Faust

1926 [GERMAN]

Action / Drama / Fantasy / Horror

25
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 91% · 34 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 91% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.1/10 10 18019 18K

pest based on novel or book sale of soul pact with the devil eternal youth romance

Plot summary

God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war over Earth.

Director

F.W. Murnau Photo
F.W. Murnau

Top cast

Frida Richard Photo
Frida Richard as Gretchens Mutter / Marguerite's Mother
Lothar Müthel Photo
Lothar Müthel as Mönch / Friar
Eric Barclay Photo
Eric Barclay as Herzog von Parma / Duke of Parma
Gösta Ekman Photo
Gösta Ekman as Faust
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
985.67 MB
968*720
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
19.98 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 3
1.79 GB
1440*1072
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
19.98 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 36

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Lavinia15 8 / 10

Immortal Classic

(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.
Reviewed by aqua_swing 9 / 10

A must see film

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.
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