Retrospective 2016

Faust

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
DEU 1926
114 min
V'16

Light and movement: all Murnau’s experiments and discoveries came to full fruition in FAUST. The beginning and the end are fugues of light, orchestrated with incomparable mastery. The clash between the explosive brightness of the archangel and the darkness which surrounds the devil, in this “heavenly prologue” is a piercing vision, apogee of the art of the silent film. The gentle sunlight which seems to colour the sky at the end becomes the counterpoint which brings promise of redemption. (Lotte Eisner)
It is not the decor that determines the gesture, it is often the gesture, in this extravaganza, that determines the decor. The presence of magic, even if it isn’t continuous, distorts the relationship between man and his environment. A matter of serious consequence, because it is generally the relationship between the hero and his crushing milieu which, in Murnau, gives birth to tragedy. It is a tragic blow, as in TABU and SUNRISE, when landscape and natural elements, storms or waves, act as destiny. (Eric Rohmer in: “The Organization of Space in Murnau’s Faust”)

Credits
  • Gösta Ekman - Faust
  • Emil Jannings - Mephisto
  • Camilla Horn - Gretchen
  • Frida Richard - Gretchens Mother
  • Wilhelm Dieterle - Valentin
  • Hans Kyser
  • Carl Hoffmann
  • Robert Basilice
  • Robert Herlth
  • Walter Röhrig
  • Gerhard Gruber (am 6.11.)
  • Robert Herlth
  • Walter Röhrig
Universum-Film AG (UFA)
35 mm
bw
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