Geek Channel 8 - Der Golem

Kino joins Eric and Will for a look at the 1920 German Expressionist masterpiece, Der Golem!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back to Geek Channel eight.
I'm Eric. I'm well.
Today on the show, we're going to betalking about another silent
proto horror film, Der Gollum from 1920.

(00:23):
I'm eating this pastrythat my neighbor made.
just, like, infused with ginger.
My beautiful little, layers.
He made this for me for my birthday.
Was super cool.
Happy birthday, by the way.
Thank you.
I am literally like, the
the the old neighbor next door, like,his kids made me stuff.
And it was.

(00:43):
It's kind of awesome. So.
You know.
I, I do, I plant like, berry bushesto feed the neighborhood kids.
all basically is almost on us.
So I'm like geeking out on my gardenand like, making plans for,
you know, fall gardenand in the spring and everything else.
This is what I do now.

(01:05):
I mean, even when I'm playing D&D, I'mlike, oh, yeah, I got to play through it.
Just got to
So joining us again this week isthe director of such films as Gone
with the dead and music videos for gothand industrial bands like Angel spit.
She's also an avid equestrian and renowned
sideshow performerunder the name Kenobi Demented.

(01:26):
For welcoming back Kino McFarland.
Hello.
Thanks for joining us again.
this film came out in 1920.
So let me give you a backgroundto the year leading up to the release
of this film.
Turbulent time in November of 1919,November 11th,
the Treaty of Versailles is ratifiedby the German National Assembly in Weimar,

(01:51):
ending World War One for Germany
December 2nd of 1919 Canadian theater
magnate AmbroseSmall disappears from his Toronto office.
His unsolved disappearanceand the missing $1.7 million.
Think of this $1.7 million in 1919.

(02:13):
In theater proceeds, sales
become one of North America'smost notorious
theatrical mysteries.
January 15th, 1920
German Foreign Minister WalterSimons presents the Weimar Republic
diplomatic positionat the Paris Peace Conference.
February 26th of 1920The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.

(02:37):
Directed by Robert Vine,premieres in German cinemas.
It's a foundational workof German Expressionism, and it sort of
shaped the visual language of the horrorfilm.
March 26th of 1920
F Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel,This Side of Paradise, is published
by Scribner's, becomesbest seller and launches

(02:59):
Fitzgerald as, major voice of the postwargeneration.
April 13th, 1920 Vienna's de
action, action, action!
Not sure if I'm pronouncing it right.
Publishes a special issue on the uncannyand the supernatural, spotlighting writers

(03:19):
whose expressionist and weird themes
helpedshape Central European horror, esthetics.
May 26th, 1920
Thomas Massac
is formally approvedas President of Czechoslovakia
at the opening of the first electedparliament of the Czechoslovak Republic.

(03:41):
June 4th 1920The League of Nations convenes
its first assembly in Geneva,addressing postwar diplomacy,
minority protections and disputesshaping Central Europe.
July 26th of 1920The Boston Post publishes
the first investigative reportexposing Charles Ponzi
securities Exchange Company,launching the scandal that coined the term

(04:04):
Ponzi schemeand fueling sensational press coverage.
man. Some things never change, right?
August 16th, 1920Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is
struck in the head by a pitch from Yankeespitcher Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds.
Chapman dies the next day,the only player in major league history

(04:25):
killed by a pitch. Oh my God!
That means
that that other onesmight have been killed
by other things Other things,but by a pitch.
This is the only guy.
September 30th of 1920 Thomas Edison
reveals in American Magazine that he'sworking on a device to communicate

(04:46):
with the dead, saying, quote, for my part,I am inclined to believe
that our personality hereafterwill be able to affect matter,
unquote.
October 29th of 1920.
The Golem or its full title
gurgle on the air in the velt.
Com I think is how you say it again.

(05:09):
Pronunciationsnot our specialty on this show.
It premieres at Hoover Palace.
Zoo in Berlin.
The full title in English is The GolemHow He Came into the world,
and it's oftenjust shortened to the Golem.
But why?
This was actually a pre, prequelfor another film.

(05:29):
That was called The Golem. Yeah. Which is.
Last year. It's a silent horror film.
It's a leading example of earlyGerman expressionism director Paul Wagner,
who was not Jewish, co-directedthe film with Carl Bowes
and co-wrote the scriptwith Heinrich Guerlain.
Based on Gustaf Marin's 1915 novel.

(05:52):
By the way,they were all Jewish. All the people were.
Oh, the rest of them were Jewish.
Wagner stars as the golem,the clay figure of Jewish folklore.
And, the cinematographer Carl Friend
later worked on the universal horrorfilms, in Hollywood.
in fact, he was the cinematographerof Dracula and the director of The Mummy,

(06:12):
Golem, or How He Came to Be in
the world is the third of three filmsWagner made featuring the Golem.
The earlier two are The Golem in 1915,and a short comedy called The Golem
and the Dancing Girl in 1917,and then the 1920 film
is a prequel to the 1915 version,which he was never fully happy with.

