rid himself of this nightmare he pulls the gun out and shoots his reflection. Rejoicing in this victory doesnt last long as Balduin soon realizes he has shot himself. Scapinelli enters and finds Balduin laying dead on the ground. He then begins to dance around and celebrate his conquest over Balduin. He grabs the contract that Balduin had signed earlier rips it up and throws it into the air, smirks, and continues his celebration out the door.

Tags: haunting

Review:
One of the most important artistic movements in the history of cinema was without a doubt German expressionism, the highly atmospheric style of film-making developed during the 20s in Berlin.
Classic movies like "Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari." (1920) and "Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens" (1922) were the most famous direct results of this movement, and while the movement didn't have a long life, its enormous influence over cinema can still be felt today, specially in the horror genre.
One of the key figures of this style would be director Paul Wegener, director of 1920's "Der Golem, Wie Er in die Welt Kam", as in his debut as a filmmaker, seven years before the making of that classic, he was already making experiments with expressionism in film.
That early prototype of German expressionism was incidentally, another horror film: "Der Student Von Prag"."Der Student Von Prag" ("The Student of Prague"), is the story of Balduin (Paul Wegener), a student with the reputation of being the best fencer in Prague, but who always find himself with financial troubles.
Balduin falls immediately in love with her and tries to see her again, but soon he discovers that he'll have to compete with her rich cousin, Graf Von Schwarzenberg (Lothar Körner), who also wants to marry her.
Knowing that he can't offer her much, Balduin wishes to be wealthy, and this is where a sorcerer named Scapinelli (John Gottowt) enters the scene.
Balduin accepts the proposal, only to discover in horror that what Scapinelli wants is his reflection in the mirror.Loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story "William Wilson" and the classic legend of "Faust", the story of "Der Student Von Prag" was conceived by German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers, a master of horror literature and one of the first writers to consider scriptwriting as valid as any other form of literature.
Written at a time where cinema in Germany was still being developed as an art form, "Der Student Von Prag" shows a real willingness to actually use cinema to tell a fully developed story beyond a camera trick or a series of scenes.
Like most of the scriptwriters of his time, Ewers screenplay is still very influenced by theater, although "Der Student Von Prag" begins to move away from that style.
While a bit poor on its character development (specially on the supporting characters), Ewers manages to create an interesting and complex protagonist in the person of Balduin.While "Der Student Von Prag" was Paul Wegener's directorial debut and Stellan Rye's second film as a filmmaker, it's very clear that these two pioneers had a very good idea of what cinema could do when done properly.
Giving great use to Guido Seeber's cinematography, the two young filmmakers create a powerful Gothic atmosphere that forecasts what the German filmmakers of the following decade would do.
Wegener would learn many of the techniques he would employ in his "Golem" series from Seeber and Rye. Despite having very limited resources, Rye and Wegener manage to create an amazing and very convincing (for its time) visual effect for the scenes with Balduin's reflection (played by Wegener too).
Already an experienced stage actor at the time of making this film, Wegener directs the cast with great talent and also attempts to move away from the stagy style of previous filmmakers.As Balduin, Paul Wegener is very effective and probably the best in the movie.
It certainly helps that his character is the only one fully developed by the writer, but one can't deny that Wegener was very good in his role as the poor student who loses more than his mirror reflection in that contract.
Few is said about Scapinelli in the film, but Gottowt makes sure to let us know that he is a force to be feared.
The rest of the main cast is less lucky, with Grete Berger being pretty much average as countess Margit, and Lothar Körner making a poor Graf Von Schwarzenberg.
However, it must be said that Lyda Salmonova was pretty good in her expressive character and Fritz Weidemann made an excellent Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg, showing the dignity that Lörner's character should have had.Considering the movies that were being done in those years in other countries and the fact that its remake (made 13 years after this film) is superior in every possible way, it's not difficult to understand why "Der Student Von Prag" hasn't stood the test of time as well as other early films.
The movie's main problem is definitely its extremely low budget, as it resulted in the film being considerably shorter than what Ewers' story needed to be fully developed.
However, "Der Student Von Prag" is a very interesting early attempt at a complex tale of horror and suspense in film that, while inferior to what other filmmakers were doing at the time, left a powerful impression in history.As the direct predecessor of the German expressionist movement, it's hard to deny the enormous importance that "Der Student Von Prag" has in the history of German cinema, probably in the history of cinema in general.
It may look dated even for its time, but considering the limited resources its director had, it's truly better than most films from that era.
As the movie that started Paul Wegener's career, and with that German expressionism, "Der Student Von Prag" is a must see for everyone interested in this slice of film history.
early silent horror film entertains, but was improved upon by its (also silent) remake.
