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6.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Rabmadár remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Alright, so Rabmadár – that’s ‘Prisoner Number Seven’ in English – is definitely not for everyone. If you’re into older silent films, especially ones that hit you with a big dose of tragedy and melodramatic turns, you might find yourself drawn in. But if you need a story wrapped up neatly, or even a full, uninterrupted film, you're gonna feel a bit let down. This one’s for the folks who appreciate a raw, fragmented peek into a past cinematic world. 🎬
This movie, it’s about a young lady, our 'Prisoner Number Seven.' She ended up in jail because she helped her lover with a robbery. She did it all for him, you know? That kind of devotion. Her only real wish is just to see him again. That’s what drives everything.
She somehow talks this prison doctor into letting her out for an evening. Honestly, who even *does* that? It’s a bit of a stretch, even for a silent film plot. But hey, it moves the story along. You really feel her desperation in those moments, her pleading, just to get this one chance.
So she gets out, right? She’s looking for her sweetheart. And when she finds him, oh boy. It’s not the reunion she dreamed of. He’s there, all slick, getting ready to rob some hotel safe and just disappear. And not with her. With a *new* lover. Ouch. 💔
That scene, when she first sees him with the other woman, it must have been a killer. You can just imagine her face, everything just falling apart. All that hope, all that desperate longing, just gone in an instant. It’s pretty brutal, really.
The film sets up this huge collision of worlds. Her world, inside the prison walls, full of longing. His world, out there, moving on, planning more crimes, and with someone else. It all builds up to this 'fatal accident.' But here's the kicker, the print we have? It’s incomplete.
It cuts off. You don’t get to see the full, brutal impact of that 'fatal accident.' And that’s a tough pill to swallow after all that build-up. It makes you feel like you’ve been told most of a heartbreaking story, but the last few pages are just missing. What exactly happened? We can only guess. It’s like watching The Man Who Could Not Lose and having the last reel just... vanish.
The whole hotel robbery plot almost feels secondary to her personal heartbreak. It’s less about the heist itself and more about the crushing realization of who her lover truly is. He’s not this romantic figure she went to prison for. He’s just a lothario, a guy who uses people and moves on.
The title itself, 'Prisoner Number Seven,' it really sticks with you. It strips her of a name, makes her just a number. It emphasizes her lost identity, her isolation. And that’s a heavy feeling to carry through a film.
Honestly, the incomplete nature of Rabmadár makes it a different kind of watch. You spend half the time absorbed in the raw emotion, and the other half just wishing you had the rest of the story. It leaves you pondering not just the characters' fate, but also the fate of cinema itself, with so many stories lost to time. It’s a stark reminder of what we might never fully see.
IMDb —
1925
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