(06:37):
The 1915 version.
he had to make too many productioncompromises in 1915, so his 1920
attempt was meant to more directly conveythe legend as he heard it.
He heard this legend when he was in Praguewhile filming
an earlier film in 1913,The Student of Prague.
So while he was there filming this film,he heard these Jewish folk tales
and decided he was going to make a filmabout that took him,

(06:59):
a couple of years, but he did.
The cast has Albert Steinberg
as Rabbi Lowe, Paul Wagner as the Gollum,
Linda Solomon Nova as Miriam,
Ernst Deutschas Lou's assistant, and Lothar
Yucel as Squire Florian
It was one of the most successful GermanSeries is produced during World War One.

(07:22):
The Berlinpremiere played to sold out houses,
and on October 29th, 1920,
it started its run and ran for weeks.
It first reached American audiencesin 1921
at New York's Criterion Theaterwhere it ran for 16 consecutive weeks,
and it proved to be the longestrunning movie in the criterion that year,

(07:44):
and it spawned a short lived Golem cult,
basically a trend of Golemrelated media and adaptations at the time.
Wow. It's the only movie in Wagner's
Golem trilogy that survived World War Two.
The other ones are lost.
It was first restored in 1977
and Willem I's lifetime in Germany.

(08:06):
Were you alive at the time? Kino?
in 2000,
a second restoration was carried outby Cinematheque del comune de Bologna
at the machinery Trovatore laboratories.
Sorry, Italians, I'm bad at pronouncing itin your language.

(08:27):
Pronounce the any.
Pronouncing your language.
English to.
The versions based on an export
print transferred at 20 frames per second.
So it runs about 85 minutes,with the original tinting intact
and an ensemble scoreby all Yoshua Zimmermann.

(08:48):
And that restoration has been restoredto DVD and Germany
and the UK and France and Spain, the US.
But then a thirdfully digital restoration, this time
based on the original domestic negative,was completed by Friedrich Wilhelm
Murnau Foundation in 2017.
It was given three unique scoresand released on Blu ray and DVD

(09:10):
in Germany in 2019 and the UK in 2019,and released in the US in 2020.
This is what I mean about how, like,you got to go back and rewatch
some of these films sometimesbecause there's there's just new stuff
the film was first accompanied on releaseby a score
from a German Jewish composer,Hans Landsberg.

(09:32):
His original score was considered lost
for decadesuntil it was rediscovered in 2018.
It was reconstructed and orchestrated,and the reconstruction
premiered in Weimar in September of 2020.
The New York Times1921 review praised its exceptional acting
and expressive settings,and compared the settings to those

(09:52):
in other early German Expressionist filmslike The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.
Modern critics and historians continueto admire the film.
Leonard Maltin gives The Golem threeand a half out of four stars, calling it
a chilling, visually dazzlingstory of the supernatural.
Based on a famous Jewishfolk tale of the 16th century
and a classic of German Expressionistcinema.

(10:14):
Maltin also noted the film was a forerunner to the 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein.
British critic
Leslie Hollowell awarded it 3 or 4 stars,saying, quote,
there were several versions of the story,but this is almost certainly the best.
It's splendid sets, performancesand certain scenes are being clearly
influential on later Hollywood films,especially Frankenstein, unquote, that is.

(10:38):
Schwartz rated ita B-plus, praising its powerful visuals.
Schwartz wrote, quote, A landmark of earlyGerman Expressionism
is through the striking black and whiteGerman Expressionism photography of Carl.
Frightened that the film displayedits unusual feel for the macabre
and might be considered a precursorto the Frankenstein horror films,

(10:58):
and how horror films were to be madefrom now on, unquote.
So in the years since its rediscovery,The Golem has been considered
an early classic in horror cinema,and one of the films
to introducethe concept of the man made monster.
Rotten tomatoes gives it an approvalrating of 100%
based on 30 reviews,with an average rating of 7.85 out of ten.

(11:21):
It's listed in 101 Horror FilmsYou Must See before You Die,
and I think that's basically itfor the background.
All. Of them.
All the time is now.
The time is here.
Now's the time to cheer.

(11:43):
Take the life where the price is right.
But if you're here. You take the side.
At the moment 24 piece of candy.
Just name your brand.
They're also brand name.
What do you think of a nice cool drink?
Are they still buying the popcorn brand?
Let's start with my speed break.
Get yourself a time to eat.
So come on, folks, let's join the band,as we all have for the refreshments back.

(12:08):
Okay, these are really
old films,And then they were set even older.
Some of them what I want was the feelingof Europe before other influences.
And. Wait, this is all about, archetypes,that were very European,
Europe being very in itself.
But that comes all comes down to somethingvery basic, which you would say,

(12:29):
oh, well, that's just normal.
And it's not exoticto, it's not new or different,
but it's actually is transformed overtime.
Chicken soup.
Chicken soup is a, staple.
You do know that we have a vegetarianin the room, right?
actually Vegan.
Actually, Vegan. Okay. out further.

