Der Student von Prag

I watched Alpha Video's cheap DVD of this. It lacks the original title and inter titles, though some easy to read new inter titles have been added. The musical score is unremarkable, and while called original by the DVD box, seems "canned." Balduin is a poor student, but a great fencer. Apart from that, we don't learn very much about him or what he wants. He is, however, humiliated by his poverty. He wishes perhaps a rich heiress would marry him.

A mephistophelian character named Scarpinetti offers to deliver on that, and in one scene dramatically stands atop a windy hill by a fallen tree gesturing towards a hunting party. They seem to follow his directions, which leads to a rich heiress having trouble with her horse near Balduin, who rescues her.

However, this is just a tease from Scarpinetti. Balduin goes to visit the woman later, taking with him a flower from a poor flower girl (who seems sweet on him). He fidgets with the flower behind his back, and seems to be contemplating giving it to the rich woman, when her fiancé's large flower arrangement arrives. Balduin realizes he needs money to woo this woman (forgetting, seemingly, that he'd wanted a rich woman for money in the first place anyway).

He makes a deal with Scarpinetti: 600,000 pieces of gold (! - error in the intertitle, maybe?) and Scarpinetti gets to take anything he wishes from Balduin's room. He manages to take Balduin's mirror reflection, and while that would seem to be the end of the deal, Scarpinetti still influences events in Balduin's life.

There are some striking scenes in the movie, and some scenes that really drag. One that goes on for a long time is a party after someone had died, and there doesn't seem to be much purpose to it, or at least for it to have been so long.

Balduin's mirror reflection doppelganger doesn't show up much, but figures in more towards the end, which is pretty satisfactory. I'm curious to see the other adaptations of this story now as well.

This is a more elaborate, lavish and altogether satisfactory version of the above, with Conrad Veidt perfectly cast in the lead and with Werner Krauss also making for a menacing Scapinelli. The expressionistic elements are well in evidence here (director Henrik Galeen had written Murnau's NOSFERATU [1922] and, stylistically, the film does bear some resemblance to it): while not quite reaching the heights of, say, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) and NOSFERATU itself, it's very much deserving of the reputation it enjoys in the horror film genre and, despite the shoddy print quality of the Alpha DVD, replete with missing frames (where are Kino when you need them?), I'm truly glad I was given an opportunity to watch this elusive classic from the Silent era after having read so much about it since childhood! Let's hope now that another highly-regarded (and much-filmed) Conrad Veidt vehicle, THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1925), also gets a DVD release soon...

I loved the original 'Der Student von Prag', made in 1913, so obviously I could not resist this remake. The version I watched is the one restored on behalf of the Munich Film Archive. It is almost 2 hours 15 minutes long and has been re-tinted, and the music has been re-recorded if it is not altogether new. All in all the remake is not bad. It has some advantages over the original. Thus, the acting is better throughout, with Conrad Veidt as Balduin and Elizza La Porta as Lyduschka being outstanding. Veidt does much better than Paul Wegener in the 1913-version, and Lyduschka's role has been expanded to such an extent that La Porta had a real chance to show off her talent. The film was her breakthrough perfomance. The scene with the reflection Scapinelli (Werner Krauß) takes from the mirror in Balduin's room is just as as good as in the original, and so is the final scene. Werner Krauß' acting is very good, too. On the downside: The remake is long and the plot does occasionally drag. I also found Veidt looks far too mature to play a student (but that goes for Wegener in the original, too). The tinting. I realise the film was originally shown tinted, but what in other pictures is a beautiful amber here looks like a garish yellow. I disliked the pink used for all interior scenes, too. And finally, the storyline follows that of the original so closely that there are few surprises. All in all, the 1926-version is a competently made film but it is less innovative and exciting than the 1913 'Student'. I am therefore rating it a little lower.

At the least, remakes should allow an opportunity to see the differences in film-making from different periods, and, hopefully, to see the advances made in the years bypast; at best, it displays something new and intelligent to a familiar story. The 1913 version of "The Student of Prague" was a film meant to bring respectability to cinema by adapting popular literature; however, the filmmakers lacked an understanding of their own medium and created a, for then, typically static motion picture. Henrik Galeen made this remake during the maturity of one of the greatest periods of national cinema in the history of the art form.

Obviously, close-ups and medium shots were common by 1926, where there were none in the aforementioned film of 1913. There's scene dissection, some inspired cinematography and editing and expressionistic sets by Hermann Warm, as well. We actually get to see the actors here, and Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss do exceptionally well. The gypsy storyline fits into this version easily.

Cinematographers Günther Krampf and Erich Nitzschmann produced a large shadow of the Devil, which interacts with mass, in one shot; superimpose a saw cutting at Balduin's head in a moment of internal narration; shake the camera for a drunk POV shot; use irises and move the camera during close-ups. The rescue from a horse scene and the haunting finale are the most impressive visually, for the chiaroscuro lighting, special effects and editing. Some shots even seem intentionally reminiscent of the 1913 version. Additionally, the filmmakers were able to punctuate the mirror motif within this film of the doppelgänger thanks to state-of-the-art effects.

I first read about the legendary German silent film THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1926) when I was 15 years old. Now almost 60 years later, I finally got to see it in a restored version from the Munich Film Museum and it has made quite an impression. Of all the legendary German silents, STUDENT is the last one to be released in an updated condition. This is due to the fact it was very difficult to assemble a complete print as the original negative no longer exists. As is often the case with silent movies and especially those from Germany, numerous public domain copies are available which range from poor to unwatchable. Most of the copies of STUDENT run under 90 minutes and some are only about an hour. The MFF version runs 133 minutes and is color tinted.

The plot is a combination of FAUST and Poe's WILLIAM WILSON. Conrad Veidt plays Baldwin, a poor student who falls in love with an upper class girl but doesn't have the money to woo her. He makes a deal with the Devil for wealth but at an unexpected cost. Satan takes Baldwin's mirror reflection as payment. The doppelganger does bad things that the student is blamed for. This leads to a final confrontation. The Devil is played by Veidt's CABINET OF DR CALIGARI co-star Werner Krauss. His appearances are brief, but unforgettable. Elizza La Porta portrays the flower girl whom Baldwin rejects. Director Henrik Galeen, who wrote two other German supernatural classics, NOSFERATU and THE GOLEM, shows that he was just as capable behind the camera.

Like most important films from the Weimar Era, STUDENT is divided into acts as if it were a stage play. There are 7 acts of which two, Acts 3 and 6, linger in the memory long after the movie ends. In Act 3 Baldwin makes his deal with the Devil. The endless stream of money coming from a small coin purse until it overflows the table followed by Baldwin's reflection walking out of the mirror as he stands motionless, is mesmerizing. Act 6 takes place in a tavern where Baldwin has gone after being abandoned by his his friends. He buys drinks for everyone, and they start dancing. Slowly at first, then things get wilder and more diabolical as Baldwin comes to realize that his life is no longer his own and he has no control over what will happen to him next. The tavern scene is my favorite in the movie.

This restoration was done in 1999 and, while not perfect, at least gives us the opportunity to view the complete film in a pretty good condition. The source material was derived from two prints, one from Uruguay, the other from Moscow film archives. The print has been tinted but is oversaturated in places (which can be corrected by decreasing the color on your TV) and comes with a newly composed score from Stephen Horne which was done in 2016. The scoring of the Act 6 party scene is one of the most effective I have ever heard. Although the DVD comes from Germany, it's an all-Region release which means it plays on Region One DVD players without any issues. Hopefully a fully restored Blu-ray edition, including Horne's music, will be ready for the film's 100th anniversary in 2026... For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.