View Single Post
Old 08-24-2006, 06:13 PM   #44
sabotai
General Manager
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Satellite of Love


Der Golem (How He Came Into the World) (1920)
Directed by: Carl Boese
Starring: Paul Wegener, Albert Steinruck, Lyda Salmonova
Length: 85 min


One of the first, if not the first, monster movie that would go on to be the prototype of many other monster films, namely Frankenstein.

In the city of Prague, the jewish ghetto is being evicted. The city just wants all of the jews gone. Rabbi Loew (Albert Steinruck) creates a man made out of clay, called Golem (Paul Wegener), and he comes alive when the Rabbi places an amulet on the creature's chest. The Rabbi created the clay made man to protect the jewish community, and after displaying the Golem's ability to the queen, she decides to reverse her order to evict the jews.

However, Rabbi Loew loses control of the Golem for some astrological reason and it starts to go crazy. Rabbi Loew quickly takes the amulet, however, and all is saved. That is, until Rabbi Loew's assistent, who is in love with the rabbi's daughter (played by Lyda Salmonova), catches the rabbi's hussy daughter being all hussy with another man. The assistant reactivates Golem and leads it to kill the rabbi's daughter's lover. Much insanity ensues. The Golem leaves the city to find children playing, one of them gives Golem a flower (I think). A scene that would be duplicated in countless Frankenstein movies.

Some of the scenes are very Tim Burton-esque, or should I saw Tim Burton's scenes are very German Expressionistic. Not scary by today's standards, but I can imagine the audience in 1920 sitting in the theater, and being scared out of their wits at seeing Paul Wegener's eyes open really wide as he slowly turns towards Albert Steinruck with his hands out. Definitely a different style of filmmaking from that of american film makers of the time. The sets are very interesting, and were definitely left an impression on Tim Burton (or left an impression on someone who influenced Burton). Some of the scenes reminded my of Bettlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, expecially the building architecture.

Unfortunately, as far as historic rating goes, Der Golem (the third or a series of Golem movies and only surviving film of the series) is oftan overshadowed by a film I will get to soon called The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Almost anything that mentions German films from the early 1920s reference Dr. Caligari, along with Metropolis. But, it gets a little bump up as it's obvious that a lot of monster films and film makers were influenced by this series.

This film was pretty entertaining to me, despite the slow pace. Not only were the sets interesting, but the style and techniques were as well. An example would be that so far in movies I have seen on my journey, every fade out meant the scene was over. Every single one. But, in Der Golem, there is a scene where a quick fade out is used when the character covers up one light source, and then quickly fades in when he opens a different light source (the door) and then fades out quickly again as the door is shut. A fade out and then fade in during the same scene. Definitely an interesting scene and one that immediately stuck out as I watched the film, as many more scenes would jump out at me as I watched the movie. A must see for horror movie fans (for historical purposes) and for those who are interested in film making (for technique and style purposes) .

Historical Rating: 6/10
Entertainment Rating: 7/10

Last edited by sabotai : 05-03-2009 at 09:38 PM.
sabotai is offline   Reply With Quote