(12:50):
Okay. So but all fairness,
we're going to be talking a lotactually about the vegetables.
sometimeswhen you say you're going to say,
well yeah you'd have rice or noodles.
Well now that's not what we're looking at.
I specifically it was, 14th century PragueI'm looking at that.
Right. That's what inspired me.
and actually, you can golook and find a good chicken soup,
recipe from, you know, 14th century,

(13:11):
not from Prague, but, you know, it's,you know, it's, a Jewish chicken soup.
But the problem is, and this is trueacross Europe, they almost
always are going to include potatoes,which weren't there.
They didn't have them yet.
Okay. So you got your you not step back.
Well, what would they haveand what did they have.
You're still doing a thingwhere you're saying, what do we have?
How can we make this last?

(13:33):
What can we do to spread this out?
And it's instead, before potatoes,of course, it was lots of things.
Like grains. But grains, of course.
To me, the
basic recipe is going to be,
beans.
Okay.
Lentils, grains, barley in particular.

(13:55):
You how your meat.
This is a slow cooked, stew.
The ideal meat.
Beg pardon, but is goose.
goose was a common animal,
they used, because the fat was so tastyand there was a lot of it.
Just a side note, geese, primarily,they're grazers.
They don't have to eat high value foods.

(14:16):
They can eat grass and then turn thatinto something humans can eat.
So honestly,a goose herd was a common, job.
you give to a young personbecause they would raise a lot guys.
Obviously today, goose is very expensive.
You wouldn't want to do that.
And I will give you
an alternative in terms of,if you wanted to do a, vegan version.

(14:37):
in my opinion, the tastiest.
Way to do a vegan thing would be you.
You're going to wantto have onions in this anyway.
Onions were somethingthat were commonly available.
You're going to want to have your garlicokay.
Those are already there.
So the vegan version that would be best
is if you can get,
some date palm oil because that's probablythe tastiest vegan oil.

(14:59):
You could use that.
You probably already knoweverybody on this already knows that date.
Palm oil wrecks the environment.
This meat.
So it let's take a step back from thatand we'll just say labeling.
Maybe not do that.
Okay. What if you don't want to do that?
There's always alternatives I really likefor it's a totally change of taste.

(15:22):
But I really like a, sesame seed oil.
Okay.
people think canola is a new oil.
It's not, it's an old oil.
It's been used for a long time.
There are always alternatives.
the only real spice I would say to addthat is, you know, specifically not salt,
not pepper, not garlic, not onions,it's turmeric that really brings it out.

(15:42):
it has a certain flavor and taste.
If you're familiar with turmeric,it's a sort of a drying herb.
It has a lot of,what is that, like the, the,
same thing, like,
as tea or coffee on the tongue,
Yeah. The tannins.
Yeah, but it does give you a sort of arichness that you wouldn't have otherwise.
Now, specifically,this is a soup that you would slow cook.

(16:04):
So for me I would start with the onionsand the garlic.
and then some carrotsbecause those are available
I would start with all those thingsthat are not dry ingredients.
And I would fry them in the oil, start outwith and then in the bottom of my pan.
After I've done that,I've got a nice on to whatever
the dry ingredients get at itwith hopefully a broth.

(16:26):
You don't have broth.You'll be making one.
You add your waterand you let that cook slowly overnight.
Because the idea is you would make thisthe night before the Sabbath,
and then on the next day, it'll be ready,and you can eat from that.
And for the purposes of a tie then, and,This is some going to be some bullshit.
I'm going to just lay it out there.
no reason why I chose this is because it'san act of creation involving fire.

(16:50):
You know,you put these ingredients together
and you transform it into something elsethat reflects the humanity inside
and the emotions that
Okay.
All right. Let.
and I have one for this one.
Sorry, this is vegetarian
as my wife is vegetarian,but it is not vegan,

(17:12):
so you may have to makea couple of substitutions.
Kino.
I know that
potatoes did not existat the time of this, but
I had to go with this because this ismy favorite, Jewish snack food.
Potato pancakes.
I asked every Jewish friend of mineto give me their potato pancake recipe,

(17:34):
and I tried them all and
none of them were as good as my,father in law's recipe.
Who? He's not Jewish,but according to my wife,
he must have gotten itfrom someone who was.
Okay, so basically, you want to getone of those cheese graters, the kind I.
You can use a food processor.
I use the kind that that's likelike a little, little Box grater.

(17:58):
rectangle that you like, set onthe counter and scrape things up and down.
Your fingers off. Yeah.
And you take four potatoes
and grate them on whatever that biggestsize of the greater is, you know,
take it one onion, do the same thing.
And then this is the secretto this recipe.
One carrotand do the same thing like a big carrot.

(18:21):
And then, you take that, put it in a bowl
take two eggs and scramble themand pour that in the bowl,
one teaspoon of baking powder,four tablespoons of flour,
which is basically a quarter cupand two tablespoons of milk.
You just mix that all together and thenyou form patties and Deep fry them in oil.

