ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

WakenPayne I was watching this because my brother is a huge fan of German expressionism and recommended it to me. I quite like this movie and Nosferatu. I don't think either of them are as good as Metropolis but each are worth watching. The plot is that Satan wagers with an Archangel that if he can corrupt the kindest soul he can find into being a selfish, callous bastard then he can have The Earth to do what he likes with. He chooses Faust and at first he succeeds by having Faust sell his soul for the ability to perform Jesus miracles to a plague set up by Satan but it quickly catches on that Faust's miraculous power of healing people isn't God's work and they attempt to stone him to death, he wishes his way out of it in the name of Satan and Satan then decides to play the card of he tried helping others and it failed so why not be a selfish man by asking for youth, women, whatever he wants. He accepts but starts to loosen his grip on Satan after falling in love with a goodhearted catholic. Things go out of control thanks to Satan wanting an iron grip on what happens and it ends with the archangel declaring Stan has lost thanks to the power of love. The effects for the time are brilliant, maybe not Metropolis jaw-dropping but it for the most part holds up even today (you probably have to look twice to see that the man playing Faust was 30 because of the old man make-up) and I quite like the story even if the love part feels forced. I don't really like the acting of the silent era and with this movie it's no exception. While I don't mind the ending I feel as though it's been done a million times since (or maybe even before as well) and today, just comes across as a bit cheesy and I thought in places it was a little bit slow. I would say this is well worth the watch if you're a fan of silent cinema. It may not be as good as Nosferatu or Metropolis but it's pretty damn close.

dlee2012 First of all, I must confess I have not read Goethe's poetic version of Faust, being more familiar with the great writer through his novel the Sorrows of Young Werther. I do have a limited degree of familiarity with the folk tale but, by and large, I saw the film with few pre-conceived expectations.Watching this 1926 adaptation of the Faust legend today is a mixed experience. The visuals at the start of the film certainly pushed the boundaries of what was achievable at the time and many are still stunning, whilst a minority have aged badly. However, they show how much the early directors were already exploring the boundaries of what was possible and treating cinema as a medium in its own right, with capabilities far beyond the bounds of what is achievable on the stage.More problematic is the pacing. The tempo of the film slows dramatically during the second half and it is here that the problems arise as the vast cosmic scale of the piece zooms into a stodgy love story.The acting is also varied and the performance of the actor playing Mephisto has dated particularly badly; indeed he is laughably camp from a modern perspective.For these reasons, Murnau's work lacks the timeless appeal of Lang's early films. Nevertheless, there are many interesting ideas on display that still make this period piece a worthwhile viewing experience. As the audience leave their ordinary lives to enter the cinema (an experience that was still highly exotic in 1926) they are immediately lifted into the cosmic realm and a confrontation between Satan and an Archangel. They are then transported again to a medieval village situated in the folk memory of the past, doubly estranging them and allowing themselves to immerse themselves in this attempt to make cinema a spiritual experience.The scenes of the devil sending plague (in the form of miasma) on the village would have stirred painful memories for many in the audience given that the Spanish influenza epidemic had taken place only seven to eight years previously.The cinematography is less static than that on display in Lang's work and there are some nicely framed moments such as the scene of the girl and the baby in the snow, where she is made to look like Mary holding the Christ child.The shot of her scream echoing out across space to Faust is a bravura moment, whilst the ghostly appearance of her mother in the chair is effective if a little maudlin.Faust himself is somewhat reminiscent of Frankenstein and Rotwang, being partly rational scientist and partly alchemist. Whereas Frankenstein rejects the past and embraces the future, Faust rejects not only God but also science when he seeks to dabble in the occult.The ending of the film, which shows Christian redemption coming from supreme/sacrificial love or agape may seem somewhat trite but given the emphasis on salvation coming by right beliefs held by some Fundamentalist denominations in our day, perhaps it is one that needs to be reasserted.Overall, then, this film is certainly worth watching but be aware that some scenes have dated badly. However, it is an ambitious take on a story that is, at its heart, timeless.

