The Golem as he came into the world
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Golem as he came into the world |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1920 |
| length | (1922 m) approx. 87 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Paul Wegener , Carl Boese |
| script | Paul Wegener, Henrik Galeen |
| production |
Paul Davidson for Projektions-AG Union |
| music | Hans Landsberger |
| camera | Karl friend |
| occupation | |
| |
The Golem as He Came into the World is an expressionist German film by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese from 1920. It is Wegener's third adaptation of the Golem motif and after Der Golem (1915) and The Golem and the Dancer (1917) is considered a classic of the German silent film .
action
Prague in the 16th century: Rabbi Löw recognizes from the position of the stars that there is a great danger for the Jewish ghetto . He then decides to bring the golem, an artificial person made of clay, to life. According to ancient Jewish legends, the golem is supposed to ward off disaster. Indeed, the emperor issued a decree against the Jews. These should leave the city. Junker Florian presented the certificate to the Jewish community and Rabbi Löw. On this occasion the Christian Junker and the daughter of Rabbi Löw, named Mirjam, fall in love. Rabbi Löw wants to change the mind of the emperor and writes him a message in which he refers to his services and asks for an audience. This is granted to him during a festival. The rabbi takes the golem with him, and when the imperial castle threatens to collapse due to magical powers, the rabbi can prevent this with the help of the golem. In gratitude, the emperor withdraws the decree against the Jews.
While the rabbi is in the imperial castle, Junker Florian sneaks unrecognized to Mirjam in the rabbi's house. When the rabbi returns to his house, he takes the life-giving star from the golem's chest (against the golem's will), whereupon the golem tips over backwards and remains there. Then the rabbi is called to a thanksgiving ceremony in the temple. The rabbi's assistant notices the Christian intruder, out of jealousy brings the golem back to life and gives him the task of driving the junker away.
In a fight, the golem throws the junker from the roof of the house. Then he sets the house on fire and drags Mirjam away. The golem breaks open the city gate and goes out into the open field. He lifts one of the children who are playing in the meadows up to him. The girl is fascinated by the star on the golem's chest and takes it. The golem then falls lifeless to the ground.
Reviews
"Wegener's film was one of the greatest artistic and business successes of the German silent film production, whose extraordinary image and decor design, determined by Art Nouveau and Expressionism, has lost none of its suggestive effect to this day."
“Famous film adaptation of the Golem by Paul Wegener from the expressionist period of German silent films. The exemplary image design gives the work a high artistic status. A classic that all film art lovers should see. "
Production and reception
The film was shot according to the saga about the Prague Rabbi Judah Löw . The sculptural film architecture by Hans Poelzig and Kurt Richter in the Expressionist style is remarkable . It contributes significantly to the fairytale- romantic overall impression of the film.
The film was shot in 1920 in the Ufa Union studio and on the Ufa open-air site in Berlin-Tempelhof . The world premiere took place on October 29, 1920 in Berlin in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo .
The film was one of the greatest international successes of the German silent film. The film was shown in the United States and even in China in months of sold-out performances.
music
The original music for large orchestra by Hans Landsberger from 1920 was considered lost for decades until Richard Siedhoff rediscovered it in 2018 in the form of a piano direction with fragmentary parts and was able to reconstruct the orchestral version. The world premiere of the reconstructed original score took place on September 3, 2020 in the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar under the direction of the guest conductor Burkhard Götze in a double premiere. The Staatskapelle Weimar played . The music is now published by Ries & Erler , Berlin.
The New York guitarist Gary Lucas composed a new soundtrack for The Golem in 1989. Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the CD Skeleton at the Feast (1990) . A DVD of the silent film backed by a live recording of the soundtrack was self-published in 1999.
The Israeli composer Betty Olivero created a film score for solo clarinet and string quartet in 1998. Under the direction of the silent film specialist and conductor Günter A. Buchwald , the music was premiered in the Wiener Konzerthaus by Giora Feidman and the Arditti String Quartet. With Feidman and Buchwald, more than twenty performances have taken place worldwide since then. A version for solo clarinet and chamber orchestra arranged by Buchwald was premiered on October 2, 2020 at the Odessa Film Festival (Ukraine).
Later versions and restorations
In 2002 the film was broadcast on Arte in a version restored and viraged by the Munich Film Museum , with new music (by Aljoscha Zimmermann ). In 2008, the American musician Frank Black presented a new setting of the film, which he had composed for the San Francisco Film Festival .
In 2018 the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation released a digitally restored version based on the rediscovered original negative, premiered on August 28, 2018 at the 75th Venice International Film Festival. As the Bluray booklet explains, the original negative is unfortunately not complete and many shots have been shortened due to previous cuts. In order to restore the film in good quality, however, the cuts were accepted. The version runs for 76 minutes.
Between 2015 and 2020, the Munich Film Museum restored the film again in comparison with the rediscovered original score. The original negative was used as far as possible. However, abridged scenes have been supplemented with more complete material from other source materials. The most complete restoration to date has a length of 91 minutes and was premiered together with the original music set up by Richard Siedhoff on September 3, 2020 in the German National Theater Weimar . The Staatskapelle Weimar played under the direction of conductor Burkhard Götze.
other
In the animated series "The Simpsons" in the episode "Treehouse of Horror XVII" there is a reference to the film.
DVD
- Paul Wegener's Der Golem, Restored Version with New Music, Transit Classics - Deluxe Edition, 2004
- The Golem as it came into the world, Restored version [DVD, Blu-ray] with three new pieces of music + US version (b / w), Murnau Foundation, 2019
literature
- Ilona Brennicke, Joe Hembus : Classics of the German silent film. 1910–1930 (= Goldmann 10212 Goldmann Magnum. Citadel Filmbücher ). Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-10212-X .
- Elfriede Ledig: Paul Wegener's Golem films in the context of fantastic literature. Basic questions on the genre problem of fantastic storytelling (= discourse film. Library. Vol. 1). Schaudig, Bauer & Ledig, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-926372-51-6 (also: Munich, University, dissertation, 1987).
- Christiane Mückenberger: The Golem as it came into the world. In: Günther Dahlke, Günter Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginning to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 46 ff.
- Matei Chihaia: The Golem Effect. Orientation and fantastic immersion in the age of the cinema (= Machina. Vol. 1). transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1714-6 .
- Noah W. Isenberg : Paul Wegener's “The Golem as He Came into the World” debuts in Berlin. In: Sander L. Gilman , Jack Zipes (Ed.): Yale companion to Jewish writing and thought in German culture 1096–1996. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1997, pp. 384-389
Web links
- The Golem as it came into the world as a complete film in theInternet Archive
- The Golem: How He Came into the world in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The golem as he came into the world at filmportal.de
- Retro-Park - A detailed chapter on the film in the “Document of Horror”, p. 115ff.
- The complete film with Frank Black's score
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Golem as He Came into the World. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Reconstructed music: silent film "Der Golem" in Weimar , article on sueddeutsche.de from August 19, 2020, accessed on October 12, 2020
- ↑ Event information on the performance
- ↑ Information on the composition and excerpts of the film
- ↑ Playlist of the CD with excerpts of the pieces
- ↑ http://www.murnau-stiftung.de/stiftung/projekte/projekt-der-golem-wie-er-die-welt-kam
- ↑ https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/galavorstellung-der-golem-wie-er-in-die-welt-kam.2168.de.html?dram:article_id=426447
- ↑ Features - silent film magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2020 .
- ↑ https://www.richard-siedhoff.de.ralf-siedhoff.de/index.php?id=147
- ↑ Features - silent film magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2020 .