(18:42):
I use olive oil,but you can use whatever oil you want.
And, fry till golden brown,I freaking love potato pancakes.
So that's what I had.
And now on with the show.
after my successful experiment playingJoy Division.
For the last one,I was like, I'm going to do this again,

(19:04):
and I know just what I'm going to do.
I turned the sound off and I paired this
with Bowhouse because German Expressionism
and the biohazard schoolactually existed at this time.
So I listened to the entire in the FlatField album and mask album.
And I timed it to startwhen the title card says God in an alcove,

(19:29):
and I swear to God this was my like,what is it that stoners do?
Dark side of the mood, Pink Floydthis was that for me, for this movie.
It was so perfectly timedlike the song, God in an
alcove was perfectly timed to the creationof, the Golem in an alcove in this
after like the two, bathhousealbums ran out.
I did get Can Dancebecause it's very medieval

(19:51):
soundingand I'm like, okay, so once again,
my message to you, everyone listening,
you do not have to use whatever soundtrackis on these, as we just talked about.
they didn't find the soundtrack to thatoriginal soundtrack to this until 2018.
Right?
So like put on your own musicif you'd rather listen to it.
You know, I dig, old musicat the time, but, I really would rather

(20:15):
listen to my own more modern musicthat I think fits the film.
Okay.
just to start us off, I'll tell youa little bit about what's going on
with this.
The setup for this is it's in the Jewishghetto, of medieval Prague.
And Rabbi Lo, who was a real guy,he is the head of the city's Jewish

(20:36):
community.
And he reads in the starsa prediction of disaster for his people.
And, he informs the elders
and, sure enough, the Holy Roman Emperorsigns a decree ordering the Jews
to leave the citybefore the new moon and sends
Squire Florian to deliver it.
So he starts beginning to devisea way to defend the Jews.

(20:59):
Using Astaroth to awaken the Golem.
He goes into a cellar and breaksopen a sealed chamber, and there
he sculpts the golem out of clay
and, upon arriving at the ghetto,just arrogant.
Florian is.
He's attracted to Miriam, Lo'sdaughter and Lowe's assistant

(21:22):
also is in love with her.
So there's a love triangleright from the get go here.
so lo persuade Florianto remind the Emperor
that he lo has predicted disastersand read the Emperor's
horoscopes and donethese feats of magic for him.
and based on that,he would like an audience with him.
So basically, Florian, flirts with Miriamand then leaves.

(21:43):
Okay, so that's the setup.
That's chapter one of this thing.
I really liked it. Like I thought it was.
It looked really good.
It just did the Gollum in the first part.
Did he become alive yet?
Oh, I don't thinkin the first part. Yeah. No.
Bringing him alive was a big deal.
Yeah.
Okay, I have I have something I wantto say about, like, coming alive later.

(22:08):
Okay, we'll get to that.
Okay.
First of all, Florian. Awesome.
I hate that dude.
Oh, hey, that wasn't Eric at PreK.
Didn't say any words, He's like, oh,he has a bad.
I'm like, oh, yeah.
You know, I'm hereto deliver your message.
You your doom, whatever.
And was like, oh, you want me to govisit with this guy sometime?
Whatever.
I don't know, I guess I'm on. Don't.

(22:29):
I'm like. Of the.
I hate him so much.
I loved it so much, I,I immediately love that actor.
here's the thing. Like his assistant,who's also in LA.
He's like, low key, like.
Like she's all like, flirt. Flirt.
He's like,your dad's right there. Yo. Hey.
Chill out.
Everything that they communicatewithout words is amazing.

(22:50):
I love it so much.
yeah.
First I want to say, first of all,the restoration on this is amazing.
It looks really good, good.
But when Florian shows up.
Yeah, he's arrogant, but he's also like,you just can't stand.
Like, he's got the feather in his hatand he's wearing tights, and he's like.
He's just, like, so pretentious.
And he has a white horsethat's perfectly groomed and, well,

(23:12):
I guess it's perfectly groomed.
I don't know, I'll askKino about that, but, Close enough.
Yeah. Close enough.
So automatically beforeeven says anything,
you're like, I hate this guy, Yeah. It's.
Oh, by the way, this is just a aside.
a lot of times, religious minorities
they may actually hold onto older styles, right?
And we see that, like, herein the United States,

(23:33):
when people who have isolated themselvesfor, you know, a long time,
they stick with the older styles,no buttons, etc. like that.
But interestingly, the court of this,apparently there are costumes
are way out of datefor the time it was depicted.
But I don't.
It works for me,and I especially, I notice this, like,
man, he'd be showing off some leg he got,you know, you can see a little cheek.

(23:56):
you can see the cast.
It's all about like, hey,you know, check me out.
Oh, look how hot I am.
I'm like, I'm I'm dazzling.
And it really works.
it gives a little feeling of decadence.
So I don't know whatthey would have been wearing.
I don't know why they made this choice,but it works for me because it's like,
yeah, I feel like you're from athis decadent court.
And later on you're like, oh, yeah, yeah,y'all kind of deserve that, didn't you?

(24:19):
prior to this,there might have been more of an attempt
to, make things look realisticthe way that they would have been.
But now with German expressionism,this is an artistic movement
where they're like, we're going to makeconscious choices, not to reflect reality.
the sets are amazing,like of the buildings in the ghetto.
the fact that they went throughall that trouble to build that stuff.

