Faust
Tags: absurd, psychedelic, dark, magical realism, philosophical

Plot synopsis:
The demon Mephisto has a bet with an Archangel that he can corrupt a righteous man's soul and destroy in him what is divine. If he succeeds, the Devil will win dominion over earth.
The Devil delivers a plague to the village where Faust, an elderly alchemist, lives. Though he prays to stop the death and starvation, nothing happens. Disheartened, Faust throws his alchemy books in the fire, and then the Bible too. One book opens, showing how to have power and glory by making a pact with the Devil. He goes to a crossroads as described in the book's procedure and conjures up the forces of evil. When Mephisto appears at the roadside, he induces Faust to make a trial, 24-hour bargain with the Devil. Faust will have Mephisto's service till the sand runs out in an hourglass, at which time the Devil will rescind the pact. At first, Faust uses his new power to help the people of the village, but they shun him when they find out that he cannot face a cross. They stone him and he takes shelter in his home.
Faust then makes a further deal with Mephisto, who gives Faust back his youth and offers him earthly pleasures and a kingdom, in return for his immortal soul. Mephisto tempts Faust with the vision of a beautiful woman. He then takes him to a wedding feast in Parma, to meet the subject of his vision, an Italian Duchess. Faust departs with her, leaving the Devil to kill her groom. Just as Faust is making love to her the sands run out. He is obliged to seal the deal permanently in order to continue his love-making; he is Mephisto's forever.
Faust soon grows weary of debauchery and yearns for "Home". Here Faust falls in love with an innocent girl, Gretchen, who is charmed into loving Faust by a golden chain left by the Devil.
Faust comes to Gretchen's room. The devil rouses the mother who sees them and drops dead from shock. The devil then incites her soldier brother, Valentin, to run home to catch her lover. Valentin and Faust fight a duel. The Devil intervenes and stabs Valentin in the back. He then goes around town shouting "murder". Faust and Mephisto flee on the back of a hellish steed.
Valentin condemns Faust for his murder and his sister as a harlot in his dying breath. She is put in the stocks and subjected to jeering. The girl has a child (by Faust) and ends up in the streets. In a blizzard she sees a vision of a warm cradle and lays her child down on the snow, where the child dies. Soldiers find her and she is sent to the stake as a murderess. Faust sees what is happening and demands Mephisto take him there. Faust arrives just as the fire has been started to burn his lover. Faust wishes he had never asked to have his youth back. Mephisto smashes the mirror with Faust's reflection and he loses his youth. He runs through the assembled mob towards Gretchen; and it is as an old man that Faust throws himself onto the fire to be with his beloved.
Gretchen recognizes Faust and sees him in her heart as a young man again as the fire consumes them together. Their spirits rise to the heavens. The angel reveals to Mephisto that he has lost the bet because Love has triumphed over all.

Review: There are also a bunch of insane devil marionettes and the whole thing has the vibe of a medieval Punch and Judy show.Probably the main thing I liked about FAUST was the fact that, although it is a fairly surreal film, it doesn't go out of it's way to be strange for strangeness's sake [like the Czech film DAISIES or the Georgian REPENTANCE, though those are okay movies].
Sure, you have bizarre goings-on like a stop-motion fetus in a jar growing old and turning into a skull, but many of the details you thought were unrelated to the story all wrap up in a very pleasing manner.Of course, not all of your questions will be answered.
We played FAUST on our TV just tonight, and at least ten customers were intrigued enough to stop what they were doing and watch it for a little while--far more people than when we played JERSEY GIRL the other day.
Sure, FAUST is not for everybody, because not everybody likes unusual or even minorly challenging movies.
"Faust" is a wonderful blend of real-time and stop-motion storytelling by a master of the surreal.
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.
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.
The classic tale of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil, is given a strange twist.
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.
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"..
