The Student of Prague [DVD] [1927]

Play as rookie dodgeball student, Otto, to dominate on and off the courts

Considered the magnum-opus of filmmaker/screenwriter Henrik Galeen, and featuring actor Conrad Veit in one of his finest performances Student of Prague is considered an important work in German Expressionist cinema. It is also the first to present a dark exploration of the inner realms of the self that would obsess German filmmakers for years to come. The decidedly Faustian tale centers on a student (Veit) who encounters a minion of the devil and in exchange for the love of a woman and wealth, sells him his reflection. The student's mirror image turns into a doppelganger. The student marries a baroness, but his happiness is ruined by his troublesome, malevolent double who destroys his marriage and his life. In hopes of ending the torment, the student tricks the doppelganger back into the mirror and then shoots him. Ironically, it is the student who dies. While the haunting story itself is intriguing, it is film's exquisite production design, careful expressionistic lighting that imbues the film with its moody, humanism.