Der Golem [1920]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
A relic certainly, but a fascinating one, Der Golem is perhaps the screen's first great monster movie. Though it was actually the third time director-star Paul Wegener had played the eponymous creation, the earlier efforts (sadly lost) were rough drafts for this elaborate dramatisation of the Jewish legend. When the Emperor decrees that the Jews of mediaeval Prague should be evicted from the ghetto, a mystical rabbi creates a clay giant and summons the demon Astaroth who breathes out in smoky letters the magic word that will animate the golem. Intended as a protector and avenger, the golem is twisted by the machinations of a lovelorn assistant and, like many a monster to come, runs riot, terrorising guilty and innocent alike until a little girl innocently ends his rampage. Wegener's golem is an impressively solid figure, the Frankenstein monster with a slightly comical girly clay-wig. The wonderfully grotesque Prague sets and the alchemical atmosphere remain potent.

On the DVD: Der Golem on disc has an imaginative menu involving the rabbi opening a book of spells that leads to alternate versions of the film with German or English inter-titles. The print is cobbled from several sources and tinted to the original specifications, with an especially impressive crimson glow as the ghetto burns. The extras are an audio essay, illustrated with clips, on Der Golem and German Expressionist cinema in general, plus a gallery of stills and other illustrations. --Kim Newman

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Customer reviews

review by: loupgarou date: 2005-09-13 rating:
A Mystical Legend Brought to Life
I have read so much on the internet that places this film in the context of Weimar Germany in the period that led up to National Socialism and the Nazi's crimes of genocide against the Jews, that when I watched it for the first time it was hard to suspend that thought in the back of my mind, especially when absorbed in the flaming ghetto scenes and when contemplating the pseudo-scientific, bio-political or techno-political overtones of the Golem's fabrication and deployment. On subsequent viewings I successfully put these ideas out of action and managed to submerge myself more fully into those other contexts, the eschatological plight of the Jewish faith per se, and the rich mystical heritage of the Prague Kabbalists. It is on that basis, that of losing myself in the film, of entering its silence, that I felt able to review the film. Not looking back in commemoration of a single historical confluence it may or may not have anticipated, but of what it, in the innocence of story-telling, brought to bear on mystical history as such, and through the vehicle of expressionism.

Sometimes Expressionism gets accounted for as an attempt merely to disturb or dislocate by defamiliarisation or alienation of familiar forms, typically architectural and postural/gestural exaggeration. But besides this (to me) rather redundant and self-qualifying aesthetic interpretation, it is also in my opinion more honest to say that Expressionism tries to capture an external representation of what is felt and realised, what is at bottom experienced, internally and viscerally, throwing into question - and into mystery - any idea of a normative, "objectivistic" conception of community life. The organic, labyrinthine set design places us within this everyday mystery, both concealing and revealing the players, and serving as a visual metaphor for the twisting, torsional, branching fate of a private gated community confronted with an intolerant and puerile imperial context that wants to amuse itself with open spectatorship. Politically, the gothic, ogival complex of the Jewish ghetto, crisscrossing itself and interwoven with rough, laureate, almost sylvan ornamentation sets a mood of nature and innocence that the more rectilinear and finer imperial settings threaten to interfere with and expel.

