In July, I’ll accompany the 1920 German silent film The Golem twice. On Tuesday, July 16, I’ll livestream it with keyboard accompaniment on YouTube at 8 PM Eastern Time. On Friday, July 26, I’ll accompany it live at the Plaistow Public Library at 1 PM. Watch both if you like; you’ll hear it accompanied two different ways. Please “like” the YouTube item if you’re inclined to give it a boost; that will make it more discoverable.
This is the third Golem movie that Paul Wegener made and the only one that survives. Its full title is Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam (The Golem: How he came into the world). Unlike the others, it deals directly with the legend of Rabbi Löw’s creation of a golem to protect the Jewish people.
Rabbi Judah Löw ben Bezalel was a real person, a highly regarded Jewish scholar who lived in Prague during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The story is that he created a golem to defend the Jews of the Prague Ghetto. A piece of paper with a holy word, usually a name of God, was inserted into the humanoid figure to activate it and removed to shut it down. The legends often mention persecution or expulsion of the Jews under Rudolf II as the issue, though Rudolf was relatively tolerant as Holy Roman Emperors went.
The movie takes liberties with this story. It has Rabbi Löw use demonic assistance to get the word that will activate the golem. This later makes the golem dangerous and uncontrollable. That difference understandably upsets people. Still, given that it’s a movie from Germany in 1920, it deserves recognition for calling attention to the history of Jewish persecution. Prague had a thriving Jewish community until the Nazis took over, in spite of repeated expulsions. Today Prague has less than 2,000 Jews out of a population of about 1.3 million. As with all century-old films, we have to remember their historical context.
Take a look, if you like, at this review by “Rabbi at the Movies”, for the reactions of someone who has an inside view of Judaism that I don’t.
Looking at the movie from the accompanist’s standpoint, I want to give the music a certain flavor of Yiddish folk music. I’ll quote some tunes but use them lightly. More often I’ll use rhythms and scales that suggest the style. Each movie requires a distinctive approach, and I’ll do my best to give The Golem a treatment that fits its story and background.
When I get feedback, I consider ways to improve the show. A viewer came in during the “show starting soon” section and thought his screen was frozen. For next time, I’m adding a countdown timer. It’s a kludge, just a video of a five-minute countdown that I found on YouTube, but it will serve the purpose. If there’s anything you can think of that will make the show better, let me know. I can’t guarantee I’ll do it, but knowing someone wants it improves the odds.