Lekce Faust

"Faust" is a wonderful blend of real-time and stop-motion storytelling by a master of the surreal. An apparently ordinary everyman is led by curiosity into a dilapidated building which turns out to be a strange blend of alchemical laboratory, theater, and puppeteer's workshop. Suddenly, the man finds himself becoming the legendary Dr. Faust, selling his soul to the devil in exchange for magical powers.

Jan Svankmajer is the true sorcerer here. He blends stage sets with real locations and seven-foot puppets with live actors, making magic of it all.

The film has been dubbed for English audiences, but there has perhaps never been a less obtrusive film dub. The voice performances are excellent and actually add to the surreal quality of the film.

Jan Svankmajer is one of the best animators of all time and one of the best artists of the 20th century. There is simply no one else making animation like this: disturbing, hilarious, dreamlike. "Faust" is one of the best films I have ever seen, combining the visual sensibility of Salvador Dali with the philosophical sensibility of Mikhail Bulgakov. Powerful, surreal, and more intelligent than any animation anywhere.

The classic tale of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil, is given a strange twist. In the film, an ordinary guy finds a map on a subway which leads him to an abandoned theater. He chants the phrases which cause the devil to appear. The devil offers him anything he wants in exchange for his soul. Then we are treated to creepy marionette puppets that act out the play. Czech animator Jan Svankmajer is most notorious for his nightmarish stop motion film "Alice"(1988). In "Faust" he also combines his usual elements of live actors, puppets and clay animation. Most memorable is the creepy baby made of clay. Svankmajer creates his own bizarre world that is creepy yet often humorous. So if you enjoy surrealism, stop motion animation or any film that is in a category of its own; you should definitely see Jan Svankmajer's unique vision of "Faust".

Jan Svankmajer's telling of the German folk tale "Faust" is--like his rendition of "Alice in Wonderland" (simply titled "Alice")--a refreshingly surreal treat of a film. It's confusing, disconcerting, and grotesquely tongue-in-cheek (the Jester character is at once obnoxious, amusing, and creepy). The plot plays out like a Greek Tragedy, with the ill-fated Faust (Petr Cepek) wheeling and dealing with the Devil and his minions, manipulating Old Scratch until finally succumbing to a seduction that results in his demise. The intricacies of story are thrown at the viewer in a consistent flurry, to the point where it's best NOT to try to piece it all together. Throughout my viewing, favorable comparisons to Homer's "Odyssey," David Lynch's "Eraserhead," and the early short films of Roman Polanski were crossing my mind. While the English dubbing is atrocious and Svankmajer sometimes lets the film lull too far into a dream-like state (to the point where I had to take a brief nap halfway through), that shouldn't inhibit you from seeing "Faust."

Faust embodies what it is to be Surreal. Svankmajer has captured the essence of a dream in full form and put its application to the archetypal story of Dr. Faustus.

The integration of live action, puppetry, and stop-motion animation is the work of a true genius/madman.

If you are looking for something to exercise the bizarre regions of the brain and the human imagination, WATCH THIS FILM. you shan't regret it.