Faust, une légende allemande

A lyrical fable version of Goethe's famous story, where Mephisto and an angel gamble with Faust's spirit, the entire film has an aura of delicate beauty. When Faust's town is shrouded with a pestilence, Faust summons Mephisto and agrees to a trial selling of his soul, in the hopes that he can save the townspeople. When Faust does indeed cure the town, Mephisto tempts him with the promise of youth and Gretchen, the most beautiful woman in Italy. Misty, often eerie, fiendish imagery, like satanic birds, hooded men, flying horsemen and Caligari-inspired exteriors fill the screen. When Faust signs his contract, the words burn themselves into the page as Mephisto dips his feather pen in Faust's vein. A wonderful touch near the beginning has Faust trying to escape Mephisto but having him appear wherever he goes, always a few steps ahead. Both Faust, as a young man, and Gretchen are lovely, and Jannings gives an excellent performance as the Dark Prince. A masterpiece of poetic atmosphere that ages Murnau's technical mastery wondrously, the film is aided tremendously by the sometimes ominous, sometimes enchanting orchestral score. 10/10

(Contains spoilers)

Goethe's FAUST means to German-Speaking countries what HAMLET means to the English-Speaking world: The terror of schoolchildren forced to write essays and memorize its most famous quotations. Murnau's silent screen version offers us the unique opportunity to enjoy all the suspense of the play without being bothered by the immortal lines of its great author...The version I have seen was restored in 1995 by Luciano Berriatua and offers everything a film fan can hope for: Masterly direction, awesome visuals (at a time where sets were built, not painted with a computer!) and knock-out-performances.

The divine force (here personified by a youth with swan-wings) and Mephisto (Emil Jannings as black crow with goat-horns) struggle over the world domination and open the competition over Faust's (Gösta Ekman) soul. Mephisto spreads his wings over the city and the plague breaks out. Unable to find a cure for the disease, Faust conjures up the devil. Mephisto, now the prototype of middle-aged gluttony, appears and offers Faust a try-out-contract for just one day. This poor old fellow gets his youth back, but the devil is a pretty good psychologist: The very moment when Faust is about to seduce the duchess of Parma, the most beautiful woman on earth, his sands have run out. Now, of course, he is willing to sign the long-term-contract...With a filthy grin, Mephisto draws the curtains of the four-poster.

Carnal desire, however, cannot satisfy Faust for long. Innocence is, what tempts him now. Back in his home town he falls in love with Margarethe (Camilla Horn) who is on her way to church. Mephisto, on the other hand (Jannings, his upper half dressed like a shogun, his lower half in a skin-tight hose) gets hear-ache from her pious singing. The seduction scene would hardly pass today's censors: Among other things, Mephisto mixes a love-potion for Margarethe's cousin Marthe. Heated up, this poor woman starts to chase Mephisto in a slightly indecent manner...

Some scenes are of unearthly beauty, others shocking to an unbearable degree: Margarethe put on the pillory - the crowd rallies to gape at her. She drags herself along, her baby in her arms during a snow-storm - no one will help her. The devil deceives her once more with the illusion of a cradle: She puts her baby to bed - only to discover that she buried it under a blanket of snow. The vision of Margarethe's crying face follows Faust over chains of mountains...

Ekman was Ingrid Bergman's partner in the swedish version of "Intermezzo"; The other stars went Hollywood: Wilhelm became "William" Dieterle, the famous director, Camilla Horn was John Barrymore's leading lady in "The Tempest" and "Eternal Love", and Jannings was, of course, the first actor ever to win an oscar. When he returned to Germany, they rolled out the red carpet for him: he remained the most renowned german actor until his death. Sadly, he also made some propaganda films, one of them (the anti-british "Ohm Kröger") is still blacklisted.

My first silent film lasted over two hours. Dialog full of screens after everything's been said. To be honest, I was surprised at how there was never a point of down, there was never a realization that I was watching a silent film, though it did take a bit of getting used to in the beginning. Some might get pushed away due to the fact that the screen transfer isn't great, or that the music has been recently dubbed, but I found it all to fit perfectly. The acting in this film is more than over expectation, that made me believe in the story from start to finish. By the end I had a new found admiration for the makers of movies from our past, and what standards they can set for movies now.

