3.0 out of 5 stars
no masterpeice paul, July 18 2004
This review is from: The Student of Prague (DVD)
THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE'is the first manifistation of german expressionist horror in cinema and is thus of more historical importance then artistic.Technically the film is typical of european movies of the pre world war one era before d.w griffith's editing patterns would introduce the montage principal to europe.ALPHA'S print seems to have been duped from an VHS copy and is murky and dark in places and is also missing the final shot of balduin's doppelganger sitting mournfully over his tomb;also the organ score is bloody monotonous;still at the price you cant reallly quibble.Lets hope that image or kino international release a decent copy in the future.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Wegener before the Golem, July 1 2004
This review is from: The Student of Prague (DVD)
I really have to tip my hat to Alpha Video for releasing this beauty of early German cenema. They used a pretty good print and their copy is good.
The "Student of Prague" is a tale of a student/fencing master who sells his soul to the Devil and later must pay the price. The story has been filmed several times but this is the first attempt to capture the story of film and it is a very early effort. On one hand it has the primitive look of movies before about 1920. On the other hand there are great exterior shots and interesting trick photography. In all, keeping in mind that it is a very early film, Paul Wegener did a great job of telling a visually interesting story. I just hope that Alpha video will press on and give us the Conrad Veidt version of "Student of Prague."
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