{"id":97597,"date":"2014-10-17T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/?p=97597"},"modified":"2021-11-17T10:20:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T18:20:45","slug":"the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2014\/10\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html","title":{"rendered":"<i>The Student of Prague<\/i>: The Very First Independent Film (1913)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"oc-video-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"oc-video-container\">\n\t<span class=\"youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"505\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_pZcy_BmzfA?wmode=transparent&amp;fs=1&amp;hl=en&amp;showsearch=0&amp;rel=0&amp;theme=dark\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<!-- \/oc-video-embed -->\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- \/oc-video-wrapper --><\/p>\n<p>When peo\u00adple talk about \u201cinde\u00adpen\u00addent cin\u00ade\u00adma\u201d today, they seem, as often as not, to talk about a sen\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty \u2014 we all know, on some lev\u00adel, what some\u00adone means when they tell us they \u201clike indie films.\u201d But the term has its roots, of course, not nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly in inde\u00adpen\u00addence of spir\u00adit, but in inde\u00adpen\u00addence from sys\u00adtems. Now that tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy has grant\u00aded all of us&nbsp;the abil\u00adi\u00adty, at least in the\u00ado\u00adry, to make any movie we want, this dis\u00adtinc\u00adtion has lost some of its mean\u00ading, but between about twen\u00adty and eighty years ago, the com\u00admer\u00adcial estab\u00adlish\u00adments con\u00adtrol\u00adling pro\u00adduc\u00adtion, dis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion, and screen\u00ading enjoyed their great\u00adest solid\u00adi\u00adty (and indeed, impen\u00ade\u00adtra\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty). Dur\u00ading that time, mak\u00ading a film inde\u00adpen\u00addent\u00adly meant mak\u00ading a fair\u00adly spe\u00adcif\u00adic, often anti-Hol\u00adly\u00adwood state\u00adment. But what about before then, when the medi\u00adum of cin\u00ade\u00adma itself had yet to take its full shape?<\/p>\n<div class=\"oc-center-da\">\n<div data-fuse=\"22871471544\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>Not only does 1913\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_pZcy_BmzfA\"><i>The Stu\u00addent of Prague<\/i><\/a> offer an enter\u00adtain\u00ading exam\u00adple of inde\u00adpen\u00addent&nbsp;film from an era before even Hol\u00adly\u00adwood had become Hol\u00adly\u00adwood, it has a place in his\u00adto\u00adry as the first inde\u00adpen\u00addent film ever released. Ger\u00adman writer&nbsp;Hanns Heinz Ewers and Dan\u00adish direc\u00adtor Stel\u00adlan Rye (not to men\u00adtion star Paul Wegen\u00ader, he of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2012\/04\/the_pixies_black_francis_creates_soundtrack_for_famous_german_expressionist_film_ithe_golemi.html\">the <em>Golem<\/em> tril\u00ado\u00adgy<\/a>) col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adrat\u00aded to bring to ear\u00adly cin\u00ade\u00admat\u00adic life this 19th-cen\u00adtu\u00adry hor\u00adror sto\u00adry of the tit\u00adu\u00adlar stu\u00addent, a down-at-the-heels bon vivant who, besot\u00adted with a count\u00adess and deter\u00admined to win her by any means nec\u00ades\u00adsary, makes&nbsp;a deal with a dev\u00adil\u00adish sor\u00adcer\u00ader that will ful\u00adfill his every desire. The catch? He sum\u00admons the&nbsp;stu\u00adden\u00adt\u2019s reflec\u00adtion out of the mir\u00adror and into real\u00adi\u00adty. So empow\u00adered, this&nbsp;dop\u00adpel\u00adg\u00e4nger goes around&nbsp;wreak\u00ading hav\u00adoc. Hard\u00adly the osten\u00adsi\u00adbly high-mind\u00aded mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal of \u201cindie film\u201d \u2014 let alone \u201cfor\u00adeign film\u201d \u2014 from the past half-cen\u00adtu\u00adry or so, but&nbsp;<em>The Stu\u00addent of Prague&nbsp;<\/em>treats it with respect, arriv\u00ading at the kind of uncom\u00adpro\u00admis\u00ading end\u00ading that might sur\u00adprise even mod\u00adern audi\u00adences. If you don\u2019t watch it today, keep it book\u00admarked for Hal\u00adloween view\u00ading.