The Student of Prague (1913)
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The Student of Prague Movie Review
The Student of Prague is a 1913 German silent horror film directed by and starring Paul Wegener. It is a pretty solid and intriguing, but somewhat disappointing picture.
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“I give to Mr. Scarpinelli the right to take whatever he wants“
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The plot itself is phenomenal and fascinating where a man signs a wrong contract and he begins seeing his double image or doppelganger who torments him. Now obviously the movie is very original not only for its time, but even today as its premise is rather impressive.
But the execution is far from great unfortunately. Yes, the film is intriguing and atmospheric, if rarely truly creepy. It is engaging to watch and mostly very well done across the board, but never executed as greatly as the premise demanded.
My major problem with the film is the lack of intertitles and when the intertitles are there, they are theatrical, meaning that they explain what is going on instead of presenting us dialogue and proper plot progression. Thus the film was filled with too many letters and act transitions and there were too many moments where there was dialogue, but we could not understand what they were saying as there were no intertitles. A very bad choice.
The cinematography is actually fantastic as are the special effects. The Student of Prague looks brilliant for 1913 and it’s truly impressive what they managed to accomplish here. Some sequences with the double are truly astounding and riveting. I also liked the ending and all of the menacing scenes were the highlights.
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Paul Wegener did not deliver a strong acting performance, but as a director he excelled as the direction on this film is very strong and it is so well edited and paced with never a rushed or dull moment. I did find many flaws in this film, but there are also a lot of strengths so it ended up being a solid and impressive at times, if far from truly great cinematic experience. It is more important though as it signaled the arrival of German Expressionism in the early twenties and thus the film should be respected more.
The Student of Prague is a flawed, but frequently intriguing movie with a fantastic, very original premise, but a lack of more intertitles and stronger characterization hurt it in the long run. It looks good, it’s very well directed and some scenes are incredibly advanced for its time, but in the end it’s just solid and not as great as the premise demanded.
