Faust (1926)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

Soul for Sale

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Faust on DVD

After Murnau's international success with The Last Laugh, he was given carte blanche for his upcoming projects. The very expensive and mesmerizing Faust was one result of this. Based on Goethe's play, the film tells the story of an old man who sells his soul to the devil (otherwise known as Mephisto, played by Emil Jannings) in order to fight off the pestilence plaguing his hometown. The film begins with a jaw-dropping scene -- with amazing use of light and shadow -- in which Good and Evil spirits bet on whether or not Faust will reclaim his soul. But on earth, Mephisto keeps upping the stakes, offering Faust youth, women, and anything else he wants. Some of the "romantic" moments in flower-filled fields don't seem to belong, but the overall film is truly masterful. Filmmaker and critic Eric Rohmer wrote a monograph on Faust in which he marveled that no other film showed such complete control over every conceivable element.

DVD Details: This Kino DVD boasts an excellent transfer and a good musical score, plus an amazing photo gallery of Murnau at work. In 2009, Kino issued a new, remastered edition.

Starring: Emil Jannings, Gösta Ekman, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard, William Dieterle, Yvette Guilbert, Eric Barclay, Hanna Ralph, Werner Fuetterer
Written by: Hans Kyser, based on the play by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Directed by: F.W. Murnau
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 116 minutes
Date: July 20, 2001