G. Meyrink "The Golem"

Abstract

Темой диплома я выбрала роман австрийского писателя-экспрессиониста «Голем» Густава Майринка. Книга написана в 1915 году как странная, мистическая, притчеобразная история, полная каббалистических аллюзий.

В центре романа –жизнь Атанасиуса Перната –реставратора и резчика камей, живущего в еврейском квартале Праги конца 19 вв. Но его историю, происходившую 30 лет назад, переживает во сне анонимный рассказчик, который однажды перепутал свою шляпу со шляпой того самого Перната.

Целью моей работы является пластическое решение всего произведения и передача его атмосферы. Я хотела полностью погрузить зрителей в мистическую Прагу 19 вв и оживить в воспоминаниях старинную легенду о Големе.

Основными задачами, поставленными мной при выполнении дипломного проекта стали: поиск стилистического приема для перевода литературного языка в киноязык; визуальное решения двух противоположных ипостасей главного героя; передача эпохи и характера произведения.

Я считаю данное произведение особенно актуальным в наше время. Так как, оно раскрывает проблему утраченной цельности бытия и личности. На мой взгляд, очень острую тему для нашей эпохи.

Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Anna Ivonina. I study Production Design at St. Petersburg State University. I am here today to present my graduation project, consisting of 15 scenic sketches, based on the novel of an Austrian expressionist writer Gustav Meyrink "Golem".

The novel is focused on the life of Athanasius Pernath –a restorer living in the Jewish quarter of Prague in late 19th century. But his story, which took place 30 years ago, is experienced in a dream by an anonymous narrator who once confused his hat with the hat of the very same Pernath.

The novel interested me with its atmosphere combining mysterious Prague streets and the philosophy of self-knowledge, Cabalistic signs and mixing reality and dream. The author creates a dramatic tension that stays with the reader until the end. And thanks to his highly artistic language the reader remains in constant fear, which envelops him completely.

The work "Golem" is primarily a novel about the search for lost integrity of an individual. Therefore, the key symbol of my project, that I was relating to - is the Magen David. Each sketch of my work has a specific shape, while adding them all together forms a hexagram, because, in my opinion, it reflects the meaning of the novel, which is a harmonious connection and combination of two beginnings: light and shadow, good and evil, heaven and earth. As you can see in my sketches, I paid a lot of attention working with light and shadow and creating black and white composition. The hero aspire to the light from the darkness, and the further he advances, the more there is light and space.

In order to develop the theme of the two beginnings, I tried to distinguish the sketches by tone, color and triangles in which they are located. The first has a warm, light coloration which correlates with the light side, the second one –cold and somber– which correlates with the dark side. The events of the novel are distributed accordingly; in a dark triangle I drew sketches that embody the demonic world of the ghetto, the shell in which the main character is located. It is not by chance that the name of the hero Athanasius Pernat is the symbol of a bird. Therefore, visually, I added in the hero's garret a lot of birds in cages, and the drawing of light, in its turn, encloses the hero in a cage. To recreate the Jewish quarter realistically, I focused on the paintings of Jewish and Czech artists of the 19th century, such as Isidor Kaufman Adolf Kohn, Jan Minarik. And the violet-gray gamma helped me to create a sense of mystery and haunted houses. The bright triangle is dominated by warm colors, and numerous images of purifying fire, which makes Pernate not only a bird but a Phoenix reborn from its own ashes. Here I wanted to show how the shell of the Jewish quarter begins to crumble on the way towards the awakening of the hero. A brand new world is born, which is emphasized in the sketch of the prison by the images of the blossoming dry tree and widening cracks, and to increase tension of the scene with the destruction of Jewish quarter, I added a huge crumbling abyss opening a secret underground world, against which the grazing lambs and the sheep appear – as a symbol of purity and innocence.

Also, to emphasize the drama of the novel, I plunged the hero into a close, narrow, pressing space, which boundaries are moving to the light part and gradually expanding in the process of the hero’s "awakening". However, despite the precise distinction between the two triangles in the center of the star, at the junction of shadow and light a Central sketch is located, where the hero meets himself, his dark side. The decoration is painted with frescoes depicting the creation of the world, which again refers us to the fact that harmony with yourself and the world is an integral one. Sketches are created are oil painting on canvas. This method allowed me to create a wide variety of textures that are characteristic for the Jewish quarter, as well as emphasize that everything that happening is not real and occurs within a dream.

In conclusion, I would like to believe that my representation clearly and truly reflects the inner meaning of the novel and my initial concept, and everybody perceives that harmony is a synthesis. Thank you for attention. Now, I would be very interested to hear your comments or questions.