(24:42):
I mean, it is huge.
You walk through it,they're they ride horses through it.
It is huge.
Like the fact that they built all that in,you know, 1920, for a movie,
you know, it's just amazing.
Okay, so What?
They reminded me of the set of my wifewas watching with me, or.
And we were like, oh, wow.
So Disney, like, it was like,that's what we're going to use

(25:05):
for our The Sorcerer's Apprentice 100%,I was thinking that too.
When I was locked.
Yep. yes, I make all the influences.
They're like,this is why I love this character.
You bring me to these placeswhere I'm like, oh, snap.
you know,you get to find out the, the original.
And this is what I'm feeling like I get to
with you, like the poster for this thing.

(25:27):
the movie poster features the buildings,and they're all twisted.
They're like, crazy.
And it gives me super creative.
Okay, so this feels very well.
We'll get into it more, but like, man,if you were this
is very duluand for me it's very old gods etc.
which is, you know,you think a lot of times

(25:47):
we're like, oh, that's
separate from the Judeo Christian stuff,but it ain't, it's not, not here.
No, not no whatsoever.
We'll get more into that.
I really love I found out more about thisOne More Thing,
the novel that inspired this
was even more wackadoo.
So if you get if you get a chance,I didn't read it,
but it's like,oh, this is this is way experimental.

(26:10):
The novel was way more experimentaland less of a straight story,
you know, more metathen this was then the movie.
Okay.
So, speaking of the little,The next chapter begins with
the time has come.
The stars align.
Florian returns,and he has an encounter with Miriam.

(26:32):
And I just want to point outfor people who.
Who actually know the musicthat I'm listening to.
The song by Bo, How Small Talk Stinkscame on right at the scene.
This is what I mean about how like,not only does
the stars align, but the music alignedperfectly for me in this.
So anyway,he presents Rabbi Lo with an invitation
for loto attend the Rose festival at the palace.

(26:56):
And so lo reveals to his assistant
that the Golem has been createdand asked for his help to animate it.
So there's this elaborate magic ritual
where lo and the assistantssummon the spirit Astaroth,
which sounds a hell of a lotlike a, Lovecraftian deity right there.
But it's probably from the Bible.

(27:16):
or the Kabbalah more likely, I don't know.
Anyway, they compel them to say
the magic word that will bring life,
and lo writes the word on paper
and closes it in an amulet and insertsit into the golems chest.
And the golem awakens.
I just wanted to say, like,

(27:37):
the makeup on him looked so amazing
because, like, I was thinkingabout, street performers and, like,
the people who play as statues and, like,he looked very much like that.
And then.
But because he's made out of clay,like you can
when his lips move, you could, like, see,like the makeup.
Just like, detached a little bit.
And it was so good.

(28:00):
It was good.
That was great.
the whole magic sequence. I'm like.
That's the waymagic should be. Terrifying.
You know? Almost killed.
You know, the the system passes out,the old guys hanging on for dear life.
It's like,
yeah, no,
this is something you would never dounless you were desperate to survive.
I'm like, is awesome.
I mean, when I think of like, magicand performance, a coney, a novel,

(28:23):
that's what it's like.
It's like, oh, yeah,you know, oh, I could tame the demon.
Sort of, it was it was really good.
And as we, you know,
they did not have advanced, like,prosthetics, special effects or whatever.
You know, the demon had
its mouth never
moved, but it was freaking scary.
It was awesome.

(28:44):
I love it.I mean, there's so many things there.
I'm like, oh, man,I want that as a T-shirt.
Oh, wow, I want that.
I'm like,that is, it's very inspirational.
You know, for me,can't be higher praise and like,
I want to inhabit this world and roleplaying game.
I'm like, this is really where fictionis really amazing for me.
I'm like, and this is where I'm like,yeah, I would love to inhabit that.

(29:05):
That really it was like, oh, we are here.
You know, before I'm like, well,that's cool.
This is neat. Oh,let's see what they're doing with this.
Oh, now I'm like blown away.
And they start from the very beginning.
It feels dangerous.
You're doing something you would only dobecause you had to.
And then when we find outwhat happens Well, what happens next?

(29:28):
Chapter three is lo uses.
he starts just giving the golem
like household tasks,and it freaks Miriam out.
Lo brings the golem to the palaceto impress the court.
At the Rose Festival,
Florian slips away to meet Miriam.

(29:48):
At the palace.
The court, is terrifiedand intrigued by the Golem.
The Emperor asks to seemore supernatural feats, and lo projects
a magic screenshowing the history of the Jews.
You know, he'strying to get them to be more on his side,
and he instructs the audience not to laughor speak.
the arrival of,I'm going to say it wrong, but, ha!

(30:11):
Sewer is the Wandering Jew, promptedthe court to, like, laugh.
And, you know, this causes the palaceto crumble.
And at lose order, the Golem props upthe falling ceiling, saving the court.
So in gratitude, the emperor pardonsthe Jews and allows them to stay.

(30:33):
Okay,
that's chapter three.
Well, all you guys have to do is be quiet.
Like, you know, he's putting on his dogand pony show for you.
He is literally for for me. He's like,oh, this is wonderful.
Your little Gollum thing.
I, what else can you do for me?
Oh, you know, and he's like like, well,I saved your life.
Whatever. No, no, whatever.
But if you just be quiet,
tail off or anything,but I'll show you this really cool thing,

(30:55):
and then they can't help themselves,and they just watch,
and then, like, it's like, oh, oh, hellno, we're going to smite you now.
It's like, I love this.
It's not even up to,
you know, the the rabbi doesn'teven have control over stopping that.
He just brought the gong with themso God can save them.
But, you know,the golem wouldn't remove from the door.