I think it's possible they also missed some of the intertitles; one of the other users mentions something Balduin says after his reflection is taken that wasn't in the copy I viewed.A renowned fencer asks a man named Scapinelli to procure him a winning lottery ticket, or a woman with a large dowry.
The opening credits indicate Scapinelli is a sorcerer; he isn't used much in this film, and we don't know really anything about him when we first meet him, or what relationship Balduin has with him.
In the remake, Balduin doesn't ask for those things, just wishes for a rich woman (not expecting the wish to come true), and Scapinelli promises to deliver.A rich woman who is riding horses with her fiancé (also her first cousin) falls off her horse into a body of water, and Balduin saves her.
"The Student of Prague" is an early feature-length horror drama or, rather, it is an "autorenfilm" (i.e. an author's film).
Using Alfred de Musset's poem and a story by Edgar Allen Poe, it centers on a doppelgänger theme.Unfortunately, the most cinematic this film gets is the double exposure effects to make Paul Wegener appear twice within scenes.
Film scholar Leon Hunt (printed in "Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative"), however, has made an interesting analysis on this film using framing to amplify the doubles theme: characters being split by left/right, near/far and frontal/diagonal framing of characters and shots.
None of this is unusual for 1913, but there were more advanced pictures in this respect around the same time, including the better parts of "Atlantis" (August Blom, 1913), "Twilight of a Woman's Soul" (Yevgeni Bauer, 1913) and the short films of D.W. Griffith.An expanded universal film vocabulary by 1926 would allow for a superior remake.
I know their world is silent to me, but I assume, with their lips moving and such, that their world would not be silent to them, so how can Lyduschka leer over others' shoulders and not be noticed?Nevertheless, this is one of the most interesting early films conceptually.
Wegener, who seems to have been the primary mind behind it, in addition to playing the lead, would later play the title role and co-direct "The Golem" in 1920--helping to further inaugurate a dark, supernatural thread in German silent cinema.(Note: The first version I viewed was about an hour long (surely not quite complete) and was in poor condition, with faces bleached at times and such.
I've also since seen the Alpha DVD, which, at 41 minutes, is missing footage present in the aforementioned print and also has fewer and very different title cards, but is visually not as bad.
This early version of the tale 'The Student of Prague' was made in Germany in 1913, starring Paul Wegener (who was also in 'The Golem' a few years later).
In this film he plays a dual role (technically impressive for a 95 year old film to see them in the same shot) after meeting a mysterious old man who makes a pact with him for gold - the gold he needs to woo a countess he's previously saved from drowning.Moving at a fast pace (the film runs just over an hour) and fairly well written and characterised, 'The Student of Prague' has echoes of the Faust legend as well as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, starting as it does with a pact with a mysterious figure of potential evil, and developing into good and evil sides of the same person..
This film marks the beginning of the Golden Age of Silent Horror movies emanating from Germany, though its style is not yet what would come to be defined "Expressionist".
I had watched it many years ago on Italian TV and remember liking it quite a bit though, in retrospect, it suffers in comparison with the superior 1926 remake (not least because that one is more than twice its length!); it's still well worth watching and remains full of interest today, also because it led directly to Paul Wegener's trademark role of The Golem in a famous trilogy, which unfortunately is almost impossible to re-evaluate today since only the third entry in the series seems to have survived!
If "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is the father of all horror films (and of German expressionist cinema), this pre-WWI film is the grandfather.
But the scene where the reflection walks out of the mirror still packs a wallop.More interesting for the trends it fortells than for its own sake, The Student of Prague is still worthwhile..
A good film, and one I'll watch a number of times.
In short, very worth a look, but it probably requires more work from contemporary viewers than the original 1913 audience had to put into it.The Alpha Video release touts the new organ score, but the music is not matched to the story progression in any way.
The movie is great in its use of the Prague locations (remember- those were still the days of Austria-Hungary).
Paul Wegener is far away from a modern day movie star, but he was one of the top German theater actors of the days.
The dumb guy agrees and the magician steals the man's reflection out of the mirror--and bad things naturally occur as a result.If this film had been made just a decade later, I am sure I wouldn't have been so charitable in reviewing and scoring this film.
However, when you consider that in 1913 "full-length" films were rare--and often only 20 to 30 minutes long!
Plus, the whole idea of a complex story like you get in this film is very unusual--as stories were very short and broadly acted.
So, given the limitations of the time, this film is pretty good and is one of the earlier horror films known..
Student of Prague, The (1913) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A poor college student (Paul Wegener) falls in love with a rich woman so he makes a deal with a sorcerer.
This is a pretty good horror film that manages to have a few very creepy scenes including the first scene where the soul is taken.
The rest of the film is pretty weak working itself up towards the very good ending.
This is still a very important film for horror fans to seek out.You can check my review of the remake here as well..