Trapped in the intricacies of their own law, the Prague Jews look to their elders, one of whom, in accordance with the entire labyrinthine theme, produces in secrecy a Golem, commanding the assistance of ashteroth. Intended as the guardian of the people, a noble servant, the Golem (played by director/actor Paul Wegener with a stultifying array of facial expressions) is a creature of clay given animation by the Shem, the mystical inscription of a secret word in a symbol placed on its chest. The price of the Golem's docile loyalty soon begins to betray itself, when at the Emperor's rose festival the scent of a flower and the interest of young women arouse a more human, rebellious, almost adolescent nature. Despite the (hesitant) rescue of the emperor and his court from their own effete follies, earning the Jewish people a pardon, the Golem remains as an impassive presence, its internal seething captured for our perception only in its diverse facial contortions and menacing glowers. As Uranus comes to eclipse Venus in astrological significance, and as the Golem's masters involve it in more and more emotionally complex errands, this nature becomes more and more evident, with feral facial performances by Wegener showing a nonheritable "rage to live", a different sense of nobility altogether, emerging in the Golem: its increasing resistance to human control and refusal to be "put to sleep". In the end the Golem, after having bust the gates of the community wide open, revealing the true "interior" of the film's labyrinths, is only overpowered by the powerless innocence of childhood, in the absence of suspicion or mercenary motives. In the mole-tunnels of the film a subtext is at work, setting the wisdom and laws of elders and imperial court rulers against a more fragile wisdom of naivety, curiosity, and play. This staple innocence of the mystical tradition redeems itself subtlety, almost obliquely and inconsequentially, possibilising those deep moral meditations that a good story always makes available for an open and involved mind.

Many of the stylistic and narrative precedents for later gothic expressionism (and indeed cinema in general) are found here - moods are indicated by score and liberal use of tinting, lighting, gesture, etc. In fact in the absence of dialogue (the film is of course a "silent") and a minimum of inter-titles, this is almost a film about how to make a "film", or, if you like, about the creation of filmic humunculii.

The film is only slightly marred by the psychology of its era, in which the women appears as a foil for the easily-swayed, swooning and fainting hysterical shadow of the bold resolute man - but this trend is also at the same time undermined by the effete, craven, decadent, and vaguely camp male characters of empire, the desperation and fervour of the rabbi Low trying to fulfil the expectations of his people, and the astonished, puzzled, horror and affectionateness of his assistant.

Prior to watching this, it had been a while since I had seen a silent movie, and this film has really sparked off a liking for them. The power of the silent film today seems to me to be in revealing the wordlessness of our contemporary era, its global network of intercommunications amounting to the incessant drone of spoken silence, whilst shedding light on the ability to communicate affections and meanings as originating on that more visceral, moody level that expressionism fully exploited without constant verbiage and exposition.

Included on my DVD were the original German inter-titles available through selecting an alternative angle, a gallery of publicity material, related photography and illustrations (including some from Meyrink's novel), and a simplistic but pleasing essay on the stylistic features of German Expressionism. The navigation menus are very much in keeping with the film and its reference to secret texts being read in half-light, half-underground settings; practises half-legal, half an aberration of any law: humanity.

This, Wegener's third attempt at the Golem (the first being lost and the second apparently being a send-up) is a true masterpiece, a landmark film that has retained its relevance throughout the maze of 20th century history.


review by: date: 2004-04-28 rating:
An eerie classic
The Golem may be less familiar than those other Expressionist classics,Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, but the scale and imaginationevident in the film more than compensate. The impressive sets and make-upas well as the unusually effective acting bring to life this eerilyprophetic tale of oppressed Jews in 16th Century Europe. A rabbiinterprets signs from the stars which warn of a pogrom in the ghetto. Using ancient Jewish powers, he animates a man of clay to protect theJews, only to find that he cannot remain in control over his creation.
Though the film stands well enough on its own, it is also fascinating froma historical perspective. Made in 1920, it pre-dates the worst of theHolocaust by under twenty years, and by referring to the historicalreality of the pogroms reinforces the fact that the ethnic exterminationof the 20th Century is, depressingly, unusual only in scale. However, theDVD extras concentrate on The Golem's place in German Expressionism. Inan interesting though rather short documentary, the main themes andimagery of Expressionism are linked to German literature. The Golem'sdesign is shown to be at least partly the inspiration for James Whales'version of Frankenstein. I would add that certain classic Gothic/horrormyths are established in the film, such as the need to use certain ancientwords to control the creature (similar to those memorably screwed up byAsh in Army of Darkness). For this reason The Golem is essential viewingnot only for those interested in early cinema, but for those who want tosee where modern horror began.

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