The Student from Prague (1926)

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Movie
Original title The student from Prague
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1926
length 85 minutes
Rod
Director Henrik Galeen
script Hanns Heinz Ewers
Henrik Galeen
production Henry Sokal for HR Sokal-Film GmbH, Berlin
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Günther Krampf
Erich Nitzschmann
occupation

The Student of Prague is a German horror and fantasy film from 1926. Directed by Henrik Galeen took Conrad Veidt in the title role. It is the second film adaptation of the eponymous horror story by Hans Heinz Ewers .

action

Prague in 1820. Baldwin, an experienced student, is an excellent sword fencer. One fine autumn day the student clique takes a trip into the countryside to stop off at a pub and drink plenty of beer. Also there is Lyduschka, a pretty flower girl who has apparently fallen in love with Baldwin. The goal of the happy group is a tavern in a sleepy village, near a magnificent castle. The Imperial Count von Schwarzenberg resides there with his beautiful daughter Margit. She is engaged to the Baron von Waldis.

When Countess Margit's horse runs away on a hunting trip, Baldwin, who is just leaving the inn, is there and prevents the worst: she falls from her horse and he catches her. Out of gratitude, the fair damsel invited the poor student to the lordly palace. In the face of the abundance and wealth there, Baldwin quickly becomes aware of the poverty of his own existence. Another present took advantage of this knowledge: a certain Scapinelli. The man is considered a usurer and is an obtrusive and obscure existence. Even during the lordly mass ride with the pack of dogs, he was always present at the edge of the action and seemed to control the processes with his sweeping movements in his favor. Now the man with the large mustache and the oversized cylinder on his head makes Baldwin an offer that seems all too tempting to Baldwin: Scapinelli offers him a lot of money, 600,000 florins, if he gives him his reflection in return.

Baldwin strikes and his likeness emerges from the mirror. Baldwin is now a wealthy man, buys a splendid house with servants and develops an intimate love for Margit, which she reciprocates. When he tries to slip her a note at an evening party at which Lyduschka is also present, asking for an intimate rendezvous, Scapinelli's magic falls into the wrong hands: the Lyduschkas. With the help of Scapinelli's shadow, which expands to gigantic size, this note falls from the high balustrade on which the lovers embrace, right in front of her feet. Lyduschka is jealous and tries to torpedo Balduin's romance with her rival by handing the note to Baron Waldis, the young countess' still fiancé, when he goes on his daily ride the next morning. The humiliated man then wants satisfaction. He rides at full gallop on Baldwin, who is lingering at the edge of the field with two student friends, confronts him with the letter and, in anger, hits him in the face with his riding crop. Balduin then sends his two student friends to Waldis to challenge him to a duel with heavy sabers. Her father, who knows how well Baldwin can fight, takes from Baldwin the promise to spare Waldis during the duel.

But he shows up too late at the agreed dueling site because his car broke a wheel on the way there. Baldwin runs through the forest and meets his reflection, which went into the duel for him and stabbed Waldis. Balduin's reflection now becomes his second shadow and follows him everywhere he walks and stands. Balduin's nature changes noticeably for the worse as a result of this constant psychological stress, and soon his friends as well as Margit, who no longer wants to see him, turn away from him. Eventually he is even expelled from the university because of this fatal duel. Now all he has left is Lyduschka, who throws herself on his neck but is repulsed by him in disgust. When Margit realizes in the presence of Baldwin that he no longer has a mirror image, she faints from shock. Baldwin sees only one way out to put an end to this ghost: he has to kill his reflection. Balduin's attempt to kill it with a heavy piece of wood on an avenue on a stormy night fails. He runs away, but his reflection is like a shadow and always sticks to him. Finally there is a showdown in front of the old mirror. Balduin's likeness stands in the mirror and rips open his doublet over his heart. Then Baldwin shoots in the mirror, which then falls apart into pieces. His likeness is gone, but after looking at himself for the last time in a shard of mirror, Baldwin sinks to the ground, fatally hit. The film ends as it began - with a glance at his gravestone: “Here lies Baldwin. He fought with the devil and lost ”.

Production notes

This remake largely followed Ewers' draft script for the original from 1913 . The shooting took place between July and September 1926 in the DLS studios in Berlin-Staaken , the premiere of The Student of Prague was on October 25, 1926 in the Berlin Capitol . The film was first shown in Austria on January 14, 1927. There he also received a sound version, which was shown for the first time in Vienna on July 25, 1930, but never ran in Germany.

The student of Prague was the breakthrough for the up to then hardly known Romanian young actress Elizza La Porta , who was only considered to have extras and played one of the two main female roles here . The young up-and-coming producer Henry R. Sokal was able to land his first success with this film.

