THE GOLEM (Der Golem)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Director: Paul Wegener Writer: Paul Wegener Cast: Paul Wegener, Albert Steinruck, Lyda Salmonova, Ernst Deutsch, Lothar Muthel, Hans Sturm, Otto Gebuhr, Greta Schroeder Theater: Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center, 165 W 65 St. New York.
"They don't make movies like they used to" is a common expression from those who would like to turn back the clock to the glorious days that featured Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo and Veronica Lake. But who among us would return to the age of the silents--the genre that enveloped all films until Al Jolson's voice reverberated on the screen in 1927? While few would be such Luddites, lovers of movies do reserve a proper respect for the masterworks of a quarter- century, and what better way to present a stroke of genius than to add a brilliant new score to a restored print, using not simply a piano but a wonderful chamber orchestra to heighten the tension and elevate the joys? This is exactly what the Film Society of Lincoln Center in collaboration with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has done-- splashing one of the major feats of German expressionism onto the screen of the Walter Reade Theater on February 19th and 20th. The saddest news is that "Der Golem" was featured for three performances only, so that if you were not among the fortunate folks who filled the theater at that time, you're not be likely to catch another magic moment that featured the Arditti String Quarter under Gunter A. Buchwald's direction--highlighting the tones of the world- renowed klezmer clarinet of David Krakauer executing a brand new score by Betty Olivero.
The film has German titles over which English supertitles have been superimposed--word-dubbing that will not make you strain to read as do the conventional white subtitles which become almost invisible against a light background. Paul Wegener's 1920 version, just one of the half-dozen or so on the subject of the golem, is considered the best. We see why. Though much of the film appears dark as though it were a 1940s noir release rather than an expressionist tract from two decades earlier, when the imagery is bold it is electrifying. You won't often find a startling opener even in a modern work with all the technological trimmings as the one that unlocks this story: Rabbi Loew (Albert Steinruck), the religious leader of a community of 16th Century Jews living in a Prague ghetto, stares through his telescope to witness a tragic foreboding. According to the astrological charts, the Jews are about to be victimized by yet another pogrom from the Christian community. They will soon be forced to leave their residence under the orders of Emperor Rudolph (here known as Emperor Luhois and played by Otto Gebuhr), who is about to play some reindeer games with another gathering of the world's most popular scapegoats.
Adapted from old legends, "The Golem" is the story of how the rabbi of a Jewish ghetto threatened by Christian persecution builds and later animates a avenging angel of clay both to scare and to astonish the frivolous court of the emperor. A precursor to the Frankenstein movies, "The Golem" shows that the creature, endowed with human emotions, becomes a steamroller of destruction that threatens the people who created it as well as the enemies of the Jews. The irony of the movie--which concludes with the image of a large Star of David planted in triumph on a principal house of the ghetto--could have led to a new wave of anti-Semitism: the golem had killed a leading Christian noble, the messenger sent by emperor with a proclamation of eviction. After this messenger, Florian (Lothar Muthel), had spent a night of love with the rabbi's daughter Miriam (Lyda Salmonova) who has sneaked him into the ghetto, he is attacked by the woman's boy friend, the personal servant of the rabbi. The servant orders the golem to take care of the matter: Florian is thrown from the roof and killed. The one scene in the movie that resonates for a contemporary audience involves the rabbis's summoning of an evil spirit just when the stars are in the proper position in order to find the magic word that would turn his inanimate creature into claymation. The appearance of the evil sorceror brings to mind all the current techniques of horror and vampire movies like the "Alien" series and "From Dusk Till Dawn."
This film, which would be a particular treat for those who have never seen a silent (especially one with the live music of a world-famous chamber orchestra), features stereotypical characters and emotions with which we're all familiar. The principal source of laughter from a modern audience is the theatrical emotions on the faces of the characters. When they are frightened they open their mouths real wide and tilt their bodies back in horror. When they are overwhelmed by passion, they put the backs of their hands on the foreheads and lean back as though carried away by a giant wave. Lyda Salmonova as the fair maiden-of-the-one-night-stand could easily pass for an American flapper of the 1920s. Director Paul Wegener as the titled character is scary only in his height. Otherwise he is a benign character who gets angry only when someone tries to kill him by tearing from his chest the magic word that has animated him.
Even if you do not go for contemporary music, you're bound to find the tones of the Arditti string quartet apropos in conjuring up tension and joy and alike, and David Krakauer's klezmer clarinet would be the envy of everyone from Benny Goodman to Woody Allen.
"The Golem," then, is a major work from the German expressionist school of filmmaking, the genre described by Matt Zoller Seitz in the 2/16/00 issue of The New York Press as having "dead-soaked subject matter, high-contrast imagery, skewed angles and dream logic." The techniques have been superseded by the gross-out horror animation of recent times, the ones featuring aliens springing from people's stomachs and metamorphisizing into squishy things that couldn't scare a 5-year-old. Wes Craven could take some clues from Paul Wegener's concepts. The "Scream" trilogy would have become a work of real depth, meaning, and fright and instead of a banal exercise in adolescent angst.
Not Rated. Running Time: 78 minutes. (C) 2000 Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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