(31:15):
They would try to get out. And he's like,no, I'm not moving.
I no one told me to move.
And even before this,what's the why? I really love is
he said.
The the going out into the community to do
chores and interactand people are terrified.
They are not like,hey, that's our guardian there.
Look at that guy.
They're like, what the hell's this thing?
And like he sends him to the store there.

(31:37):
The assistant goes with them to the storeand says, and it's like,
oh no, don't worry,
he's gonna take my place.
Just when he brings your list,
just give him what he wantsand no one gets hurt.
I'm like.
And you see,
I love thisbecause you see where every time he's
trying to command that golem,it is more it's like it's easy.

(31:59):
It's like, has all this power.
This is very important
when he commands are going to do his job,which is to stoke the flames
so that he can use the fire to dowhatever mystic stuff he's doing.
This is.
This is where I was like Sorcerer'sapprentice.
This has got two sisters and friendswritten all over it.
know.
When he's one hand and God

(32:19):
come to take him two hands and he doesn't,he won't stop.
And so he's like,the flames are burning up and everything.
And then what happens?
But master comes backand puts a stop to it.
But like, I was like, wow.
Okay, so we are seeing all the like,this is incredible
power that can lead to bad things.
You have to be careful with it.
This is evenbefore they go to the to the palace.

(32:39):
But yeah, I,I love this whole thing where you're like,
it's not like, oh, instantlyhe turns on you or anything like that.
Now you just, it's like,this is a, this is dangerous
and I and it feels great.
very much like our situation withI right now.
I kind of think. Yeah. Yeah.
creating something that you do not know.

(33:01):
What it's going to
do, you know, Yeah, like that'swhere we are right now.
We don't know what's going to happen.Definitely.
I told you we would be talking about it.
I it's it's,
I mean, there's a lot of AI stuff.
There's the creator responsibilityand hubris.
Like, in all these forms, the scientists,the magic magicians
or rabbis or whatever, they create life.

(33:23):
But without seeing what the consequencesare going to be of that.
nowadayswe have AI researchers and companies
that build these systems with power,full capabilities that they themselves do
not control or understandfully what they can do.
And we'll tell you that.They'll tell you. It's like.
Yeah, you should really putsome regulations on us.
Well,because we're not gonna stop on our own.

(33:44):
Well, what do you.
You know, we're not gonna stop on ourown. But you really should.
I make videos for, doctors
And I was making one They were talkingabout the ethics of AI, in health care,
and it's being deployed crazy fastin the health care profession.
And it's like, what if he diagnosessomething wrong or gets something wrong?
Right? Who's responsible at that point?

(34:06):
Is it the doctor that used it?
Or if it's mandated by the hospital,is it the hospitals administration?
Maybe they don't even knowwhat they deployed.
They hired an outside consulting firm
that said, okay, you should use this oneother consulting firm responsible.
What if it's a problemthat's in the code itself?
And maybe the guy who coded it like,

(34:27):
you know, had a bad day or like,
didn't get enough sleep the nightbefore I made a mistake in the coding.
Is he responsible now?
What if it kills 100
people, Well, he just copy pasted it,so he actually didn't write it.
He had an.
I write it for him, so there's no risk.
No, not my fault. It's.
The eye is right in itself now.
Oh, my God, I. It's crazy.

(34:49):
he's in the court. Right.
There's all these pretty ladies and stuffand and they immediately like to
to the golem.
He's called over there like so they'reall surrounding like, oh, what's with you?
And like,one of them gives him a flower and
it he's like,
smells it and like, his eyes widen.

(35:11):
It's like an awakening.
Okay?
Like I'm just saying, like
We'll have to figure outwhether there's any of these stories
where, oh,they reproductive impulse isn't key in.
They're like all the way deepbased in there.
But so far every time,
that also brings up another issue of AI.

(35:31):
You know,you just said that it becomes aware.
And reproductive reproductionis like deep, deep, deep in there.
And Kino just said,you know, AI's writing itself.
Well, what happenswhen I become self-aware then?
Can we turn it off like or is what's like,are you ending a life that way?

(35:51):
Well, it's already going rogue.
It's true.
people try to turn it off and like, I'm
just gonna go over here, copy myself,and, like, do it all over again.
Yeah. No, I mean, 100% like.
Oh, like I'm going to program youto not sit, to only see the things I want
and not say the bad things.
And and they're still doingthe things that you.
But it's still it,because the actual understanding

(36:15):
of how it works is so minimal,they are not able to control it
even to do,you know, they're evil binning.
It's Right.
If if it if it becomes self-aware.Whatever.
You know, is itmorally wrong at that point to kill it?
You know, Well, I mean,
or let's put it this way, I don't thinkthat's going to be really an issue.