Surrealism tends to fall in one of 2 categories:(1) Random, confounding, absurd images best enjoyed under the influence of psychomorphic drugs(2) Careful, structured, lucid themes augmented by unusual visuals, all of which is designed to raise our understanding beyond what is "real"Or, I could also say that Surrealism tends to fall in one of 2 categories:(1) Sucky movies(2) Awesome moviesI'm happy to report that in both cases, this film is a #2.
Svankmajer has that same creative spirit, the same eye for the bizarre and yet the same intelligence in presentation that makes for great art.
Svankmajer has a fantastic sense of humour, too, so you never get the feeling that he's some pompous, pretentious jerk showing off what he can do with a camera.This movie's hallmark, as with much of Svankmajer's work, is the fantastic use of puppetry.
This is truly a fantastic work.An important note: You should really read Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus" before watching this movie.
Jan Svankmajer probably has visions and dreams that few of us would want to have, but luckily for us he's so creative and talented and all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips with a mound of clay and (in this case) marionettes that he can put them all on display on film.
His version of Faust is sometimes confusing, bewildering, and, as I gathered from not reading the original play or (sadly) not yet seeing the Murnau silent feature, not altogether makes a lot of sense.
This is of course shown at one pivotal moment in the film, but if you think you know what to expect from this outcome or how it's presented you might have to rethink things.If you've seen Svankmajer's other films, however, like Alice, then some of his approach shouldn't seem too far out...
In this case it's not as non-dialog laden as Alice, as there are often scenes with the marionettes going on and on with their dialogs, and then with the man and the Satan figure him/itself (whether it's a man or an 'it' I can't say for sure, as Svankmajer makes it a being who materializes first as some skull, then into a near reflection of the man himself as some crazy theologian).
This is key.But beyond simply that, it's just a pure pleasure to take in how the filmmaker mixes the elements, tricks it up on the audience (i.e. after the marionettes inside for so long, they bust out into the streets without puppeteer's hands), and with the stop motion, and the moments of Bunuelian surrealism with the man going between puppet form and reality, and then out in the middle of some field.
Jan Svankajer's feature film follow up to his masterpiece Alice is a rather free interpretation of the classic and often referenced tale of Faust.
Like in 'Alice', Svankmajer approaches the story in a unique and original fashion, both conceptually and visually - as usual, he mixes various genres and art forms, combining live actors, puppetry and claymotion.
The film shows Svankmajer's brilliant creativity and imagination, and his fantastic and unique stop-motion technique, at their best; even though I find it only slightly inferior to 'Alice' (the overdubbed voices are again annoying, but much better than on 'Alice').
It has a wonderful surreal and dark atmosphere, some brilliant character designs and even a couple of scenes that are quite entertaining (like the old man who collects legs).
I adore the way Mephistopheles turns himself into a clay mirror of Faust himself, the head-changing puppet which is both devil and angel, and the delicate transformation of Faust turning from man to puppet and back.
If you're a fan of Svankmajer, or are interested in classic animation and puppetry, buy Faust now..
Grotesque, macabre but with a very weird sense of humour present at all times, this stop-motion animation / puppet & real actors film has to be one of the strangest films.
Actually in the beginning I was not quite linking to the character Faust, as he was too alienated in whatever happened - but while it went on, it began to make sense in a deeper level than the simple surrealism I had thought in the first place.For all people interested in strange, weird films, black humour & fed up with the trash Hollywood serves us, then go for this spectacular film!.
The first time I saw 'Faust', I was instantly compelled, and completely indulged in it's content, framing, sound, atmosphere..if you are a Svankmajer fan, or just finding out about his work, this is one film that I recommend owning.
Svankmajers 'Faust' has become one of my number 1 favorite films, of all time.
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.
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.
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.".
A very artistically playfully free film with the use of stop motion which must take a hell of a lot of work.
This film is full of alchemical humour with the use of marionettes and what not.
Svankmajer is profoundly imaginative and consistent in his creativity, his work is pretty astounding.
Here he plays around with the myth of Dr Faustus with the use of very diabolical life size marionettes and demons from hell who offer our main Czech actor all that he could possibly want in return for his soul.