<\/p>\n<p>You can find&nbsp;<i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nNCRTR0VJL4\">The Stu\u00addent of Prague<\/a>&nbsp;<\/i>added to our big film col\u00adlec\u00adtion, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openculture.com\/freemoviesonline\">4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas\u00adsics, Indies, Noir, West\u00aderns, Doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtaries &amp; More<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relat\u00aded Con\u00adtent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2012\/04\/the_pixies_black_francis_creates_soundtrack_for_famous_german_expressionist_film_ithe_golemi.html\">Watch the Ger\u00adman Expres\u00adsion\u00adist Film, <em>The Golem<\/em>, with a Sound\u00adtrack by The Pix\u00adies\u2019 Black Fran\u00adcis<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2013\/01\/watch_ihaxani_the_classic_cinematic_study_of_witchcraft_narrated_by_william_s_burroughs_1922.html\">Watch <em>H\u00e4x\u00adan<\/em>, the Clas\u00adsic Cin\u00ade\u00admat\u00adic Study of Witch\u00adcraft Nar\u00adrat\u00aded by William S. Bur\u00adroughs (1922)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2012\/10\/watch_quintessential_vampire_film_nosferatu.html\">Watch the Quin\u00adtes\u00adsen\u00adtial Vam\u00adpire Film <em>Nos\u00adfer\u00adatu<\/em> Free Online as Hal\u00adloween Approach\u00ades<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2011\/08\/metropolis_restored.html\">Fritz Lang\u2019s <em>Metrop\u00ado\u00adlis<\/em>: Uncut &amp; Restored<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2012\/02\/the_power_of_silent_movies_with_ithe_artisti_director_michel_hazanavicius.html\">The Pow\u00ader of Silent Movies, with <em>The Artist<\/em> Direc\u00adtor Michel Haz\u00adanavi\u00adcius<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Col\u00adin Mar\u00adshall hosts and pro\u00adduces <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/\">Note\u00adbook on Cities and Cul\u00adture<\/a> and writes essays on cities, lan\u00adguage, Asia, and men\u2019s style. He\u2019s at work on a book about Los Ange\u00adles, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kcet.org\/socal\/departures\/landofsunshine\/a-los-angeles-primer\/\">A Los Ange\u00adles Primer<\/a>. Fol\u00adlow him on Twit\u00adter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#%21\/colinmarshall\">@colinmarshall<\/a> or on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/colinmarshallessayist\">Face\u00adbook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding: 10px 0\">\n<div class=\"oc-video-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"oc-video-container\">\n\t<span class=\"youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_pZcy_BmzfA?wmode=transparent&amp;fs=1&amp;hl=en&amp;showsearch=0&amp;rel=0&amp;theme=dark\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<!-- \/oc-video-embed -->\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- \/oc-video-wrapper --><\/p><\/div>\n<p>When peo\u00adple talk about \u201cinde\u00adpen\u00addent cin\u00ade\u00adma\u201d today, they seem, as often as not, to talk about a sen\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty \u2014 we all know, on some lev\u00adel, what some\u00adone means when they tell us they \u201clike indie films.\u201d But the term has its roots, of course, not nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly in inde\u00adpen\u00addence of spir\u00adit, but in inde\u00adpen\u00addence from sys\u00adtems. [\u2026]<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Student of Prague: The Very First Independent Film (1913)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2014\/10\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colin Marshall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Colin Marshall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6876a344072c1e9dd894f4044f353ccf\"},\"headline\":\"The Student of Prague: The Very First Independent Film (1913)\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-17T08:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-17T18:20:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html\"},\"wordCount\":461,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Film\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html\",\"name\":\"The Student of Prague: The Very First Independent Film (1913)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-17T08:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-17T18:20:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/the-student-of-prague-the-very-first-independent-film-1913.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Student of Prague: The Very First Independent Film (1913)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.openculture.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Open Culture\",\"description\":\"The best free cultural &amp; 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