I think of Murnau's Faust as a masterpiece not only of cinema, but of the human imagination. I understand that reviews at the time of its premier were lukewarm, but I honestly can't imagine not feeling grateful for the opportunity to see this film today. Moments and images from it are so powerful, they are vivid in the mind years after seeing them -- two hours in a dream world.

The flying sequence has been commented-on more than once, and with good reason. It is a spectacular series of shots wherein the camera tracks through long miniature sets which gradually change from a dense cluster of medieval rooftops and steeples, to a tortuous countryside of mountain peaks and snake-like rivers, twisted trees, deep gorges with plunging waterfalls and stone cliffs, rapids, a field of long grass, elaborate renaissance architecture and an Italianate palace. Along the way there is an encounter with grotesque elongated black birds in the sky, their wings flapping in unison. The sets incorporate running water (with little bits of smoking material floating in the rapids to simulate splashes and spray), an illuminated moon, and smoke to simulate clouds and fog. The whole sequence can't be much more than a couple of minutes long, but the effort to design, construct and coordinate the sequence must have been staggering. The following palace scene is set on a huge multi-level set with female dancers stretching off into the distance. They are there for no better reason than to establish an atmosphere of sumptuous decadence, and young Faust arrives in the middle of this riding between two enormous elephants, which seem to be entirely artificial and crafted of fabric, wire, etc. So it goes throughout the production. Almost every scene is a feast for the eyes, and the darker scenes are vividly expressionistic in design.

The acting is the old-fashioned silent-movie variety of big operatic gestures and vivid facial expression. It may seem odd to those not used to it, but it is NOT an example of ham actors overdoing it. This was a legitimate style of acting in its time, and offers genuine artistic beauty to those who can manage to appreciate it.

The fact that there seems to be no video version of `Faust' at the time of this posting is criminal. Ditto for Murnau's "Sunrise." These things should NEVER be out of print.

F.W. Murnau's telling of the classic German legend, 'Faust' is a masterpiece to behold. From both the technical and story standpoint, the film excels and despite being nearly eighty years old, Faust still stands tall as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. F.W. Murnau has become best known among film fans for 'Nosferatu', but this is unfair to the man. While Nosferatu is something of an achievement; it pales in comparison to this film in every respect. Faust is far more extravagant than Murnau's vampire tale, and it shows his technical brilliance much more effectively. The story is of particular note, and it follows a German alchemist by the name of Faust. As God and Satan war over Earth, the Devil preaches that he will be able to tempt Faust into darkness and so has a wager with God to settle things. Satan sends Mephisto to Earth to offer Faust an end to the plague that is making it's way through the local population, and eternal youth, in return for Faust's soul...

The way that Murnau creates the atmosphere in the film is nothing short of amazing. The lighting and use of shadows is superb, and helps to create a strong sense of dread at the same time as making the film incredibly easy on the eyes. It's the music that's the real star of the show, however, as it's absolutely fantastic and easily ranks up with the greatest scores ever written. The scenery is expressionistic and gives the film a strong sense of beauty (which is increased by the excellent cinematography), especially in the darker scenes; all of which are an absolute delight to behold. The story is undoubtedly one of the most important ever written, and within it is themes of good, evil, religion and most importantly, love. The points are never hammered home, and instead they are allowed to emancipate from the centre of the tale, which allows the audience to see them for themselves rather than being told; and that's just the way a story should be.

It's hard to rate the acting in silent cinema as being a member of a modern audience, I'm used to actors acting with dialogue and judging a performance without that is difficult. However, on the other hand; silent acting is arguably more difficult than acting with dialogue as the only way to portray your feelings to the audience is through expressions and gestures, and in that respect; acting is just another area where this film excels. In fact, there isn't an area that this film doesn't excel in and for that reason; it easily ranks up with the greatest films ever committed to the screen.