THE GOLEM: HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD
Weimar Republic | 1920 | 86 mins + short | Unrated
“Der Golem comes brimming with a sense of foreboding, of apocalyptic doom, and of impending ‘terrible calamity’” (Anton Bitel, Little White Lies)
Phantasmagorical, mysterious and haunting, THE GOLEM—along with THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI—launched the German Expressionist movement. At 105 years old, its supernatural tale is still spine-tingling. Simply, its essential silent film, essential horror, and all around essential cinema.
Set in the Jewish ghetto of medieval Prague, Rabbi L?w (Albert Steinrück) creates an imposing, creature out of clay, and using sorcery brings it to life to protect the Jewish people from banishment. The Golem, played to great effect by the film’s co-director Paul Wegener is a macabre, complex monster—one which would hugely influence Universal’s FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and Karloff’s iconic monster, and launch the career of legendary cinematographer Karl Freund (Metropolis, Dracula, The Mummy).
Fully titled THE GOLEM: HOW HE CAME INTO THIS WORLD, this was the second attempt of Wegener’s to film the legend—his 1915 version (now lost) had been wrangled from him by the studio. For his update, which effectively functions as a prequel, Wegener sought to authentically depict Jewish folklore as based down by oral tradition—stories he had heard firsthand while filming THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1913). The outcome is the ultimate telling of the chilling legend.
Silent Revue is curated by Alicia Fletcher
Live accompaniment by Tania Gill
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