Movie of the Week#6: The Golem (1920), Paul Wegener & Carl Boese

The Golem (Germany, 1920). Directed by Paul Wegener & Carl Boese. Written by Henrik Galeen & Paul Wegener. Cinematography by Karl Freund. Music by Hans Landsberger. Production Design by Hans Poelzig & Kurt Richter. Costume Design by Rochus Gliese. Cast: Paul Wegener, Albert Steinrück, Lyda Salmonova, Ernst Deutsch, Hans Stürm, Max Kronert, Otto Gebühr, Lothar Müthel. 

In Prague, sixteenth century, Rabbi Loew (Steinrück) hereby built a monster, the Golem (Wegener), to stop the persecution that the tyrannical Emperor Luhois (Gebühr) commits the Jewish people. Initially calling for the magic to try to move the court of Jewish suffering, Loew invokes the very destruction of the tyrant's castle, which is only held by the force of the Golem. Loew discovers, however, that the conjunction of the stars will make the monster turns against its creator. His assistant, Famulus (Deutsch), in love with his daughter, Miriam (Salmonova), Count Florian's lover (Müthel), revives the monster to take revenge on Miriam contempt. The monster kills Florian and drags Mirian with himself, destroying everything that lies around him. An innocent child, however, will disarm him.

Fabulous adaptation of the Jewish legend, where the scenery and the expressionist lighting gain contours of great production and transform the sets of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), of Wiene, almost destitute - although perhaps even more suggestive in its basic traits. Many of the elements of later horror films are already present in the work and some of the most influential genre films were certainly influenced by the production of Wegener, even if only in some of its visual motifs - such as the rise of monster, without armrest, which would be used again by Murnau in his Nosferatu (1922) or the hardened way of walk, mummified expression and empathy with children in Frankenstein (1931), by Whale, Not to mention the scenery and some narrative elements that also would become recurrent in genre films. Not only in the horror film the movie influenced - the demon invocation scene again be presented in very similar terms in Faust (1926), byMurnau and the theme of the hero who has only one sore point quite expensive to the tradition of Germanic legends, although in the case here adapted to the monster again be emphasized in the saga of the Nibelungs , by Fritz Lang . Similarly, the contrast between the beauty and the beast will be reworked in King Kong(1933), by Merriam C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack. In narrative terms the film does not impress as much as visually - the secondary love story of Florian for Miriam, albeit rather sexy for North American standards post-Code Hays, does not have anywhere near the same development and attraction that the relationship between the monster and the security of the Jewish people. Politically, although the film apparently is a celebration of Jewish values, one can not but notice the emphasis on Jewish representation as an "other" exotic and full of magic and tricks, the meeting with the synagogue a true Congress of witches. On the other hand, surprisingly it anticipates what will happen in Germany itself just over a decade later. But in any case, what matters is a capacity for the film to impose a difficult task of representing the magical universe, ultimately, a very historical one in which its narrative is developed (as indeed presented in other masterworks of the moment, markedly expressionist or not, such as Caligari and Nosferatu). The implicit eroticism in the figure of the monster himself, who would become one of the characteristics of many of the adaptations that had monstrous figures as protagonists is already present here, as the Golem walks his hands by Miriam body or court women approach him. One of the most interesting scenes is that the visionary Loew presents the scenes of suffering before the Emperor and, in short time, the tragedy becomes comedy for viewers of this precursor film session. Wegener, who also lived himself Golem in his previous adaptations of the legend, 1915 and 1917, respectively, was also the writer of one of the precursors of Expressionism on screen, The Student of Prague (1913). Salmonova, which is present in the four productions, always living the heroine, abandoned film career early, two years after this film. PAGU.85 minutes.

Postado originalmente em português em 07/09/2015