(36:38):
I mean, we like humans are likeI mean, what could be
what could be more acknowledgingof its humanity And to kill it.
Yeah.
In chapter four, RabbiLo and the Golem return to the ghetto
and spreadthe news that the Jews are saved.
But slowly

(36:59):
lo begins to noticethe erratic behavior of the Golem.
And so,after removing the amulet, lo reads that
upcoming astrological movements
will cause Astaroth to possess
the golem and attack its creators.
read all the instructions, bro.

(37:20):
So during the communitycelebrations, Rabbi
Lo Assistant goes to inform Miriam.
But finds she's got Florian in her roomwith her.
he's devastated.
And so he then reanimatesthe Golem and orders it
to remove Florian from the building.
And then
the wayit rises up is just like Nosferatu.

(37:44):
I know we're before Agnesright to now, but, I'm sure they saw that.
And they're like, let's do that.
Two years. it's the.
Under Astra's influence, the golem throws
Florian from the roof, killing him.
And the assistantand Miriam flee in horror.
The Golem sets the building on fire.
Miriam falls unconscious.

(38:05):
By the way, the song mask was playingby Bao when I was watching this part.
So again, if you know the lyrics to that,just if you don't know the lyrics, go
look it up. It fits like a glove.
All right, chapter fourI'm going to start this time with Kino.
Do you have anything to sayabout what's happened here? Now?

(38:27):
This was my favorite section of the film,
though.
Was very, very action oriented.
Liked when the Gollum, smashed through
interestingthat he pushed his arms through.
And then the doorjust, like, went with his arms.
Yeah.

(38:49):
Yeah.
Well, that's.
I think she punched it so hardthat it came off its hinges.
But also his armswent through the door, too,
you know?
Yeah.
very interesting.
Being part of it was like,kind of comical, but I really like that.
I don't know.
Yeah.

(39:11):
I like that too.
it was not clear to me.
I was like, We'll wait tilleverybody's gone and then you can escape
because, you know, they were slept like,oh, yeah, illicit lovers over sleeping,
you know, classic.
but no, the assistantwho, has this thing for her,
he's like, no, no, I'll wait for you.
And then she's like,no, you really need to go.
And then they're talking.

(39:32):
Here's the voice.
Now it's ambiguous to me.
Was he, like,really worried about her because,
oh, there's a man who came into the houseand has her hostage, or what?
I'm fine with the ambiguity.
I like that,and he is horrified by the murder.
He doesn't tell him to go kill that guy.
My wife pointed out that, you know,we both like.

(39:52):
Oh, that guy is a smart,you know, Florian.
But, like,did he run away when he could? No.
He tried to fight this guy.
He tried to fight the Golemover and over again.
And, you know, ended up cornered.
He could have run.
He could outrun that guy.
But, like,his first thing was to defend Miriam.
And we see very earlyon, and, you know, after he's thrown
flurry, in a way,the going goes and grabs her.

(40:15):
Right?
So it's like, okay, now we are seeing,
you know, first she's obeying the thing,but now we're seeing him,
obey theseother impulses because it's always there.
It's always there.
I found the part where he is grabbing herby the hair and dragging her by the hair.
That's in the next chapter.

(40:35):
Yeah. Was crazy.
the whole monster in a burning building,we have that here.
It's like now normally it's not themonster who's building the flames, right?
It's not.
But like we also have, we can go backto that to but, other episode we we did.
We're wielding flames against each otheror a monster learning the real,

(40:57):
that's all. Like a thing.
It's all the, you know, the burning,those flames, the hate,
to put it this way, but the Holocaust,these are like, these things.
So kind of crazy. Loved it.
let's just mention that the Holocaust,when we talk about nowadays
is World War two,which hasn't happened yet.
and it certainly hadn't happened that.
Well, it happened in its own way in thetime, period that is being depicted here.

(41:22):
But, so the final chapter of this,the assistant rushes to the synagogue
to tell, the praying Jewsthat, yeah, shit's on fire.
You know, they arrive the house isburning, the gunman Miriam are missing.
the community begs lo to save themfrom the rampaging golem,
and he performs a spellthat removes Astaroth from the golem.

(41:45):
The golem is dragging Miriam by the hair,
wandering around the ghetto,causing destruction.
And when this happens,it leaves Miriam lying on a stone
surface and heads toward the ghettos gate.
Lo finds Miriam, and she awakens,they are, reunited with Lo's assistant,
who promises never to reveal herforbidden affair, with Lauren,

(42:08):
and asked for her forgiveness.
Never mind.
They're also never talking about the factthat they basically killed Florian.
But anyway, at the gate,the Golem breaks it
open and seesa group of little girls playing,
and they all fleeexcept for one who, he picks up.
She's not afraid of him.
This is also reminiscent of Frankenstein

(42:29):
stuffthat's going to happen in the future.
When we talk about that stuff,she offers him an apple,
and, she's curious,and she removes the amulet from the golem
and it drops herand collapses unconscious.
And then the Jewish, communitygather at the gate to find the inner Golem
and rejoice and pray,and they, carry it back into the ghetto.

(42:52):
Film ends with a Star of Davidappearing on the screen.
Okay,
so that's kind of the whole deal here.
This movie, more than any movie,
that we've seen so far, morethan the actual Frankenstein adaptation,
seems to shape what will becomethe cinematic Frankenstein we know.