chaos-rampant By 1925 UFA, German cinema's pioneer production company, was almost collapsing under the weight of mounting financial difficulties, having lost over eight million dollars in the fiscal year just ended. It was at this point that American film studios found the perfect opportunity they've been looking for to finally defeat their one opponent in the market of continental Europe. It was ironic that a film industry born out of the necessity of WWI and Germany's inability to provide American, British or French films in the years between 1914 and 1919 would go on to become Hollywood's number one opponent. Indeed Paramount and MGM offered to subsidize UFA's huge debt to the Deutsche Bank by lending it four million dollars at 7.5 percent interest in exchange for collaborative rights to UFA's studios, theaters, and personnel - an arrangement which clearly worked in the American companies' favor. The result was the foundation of the Parufamet (Paramount-UFA-Metro) Distribution Company in early 1926.This is only tangential to FAUST but important nonetheless to place the film in its correct historical context. Both as FW Murnau's last German film before he left for Hollywood and as UFA's most expensive production to that date. It is no wonder that within a year of accepting Hollywood as business partners, UFA was already showing losses of twelve million dollars and was forced to seek another loan, when FAUST, a film that cost them 2 million dollars alone and took six months to film only made back half of its budget at the box office. FAUST would go on to be succeeded by Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS as the most expensive German production but it remained FW Murnau's aufwiedersehen to Weimar cinema. He was one of many German film artists and technicians that migrated to sunny California following the Parufamet agreement (Fritz Lang would follow a few years later, having refused Goebbels' offer to lead the national film department for Nazi Germany, along with others like Paul Leni, Billy Wilder, Karl Freund and Ernst Lubitsch).Weimar cinema wouldn't make it past the 1930's and FW Murnau's career would come to an abrupt end with his death at 42 in a car accident, but FAUST, as the last German production, not only in nationality, but also in style and finesse, definitely deserves its place next to 1922's NOSFERATU in the pantheon of German Expressionism. Frontloaded in terms of spectacle and dazzling visuals, this retelling of Goethe's classic version of Dr. Faust's story is as slow paced and dark as Nosferatu but with the kind of fantastic, mystical and romantic blend that characterized German post-war cinema. A cinema aimed at repressed lower middle-classes which, in the absence of a national identity swept away by war, were now turning to a new cultural identity conscious of the social realities of the times. In that sense, Murnau's Faust is part escapism spectacle, part edifying fable on the corruption of evil and the redeeming qualities of love and forgiveness.And if the story is overwrought melodrama by today's standards, the magnificent sets constructed by UFA technicians and special effects work stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the best from the 20's. Mephisto looming black and gigantic over a town swept by plague is an iconic image etched on the same pantheon wall of German Expressionism as Count Orlok's shadow. The angels of death riding on their horses with beams of light shooting through them combines the dark fantasy of the production design with expressive lighting, the kind of which would eventually become shaped into film noir by directors like Otto Preminger and Fritz Lang. Gösta Ekman as Faust (superbly made-up as an old man to make even Welles green with envy) and Emil Jannings as Mephisto stand out among the cast.

John W Chance You will never see cinematography like this in a sound or color film! Murnau's 'Nosferatu' (1925) pales in comparison to this visually fantastic masterpiece!The first half is a perfect supernatural tale of God and the Devil (Mephisto) wagering over the soul of man: if Mephisto can win Faust, all of Earth belongs to Satan. It is shown and told with such amazing photography, sets and acting. Check out the other reviews that describe the wonderment of all its stunning shots in detail. The final scenes are masterful as well: the death of Gretchen's baby and Faust's final salvation.Emil Jannings is so great as Mephisto it looks like the Devil is a sure winner. He steals every scene he's in, whether he's pure evil, puckish, Satanic or clownish. "The Snake Has All The Lines!" No wonder he was the first actor to receive a Best Actor Oscar! It made me want to see his other classic, 'The Last Laugh' (1924).The musical soundtrack perfectly matches the action and mood of every scene. Great!But---the middle really drags on too long as a love story between the now young and handsome Faust and the beautiful Gretchen, and there are some needless scenes of Mephisto being pestered by Marguerite's aunt seeking to be his wife.The movie picks up again in the last third as Gretchen is condemned for her affair with Faust, who sacrifices himself for her, and Mephisto loses the bet.The film is so staggeringly made we can forgive the boring middle parts, but I can only give it a 9, not a 10.