A surreal, masterful blend of reality and stop-motion fantasy.
Svankmajer's film uses a great range of archetypes in this film that appeal to our sense of symbolism.
Many scenes in the film have the poetic resonance of dreams: a cryptic note hurriedly pressed into our hands by a stranger, a dimly lit vaudeville stage, dark, grimly portentous puppets at the threshold, magic, illusion, damnation.
Using the Faust legend as a starting point, the film explores such themes as predestination, religion, fear, folly and conjures a mesmerising film that I will watch many times for its enchanting originality.
This is my favorite one within the 4 works I have seen, which are Little Oik, Conspirations of Pleasure and Alice in different times.
Every time, I saw Svankmajer's work, I was a bit shocked and excited.And I can always see marionettes, tongue, biting food, juice, repeat (which quite annoying, cos the repeat is beyond the limit you can bear).
Like the clown read spell to control the movement of the devil again and again, same thing happened in Alice.I found Svankmajer like whipping, like close-up shots of the scene when people biting food.I broke laughter when Faust had sex with the female marionettes and found she was the devil in disguise.I think Frust will be much better if more conversations are deleted and some plots are cut.
Cos people with patience like me are so few.In conclusion, it is a nightmarish marionette movie for children but a funny one for adults, isn't it?
There has been numerous stage and film adaptations of Goethe's tragedy Faust, where the eponymous hero sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for the Devil serving Faust during his time on the Earth, as long as upon death, Faust will serve him in return in Hell.
F.W. Murnau's 1926's Faust is probably the most acclaimed film adaptation, whilst Istvan Szabo's 1981 masterpiece Mephisto transformed the setting of the play to WWII-era Germany.
I would imagine that there has never been such an imaginative and unpredictable interpretation than animator Jan Svankmajer's 1994 effort.
Combining live-action, stop motion animation, and puppetry, the Czech's various talents come together to make a surreal, and brilliant, piece of art.The film begins as Faust (Petr Capek) finds a map on a train that leads him to an abandoned theatre.
The play/story goes on, as Faust plays with his new powers, and is frequently influenced by the Devil.It's quite hard to write a formal review about a film that had its impact on me a couple of hours after the credits have rolled, and some scenes where I genuinely did not know what was happening.
It plays out like a sort of medieval Punch and Judy show, with some strangely creepy characters.
It's undoubtedly quite childish and playful, but at the same time it is dark and complex, and more than anything else, frequently surreal.In my favourite scene, the Fool character who is reading Faust's textbook discovers that he can the Devil whenever he likes and dismiss him just as quickly.
Personally, I like this film.
I think, though, that Jan Svankmajer fans are likely to be disappointed.
Svankmajer is known as a stop-motion animator, but his Faust contains little animation.
Actually, the medium that is most abundant in Faust is marionettes.
This isn't as interesting as stop-motion animation, but it still works.
I had wanted to see this film for a long time, and had big expectations I sat down with my purchased copy, but unfortunately it didn't quite make it for me.
I think it's those annoying marionettes spending half the movie running around making silly noises.
like the use of claymation,stop-motion and life sized puppets for some of the characters.
Well, I'll admit the marionettes can be a bit annoying, but really, I thought the movie was pretty damn good.
It is a very creative piece and a unique version of Goethe's Faust (not the play).
Faust was the first Jan Svankmajer's movie I've seen and I've been literally stunned by his wicked and exotic interpretation of this classic plot.
This is not a literal adaptation of the book written by Goethe, but a surreal combination of the different version of the original story (Like, for example, the play of Cristopher Marlowe) with stop-motion animation, live action performances and puppets.
It's easy to see in what way filmmakers like Terry Gilliam, the brothers Quay were influenced by the astounding work of Jan Svankmajer: There is a great, dark atmosphere, filled with bizarre creatures and strange situations, like in the movies of those directors.
If you love dark, surreal films, then you will like a lot this..