The Student of Prague tells the story of young Balduin, a charismatic and devoted "swordsman" who is a bit out his luck in the financials and gets a bit morose as a result.
Along comes creepy old Scapinelli who eventually (20 minutes into the film) strikes a deal with Balduin which grants him anything he wants in exchange for a large sum of gold.
This is the real meat of the story, but unfortunately seems more like a subplot to the romance that too often takes centre stage between Balduin and a rich countess named Margit.
Sure, Paul Wegener's loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's William Wilson is an important one in terms of independent, expressionist cinema, but is it worth watching now?
Predating the German Expressionist movement in film (predating even World War I), this is the granddaddy of them all: the very first full-length horror movie.
From Paul Wegener's haunted, compelling performance as Balduin to the imposing backdrop of Prague with its spectral spires, there is much to appreciate in this film...and on its own terms, not just in its perceptible influence on numerous later productions.
(Those who have seen "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", however, will note the visual debt that film's title villain owes to Scapinelli, the leering, top-hatted sorcerer portrayed by John Gottowt in "The Student of Prague".) A must-see for all students of film history..
A poor student (Paul Wegener) rescues a beautiful countess (Grete Berger) and soon becomes obsessed with her.
A sorcerer (John Gottowt) makes a deal with the young man to give him fabulous wealth and anything he wants, if he will sign his name to a contract.The film is loosely based on "William Wilson", a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, the poem "The December Night" by Alfred de Musset, and Faust.
This is really a great early example of horror literature on screen.Cinematographer Guido Seeber utilized groundbreaking camera tricks to create the effect of the Doppelgänger (mirror double), producing a seamless double exposure.
Hanns Heinz Ewers was a noted writer of horror and fantasy stories whose involvement with the screenplay lent a much needed air of respectability to the fledgling art form..
I liked the concept of the picture, but I got lost a few times in between certain title cards.
This is true about many German expressionist films, and as primitive as this is in expressionist cinema, it counts.
The film "Der Student von Prag", directed by Herr Stellan Rye in the silent year of 1913, is certainly a suitable film for the Schloss theatre.
That's due to the many daring elements that the oeuvre provided this German count.The film has poor commoners, more precisely, a student commoner.
But the most important thing in the picture ( besides the ones mentioned by this Herr Von ) is that the picture deals with the myth of the Doppelgänger, or the vision of the evil side of oneself!.Ah, what a wonderful sinister folklore!!.The film is starred by Herr Paul Wegener who certainly suffered a terrible experience with his Doppelgänger in the city of Prague.
That would be the Golem a screen creature that years later would also use Herr Wegener for his evil deeds.
In this truly fascinating, dark film, a young impoverished student sells his soul to the devil for a lot of money, in return the devil takes his mirror image (this is done brilliantly in the movie and eerily presaged when Balduin, the student is earlier practicing swordsmanship in front of the mirror), a visual metaphor for a "man at war with himself" which portents his immediate future.
Some of the scenes are incredible, the sense of doom when the Devil disappears with Balduin's mirror image is amazing, as is the sense that his pact has forever cut him off from human society (the scene where he runs away from his double and ends up in the 'wasteland' at the edge of the town, no longer entirely human (he has lost his soul) he is like a hunted animal outside of human society.
It helps if you know a bit about German history at the time this film was made and about German doppelganger tradition (don't google it, get a proper book)Just remember, it's a very early film, it's a little clumsy at times, but considering what it has to say and it's tragic finale, it's one of the best ever (yes it Is!).
In watching this film last night, instantly comparisons came to mind with the 1927 version starring Conrad Veidt.Overall, I believe it compares pretty favorably.
A lot of extras were used in this scene.Another thing this one has over the later version is it's better at explaining what's going on.
In one scene, Paul Wegener's double goes to kill the girl's Wegener likes' fiancée and you have a nice title card explaining that.
The later version does not.It's also interesting to see Wegener in his pre-Golem days.
Poor doomed John Gottowot looks much more like an evil presence than the one in the latter version.Wegener's death scene is nowhere near as spectacular as Veidt's in the latter version.
I'll let you see what I'm talking about.Overall, I liked it quite a bit, better than the Veidt version..
"Der Student von Prag" or "The Student of Prague" is a German black-and-white silent film from 1913, so this one is already clearly over a 100 years old.
It is based on a work by Edgar Allen Poe and, like so many other films, includes many references on Goethe's "Faust", when a young man makes a deal with somebody he should have stayed far far away.
And, of course, the deal is about a woman.The movie runs for slightly over 80 minutes, at least in the version I saw, but I see that there are several way shorter versions out there too.
I personally would recommend one of the shorter as I felt this film did not only drag on several occasions despite under 90 minutes runtime, but it also clearly lacked intertitles and would have needed many many more of these to be a rewarding watch, but also to actually let the audience understand what is going on.