cinehunch
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
Its stylised German Expressionist world, unstable subjectivity and ominous figure at the story’s centre echo the dreamlike dread and fractured identity of The Student of Prague.
02
Why this pick
Another silent horror landmark that turns bodily identity into a source of elegant, mounting paranoia, with the same period atmosphere and fatalistic intensity.
03
Why this pick
Its supernatural bargain, doomed desire and richly shadowed visual design make it a particularly close companion to Balduin’s tragic encounter with temptation.
04
Why this pick
A nocturnal chamber nightmare built from silhouettes, jealousy and psychological suggestion; it shares the original’s uncanny silent-era visual poetry.
05
Why this pick
For its towering Expressionist sets and folkloric sense that a supernatural intervention brings ruin rather than liberation.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
The film is set in the year 1820 and centers around a student at a university in Prague, Balduin. At a student-led outing to a country inn, Balduin encounters the figure Scapinelli who offers him money "for very low interest." Balduin believes him to be a loan shark and ignores him to go engage in a fencing match with another student. After the match, the viewer sees Scapinelli on a cliffside, watching a young woman (later revealed to be Margit, the daughter of a count) on horseback who is participating in a fox-hunt. He manipulates the situation such that the animals run amok and head towards the inn. Balduin sees Margit on the horse and catches her when she falls off. As a reward, he receives an invitation to her father's house, Count Schwarzenberg. There he becomes aware of his own poverty in comparison to Margit's fiance, who is a baron. Later that night, Scapinelli again comes for Balduin and makes an offer. Balduin signs a contract stipulating that Scapinelli can have anything in the room he wants in return for 600,000 florin. Balduin signs and Scapinelli takes out a small bag and proceeds to pour the entirety of the 600,000 onto the table. Scapinelli then takes his part: Balduin's reflection.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
Balduin, ein Student