(43:15):
And we'll get into thatin a future episode. But
I want your ultimate reaction you know,what did you think of this movie?
Does it hold up today?
is it still thrilling?
Is it worth watching,particularly for people
who are interested in the horrorgenre and stuff like that?
I'm gonna start with Will.

(43:36):
see all these things?
Beautiful bones, I mean, but, like,it stands up on its own just fine Okay.
This really struck me.
Teenagers who are illicit lovers,
who must pay the price, being pursued
by a blank faced,
implacable killing machine.

(44:01):
Yeah.
Sex As we know, Yeah.
this is like a foundingtrope of the genre, right?
I can't. Say I've ever seen.
Done any better.
say about us that like,
we are constantlygoing against our own desires by like,
saying that if you do these things,you're going to get killed.

(44:23):
But also,like, we're creating these monsters
who just havethe urge to need love and everything.
What does it say aboutI don't know, but I love it.
And then, what the hell?
people.
Humans are flawed.
Yes, definitely. Humans are flawed.
I can say that much.
So. And I take it well that that'sa thumbs up, then for this.

(44:47):
thumbs up. It's, Okay.
So look,all the things that we see in here,
you know, he was about tosmash the monster, and then they call him.
I was like, no, we want to celebrate you.And they drag him away.
You know, all this this,it's the kind of,
the most human mistakes that led to this.
All of this is led from human,you know, frailties.
Human stuff. It's.

(45:08):
None of this would have happenedif they had left the Jews alone.
And, you know, and,that none of that would have happened.
And there's all this stuffthat's happening,
even, you know, the Florian seeing the,you know.
Right.
Wanting her and,you know, going to take her
no matter, you know, like, I'm going to dothis, that, is like some kind of message
about, like, you know, the, the,the plundering of, cultures.

(45:28):
It's all there. It's all beautifuland well done.
they even apparently there's people say,oh, well,
the kids were looking at the cameraat the end.
I'm like, they did.I thought they did great with that.
And they were seeing on himand playing on him.
And every moment I was like,no, they're gonna put it back in.
They're gonna put the star backin eventually.
Just throw the staraway. I'm like, oh my God. I'm like.

(45:50):
All the things that this moviedelivered in terms of engagement
and I, me giving a crapabout the characters and like,
you know, and all of that, the like,the visuals, like the visual
of the monsterwith burning brands in the middle of this
fiery thing with and, and,you know, with her by her braids,
I'm like, oh, boy,that's burning my brain forever.

(46:10):
Ten out ten would recommend
Okay, I'm going to go next.
I have watched this film many times.
It's like a new movie every time I see it.
And like I said in last episode,they're constantly discovering new stuff,
restoring stuff,I would also give it a ten out of ten.

(46:32):
This is like one of my highestregarded silent films.
It's up there with Nosferatu andMetropolis and, you know, a few others.
Cabinet, Doctor Caligari.
It is excellent.
But I will say,
if you think you've seen this film
and you haven't seen it in the lastfive years, you have not seen this film

(46:52):
because they've restoredso much more to it.
If you haven't watchedin the last five years,
watch it.
If you've never seen it, watch it.
If you're into horror,particularly construct horror,
you know, basically your Frankenstein typemythos.
See it if you have any interestin sort of Lovecraftian cosmic horror,

(47:14):
see it if you have interestin Jewish mythology or folklore
or legends of central Europe, see it.
I think any cinephile should probably see
this film throwing it over to Kino.
I really liked this one.
I think out of all three of them,this was my favorite.
I've not seen it before, but I'm familiarwith the folklore of the Golem,

(47:36):
but it's definitely one of my favorites.
I think one of my favorite parts, though,is that
basically all the men and everyonekeep trying to do all these things
to save themselves, and yet they're savedby an innocent little girl.

(47:58):
I want to say, if you liked
the show,please let two other people know about it.
We only spread by word of mouth.
I want to thank our guest,
Kino McFarland, for coming on Kino,is there any Irons in the fire?
You want to plug?
You know, be demented. Xcom find where
I'm going to be performing,and maybe I'll come to your town.

(48:19):
Cool. Awesome.
All right, so if you want to,
let us know your thoughts on this,you can always write us at GK podcast.
Letter G, letter C number eight, podcast.
All one word at gmail.com.
We have a Facebook group.
You're welcome to join it.
We talk stupid stuff and post memes.

(48:40):
we are on other platforms. Like,technically we have an Instagram.
We're never there.
you can probably find us in other places.
I should mention we are also on YouTube
if you're into listeningbut not watching YouTube.
I thought it was kind of silly.
Since we don't use the video part
of this, but we I think we get morelisteners on YouTube than we do anywhere
else.
So, if you're into this showand you like YouTube,

(49:04):
you can find us thereto, Geek Channel eight.
We're going
to keep our doing our deep diveinto Frankenstein.
Next week, we're going to watchprobably the most famous Frankenstein
movie of all time, James Whale's universal
horror film Frankenstein from the 1930s.

(49:26):
Until next time, this is Eric.
And You know.
Yeah.
Signing off.
Keep in mind,

(49:47):
just in case you don't know,we're doing homunculus first.
Right? So.
I tell you, they're a great film,