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Faust

Germany

1926

116 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
Silent
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
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DIR F.W. Murnau

PROD Eric Pommer

SCR Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gerhart Hauptmann, Hans Kyser, Christopher Marlowe

DP Carl Hoffmann

CAST Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard

ED Elfi Böttrich

Berlinale (Retrospective), Berlinale (Retrospective), New York

Synopsis

God and Satan war over earth; to settle things, they wager on the soul of Faust, a learned and prayerful alchemist. During a plague, Faust despairs and burns his books after failing to stop death; Satan sends Mephisto to tempt Faust, first with insight into treating the plague and then with a day’s return to youth. Mephisto is clever, timing the end of this 24 hours as Faust embraces the beautiful Duchess of Parma. Faust trades his soul for youth. Some time later, he’s bored, and demands on Easter Sunday that Mephisto take him home. Faust promptly sees and falls in love with the beautiful Gretchen, whose liaison with him brings her dishonor. Is there redemption? Who wins the wager? –IMDb

Director

Original

F.W. Murnau

To this day German filmmaker F. W. Murnau remains one of the most influential directors of cinema. After studying art and literature history at the University of Heidelberg, he became a student of director Max Reinhardt until serving in World War I as a combat pilot. During a flight, he accidentally strayed into Switzerland and stayed there till the war’s end. He made his directorial debut in 1919 back in Germany; although he made several films over the next three years, most of them have been lost. Murnau first gained international renown with Nosferatu the Vampire in 1922. Unlike others, Murnau filmed this still chilling masterpiece on location. His next film, The Last Laugh (1924), utilized unique camera techniques that later became the basis for mise-en-scene. He continued making German films, notable for their pessimism and pervading sense of doom, until he moved to Hollywood in 1926 to work for Fox studios. His first American film, Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans (1927), is considered… read more

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T. J. Harman

11Mar13

I dug the sets, camera work and Jannings' camp. The religious themes of the fable this was adapted from don't do much for me on a personal level but that never got in the way for me enjoy the film's merits.

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film_lies101

28Jul12

SO FUCKING METAL!

Brad S. likes this

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CRW

10Jul12

Truly profound. Moving ending. What a visionary Murnau was.....

Drew Boggemes likes this

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Pedro Eira

20Jun12

people who have not given 5 stars are certainly possessed by the devil

Neil Bahadur and 7 others like this

Derriere Garde, Leina, Drew Boggemes, Domas, chanandre, CRW, Miguel Ferreira

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Articles

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W184

The Forgotten: Pazuzu Dans Le Metro

By David Cairns on February 23, 2012

Yves Montand plays the devil in a 1950s-made, 1920s-set version of Faust with beautiful sets worth going to hell for.

read article
W184

Movie Poster of the Week: "Mädchen in Uniform" and the film posters of the Weimar Republic

By Adrian Curry on December 10, 2010

There is a terrific little movie poster exhibition on view right now at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, running in conjunction with the Film

read article
W184

Phantasmagoria: "The Keep"

By Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on October 2, 2009

The Keep plays as part of a 10-film Michael Mann retrospective at Chicago’s Doc Films on October 5th . *** A little fairy tale: wayward German

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W184

The Forgotten: Jockeys 1, Wagner 0

By David Cairns on August 27, 2009

"Filmed on actual historical locations!" It's rare to come across a movie that has simply everything wrong with it. Such movies should be

read article
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Murnau on DVD: Kino's Murnau Box Set

By Daniel Kasman on March 4, 2009

Above: Emotional distance is spatial distance in F.W. Murnau's The Haunted Castle (1921). Sad, isn't it, to see John Ford and Frank Borzage

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Faust - A cheap tale?

28 posts by 11 people 5 months ago

Kino or MOS for DVD

8 posts by 7 people almost 2 years ago