Sokal also took over the production management, the film construction comes from Hermann Warm . Erich Kober , who had a small role as a student, served Galeen as its assistant director, his colleague Max Maximilian also seen briefly as a student, in addition, also took over the manager .

Reviews

Willy Haas summed up in Film-Kurier : “Are we really already in the era of reprints and new editions of old films? Have the authors failed so much that one has to go back to the same motives openly? Or is one speculating on film aesthetes who snobbish the film-historical 'écho du temps passé!' fly -: like you collect old Meissner or Rococo furniture? Then this film would be a sad symptom. It is not him. When the first 'Student from Prague' appeared […] it caused a sensational sensation; and yet the time was not yet there to fully survey the genuinely ingenious inspiration behind this subject. […] Today we know what actually shook us so deeply: in films, human identities can be divided. [...] The double tricks are usually excellent; But here too, at particularly difficult points, which are unfortunately also the decisive ones (going out of the mirror, going into the mirror), not the ultimate technical security. [...] The overall impression is magnificent. This film, if any German from this season, deserves a huge audience success. "

Hans Wollenberg judged in the Lichtbild-Bühne : “Henrik Galeen created a work of art that could be decisive for his directorial career. Conrad Veidt gave his best performance for a long time. [...] The plot, as it is represented in the film, still requires a few, not insignificant, cuts. You can do without some song titles: the flute concert, the orgy in the pub and many other things call for the scissors. With a skilful shortening, the film will only gain in effectiveness. This in advance. The substance as such is strong and effective in itself. Hanns Heinz Ewer's script could have accentuated it even more, enhanced it even more. Above all, however, he was able to master the most essential difficulty inherent in this material: the incorporation of the fantastic and the lack of preconditions into a real action. To have solved this main problem of the 'Student of Prague' also in the game of picture composition and game management is a remarkable achievement of Galeen. He creates the fabulously ghostly impact not only through splendidly successful picture moods, not only through the use of film technology, but primarily through the acting. "

In the USA, the film, which was released there under the title “The Man Who Cheated Life” on February 10, 1929, after the dawn of the sound film age, was felt to be quite antiquated at that time. Mordaunt Hall wrote in the February 11, 1929 edition of the New York Times : “It is a relatively antiquated German production with a modicum of interest due to the plot of the story and, to a certain extent, to Conrad Veidt's careful and intelligent interpretation of the leading role. His acting, however, suffers through the technical weakness of pictures of the time. His movements are often too studied or too accelerated. The tale itself is reminiscent of 'The Man Who Lost His Shadow', but it is not so good. In fact one might imagine that the story had been inspired by the former, that is from the way in which it reaches the screen. "

Lotte H. Eisner located in her book "The Demonical Canvas" in "The Student of Prague" a basic mood based on naturalism and romanticism , which, however, could suddenly turn into horror, and also stated "many elements of Expressionism" in this remake .

The lexicon of international films wrote: “Technically more complex than its predecessor and more clearly psychologically motivated in the figure drawing. With rapid fencing scenes and a virtuoso staged chase. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films, 1st year 1929/30. P. 153 (207.30), Berlin 1988
  2. ^ Film-Kurier No. 251 of October 26, 1926
  3. ↑ Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 225, from October 26, 1926
  4. ^ The Student from Prague in New York Times
  5. ↑ Translation: “It is a relatively antiquated German production of a certain minimum interest due to the plot of the story and to a certain extent thanks to Conrad Veidt's careful and intelligent understanding of the main role. However, his acting performance suffers from the technical inadequacies of the films of the time. His movements often seem too rehearsed or too hasty. The story itself is reminiscent of 'The Man Who Lost His Shadow' but isn't that good. In fact, one might believe that the foregoing influenced the story as it appears on screen. "
  6. ↑ The demonic canvas, hrgg. v. Hilmar Hoffmann and Walter Schobert. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 193.
  7. ↑ ibid. P. 326
  8. ^ The Student of Prague in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed October 10, 2013.

literature

  • Leonard Langheinrich Anthos: The student from Prague . In: Hanns Heinz Ewers / Leonard Langheinrich Anthos: The student from Prague . 112 p. With numerous illustrations and the original exposé from 1913. MEDIA Net Edition , Kassel, 2015. ISBN 978-3-939988-30-4 . ( Films to read . 3), pp. 25–90
  • Reinhold Keiner: “The deed that he did not want to commit was committed by the other.” Reflections on Hanns Heinz Ewers and his film and short story The Student of Prague . In: Hanns Heinz Ewers / Leonard Langheinrich Anthos: The student from Prague. 112 p. With numerous illustrations and the original exposé from 1913. MEDIA Net-Edition , Kassel 2015. ISBN 978-3-939988-30-4 . (Films to read. 3). Pp. 7-18.

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