The directory, however, is done by one of the greatest and most influential stop-motion-animation masters and puppeteers, greatly appreciated by the well known Quay Brothers (see The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer) as well as the others.
This means that very imaginative and expressive combination of animation, string puppets theater and acting is expected.When one thinks about the story of Faust, the question that often pops in one's head is what would be the price on my soul.
Jan Svankmajer(Alice/Conspirators Of Pleasure), who I've been watching a lot of, as of late, has a story that incorporates elements of the Faust play, book, and folk tales, in a unique stop animation/claymation/ and puppetry driven surrealist film.
A man receives a map on a subway from a stranger follows it to strange theater, housing life size puppets manipulated by always out of sight puppeteers(only their hands are visible), where he sells his soul to Lucifer, making himself Lucifer's servant until death, and is unmade by his hubris.
What's interesting about it is how he combines the forces that influence man with those that control the puppets.
Jan Svankmajer is becoming one of my favorite filmmakers.
His Alice movie introduced me to a new world of cinematic animation and surrealism.
Again, he has chosen to adapt one of my favorite books, Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.This movie has less stop-motion animation than Alice, but it has more surreal imagery.
Again Svankmajer shows a talent to create scenes full of dread, dark humor and mystery.
Characters quote from the original play, sets change around instantly, opera invades the movie halfway in, men turn into puppets, plasticine creatures become human.
Other times he shows an audience watching the play within the movie, and sometimes Faustus can't even distinguish which is which.This is a great surrealist movie, perhaps superior to Alice.
Anyone who enjoys Marlowe's play or a good strange movie should get a kick out of this..
Like "Alice in Wonderland", the story of Faust has been almost infinitely adapted to various interpretations based on the nationalist and socialistic concerns of the time, making it perfect material for Svankmajer to play with.
In terms of Svankmajer's other work, this fits more closely to his 1970 short "Don Sanche", but overall it's the most populated movie of his I've seen thus far.
Here, he tries a little bit to provide a world populated with extras and background, but it isn't long before he removes the action (once again) to an abandoned theatre wherein he can get his puppets and claymation to work.Instead of a straight-up adaptation, Svankmajer plays it loose and surreal, introducing multiple layers of narrative and letting them dance with each other.
This approach to storytelling is matched by the mixed media he includes with life-sized puppets, stop-motion animation, claymation, and live action, sometimes at the same time, sometimes taking over each other, and sometimes giving the floor to another.
It's interesting that the primary recognizable Faust narrative is contained in puppetry, meaning that even behind the metaphysical story of the fateful struggle over a man's soul are unnamed human hands authoring the tale.
On one hand, an argument could be made that the story doesn't really even start until the second half of the movie, meaning it could have been cut to about 45 minutes in length; on the other hand, like any serious animator's work, it's really much more about movement, and it never really drags.Of all of Svankmajer's work, this is one that seems like previous knowledge of him would be helpful going into.
A lot of the symbolism, such as all of the food that gets eaten, the disembodied leg, the clay baby, and the close-ups of mouths are all much more easy to understand as shorthand to his usual concerns; I feel like had I not recognized them as such, I could have gotten bogged down trying to figure it all out and the movie would have been a bit more confusing.
The scene in the dressing room where Faust converses to an always metamorphosing Mephistopheles is really where all of the imagery and themes come together in their smoothest and most actualized forms--AND it's enough to disturb for weeks.
I especially like the little angels and demons coming out of the big angels and demons; that scene also reflects the "consuming" nature of a lot of the earlier imagery.Anyway, definitely for die-hard fans of Svankmajer, though others might be a little put off, if not by its imagery, then by its pacing.--PolarisDiB.
For mainly a Czech film, this is a good surreal film with interesting puppet and stop motion sequences.
I can really only work out most of the beginning, where Petr Cepek as Faust is given a map in the street from some guy.
It seems to be Faust has been given some powers and rule over the many puppet and clay characters, or something like that.