The Golem - How He Came into the World (1920) Paul Wegener

The Golem - How He Came into the World (Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam) is a 1920 film directed by Paul Wegener: • Paul Wegener
It is the only surviving film from the Golem trilogy, the man of clay, made by Wegener. It is the cinematographic transposition of a story linked to the ancient Jewish legends of Prague and made famous, between 1913 and 1914, by the novel Der Golem by Gustav Meyrink. The director himself played the Golem.
The film tells the story of the Jewish community of Prague around the sixteenth century: accused of making use of black magic, the emperor proclaims an edict that condemns the Jews to leave the city, but the Rabbi manages to convince him to grant them grace by showing them one of his creatures, a clay puppet in which he has managed to instill life. The Golem, however, will rebel against its creator, sowing panic in the ghetto, but will eventually find death at the hands of a little girl.
The Golem was released in German cinemas on October 29, 1920, heralding, with its fantastic themes, excessive acting and distorted scenographies designed by Hans Poelzig, the advent of Expressionism which will begin with the film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920 ) by Robert Wiene: • Video
In fact, Wegener's The Golem cannot be fully defined as an expressionist film, since it lacks its most typical trait: the subjectification of outside space. While in the Caligari the scenographies mirror the distorted minds of the characters, in the architectural structure of the scenography, by Hans Poelzig, it is close to an existing reality and evokes a world destined to revolve all around the golem, which however never becomes the "Golem world": it does not change with the feelings or actions of the protagonist, but remains the reality within which Wegener will masterfully move the crowd of the Jewish ghetto and its characters. In the story we perceive the distant echoes of topics very dear to the 19th century, which had just ended, and we find something of that in Frankenstein of 1910, directed by James Searle Dawley:
• Video and, probably, it could be considered one of the foundations on which the future filmic story of the famous monster in 1931 will be established.
The Golem is a film that talks about the mystery of life, of its being dark and ephemeral, exactly like the shapes of the clay creature: a powerful but empty container, suitable for hosting completely fragile passions and feelings and, perhaps for this very reason, terrifying.
#Wegener #Golem #Expressionism
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