The Golem
The first film based on the successful play by Voskovec and Werich (and of course Meyrink’s novel) was not the well-known The Baker’s Emperor from 1951. Already in the second half of the 1930s, a French co-production, Golem, was made in the Prague studios of Barrandov, which developed this theme. However, unlike the better-known film, the French film emphasises much more the hardships of the Jewish community during the reign of Rudolf II. The Jewish scholar Rabbi Löw created a clay Golem, which he brought to life and which, after his death, became a symbol of protection from pogroms for the oppressed Jews. At the court of Emperor Rudolf II, Chamberlain Lang seeks to gain power through intrigue and therefore seeks out the Golem in the Prague ghetto, where his people are committing violence against the Jewish community.
Le Golem | Drama | Czechoslovakia / France |1936 | 101 min. | Directed by Julien Duvivier | Starring Harry Baur, Roger Karl, Ferdinand Hart, Germaine Aussey, Charles Dorat, Jany Holt