The Golem

Paul Wegener's 1915 German film was the first to bring the golem legend to the screen and is now largely lost. The common confusion arises here: Wegener filmed the same legend three times, and what survives complete is Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam from 1920. In this first version the golem is a clay statue created by Rabbi Loew in sixteenth-century Prague to protect the Jews, brought back to life in modern times. What the surviving fragments suggest is that Wegener built the golem not as a monster but as a being left in a world it does not belong to. The film's influence on later horror, particularly the screen depiction of Frankenstein, is large. Because only a few minutes of material and some photographs remain, it can be assessed today as a record rather than a film. Who it's for: viewers interested in early film history, the roots of German expressionism and lost films. Who it's not for: anyone wanting to watch a complete film, or who will find fragmentary material insufficient.