Genuine (1920)

Original title

Genuine, die Tragödie eines seltsamen Hauses

Directed by

Robert Wiene

Genre

horror film, silent film, vampire film

Country

Germany

Runtime

1h 28m

Rating

5.6 of 10 from 46 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man falls asleep reading a scary book and dreams about a strange house. In the dream, a woman called Genuine uses seduction to control the men who desire her.

surrealdreamlikemelodramaticunsettlingtheatricalslow-pacedbizarreoverwrought

What happens

Genuine (original German title: Genuine, die Tragödie eines seltsamen Hauses; literally: Genuine, the tragedy of a strange house) is a 1920 German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene. It was also released as Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire. Director Wiene created Genuine as a follow-up to his massively successful film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, using the same writer and cinematographer who had worked on the earlier film. Production designer Cesar Klein even returned to contribute his bizarre Caligari-like imagery to the film. The film's eponymous character, Genuine, is not actually a vampire, but rather a "vamp" (succubus) who uses her powers of seduction to torment and control the men who love her. The plot utilizes the it was all just a dream-type ending, as the proceedings are revealed to be a dream suffered by a man who falls asleep while reading a scary book. The film did not do well at the box office, but Wiene returned to form with his 1924 opus The Hands of Orlac. Genuine was edited down into a 43-minute condensed version, which is the cut that has been most commonly available. The complete film is available on YouTube. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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