The Golem

The Golem is a 1920 German silent film written by, directed by, and starring Paul Wegener. Like a lot of German silent films, it's atmospheric, eerie, and haunting. It follows a rabbi in the 1500s who reads a portent in the stars, and in order to protect his people, creates a man out of clay and brings him to life with the dark arts. Needless to say, the Golem rebels and goes on a rampage.

It's a little bit like Frankenstein, but made long before Frankenstein. Wegener's performance as the Golem is a very sympathetic monster. He has a very cold, sad, look in his eyes.

Another interesting thought is the fact that this is a Jewish movie, based on a piece of Jewish folklore, made in Germany before WWII. I also liked the wardrobe. People wear pointy hats in it, like they would have worn in Martin Luther times.

The reason this movie got my attention was actually the score. The version I have doesn't have the typical, public domain piano score that most silent movies are saddled with. Instead, it has an entirely original score by Black Francis, the lead singer of The Pixies, my favorite band. It's pretty awesome. He even wrote lyrics to the songs that match up with the action on the screen. Not like "Now he's picking up the little girl... walking... walking... looking longingly" or something, more like a song that says "something in the stars says that we are through" while the Rabbi is looking through his telescope and telling people of the omen.

This isn't the first silent movie I've seen with a modern soundtrack. I've seen it work to great effect with the band Tortoise accompanying Nosferatu. I would love to see more like this. It's not like the scores we're hearing on these DVDs are the official scores to these silent movies. When they played in theaters, they were often accompanied by a man improvising on the piano based on what he saw happening on the screen. The music that accompanies silent movies on DVDs often doesn't hold my attention, and even some of the best silent movies are very slow paced. A more engaging soundtrack might be just what some of these need.

Even if it didn't have the Black Francis soundtrack, I think I still would have enjoyed The Golem. It's a mesmerizing film. But it was the music that pushed it over the edge for me, it pulled me further into the movie than I think I might otherwise have been with a more typical score. Check it out either way. I'm not sure how available the Black Francis version is, I think you might have to get it off of his website.