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Editor's Note
Murnau's FAUST stars the inimitable Emil Jannings as Mephistopheles, to whom the hapless and aging Faust sells his soul for renewed youth as well as wealth and power. Based on Goethe's interpretation of the age old legend, Murnau merely uses the story as a starting point for an incredibly phantasmagoric vision of the struggle between good and evil. Beginning with a flourish, Murnau introduces Mephistopheles with one of the most famous sequences in film history, finding Jannings being birthed as a disgusting, primordial creature from the heavens and banished to the netherworld. Baroque, bizarre, and unforgettable, FAUST is one of the German master's greatest triumphs. Silent movie with English and German subtitles. The Kino version is restored with a symphonic soundtrack.
Plot Summary
A visually stunning adaptation of Goethe's magnum opus as directed by one of silent cinema's greatest masters, F. W. Murnau.| Using ingenious special effects and a wide variety of baroque visual techniques, Murnau creates a shadowy medieval world where the occult mixes with the everyday in a beautiful cinematic alchemy. Illuminating a lost universe of spiritual possibilities that seem mere superstition today, he relates the classic tale of an ambitious young man who sells his soul to Lord Satan for corporeal wealth and success. The film features a stunning opening sequence where Faust is literally borne through the skies of Europe on the wings of Lucifer. A recklessly inventive masterpiece.
| Features | Region 1 | | Keep Case | | Full Frame - 1.33 | | Audio:
| Digital Stereo - Orchestral Score | | Additional Release Material:
| Featurette: "UFA Studios 1925: The Making of FAUST" | | Interactive Features:
| Scene Access | | Interactive Menus | | Text/Photo Galleries:
| Essay: by Film Historian Jan Christopher Horak |
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| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Kino International |
| Release Date: 6/18/2007 |
| Running Time: 116 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1926 | | Catalog ID: 2072 | | UPC: 00738329020729 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Available Audio Tracks: English Title Card | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: B&W |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...Its real seduction is Jannings' turn as Mephisto. His plumply repugnant devil emits the sweet stench of brimstone..." 06/08/2001 p.54USA Today
"...One of the director's most stirring works..." 03/13/1996 p.6D Sight and Sound
"FAUST's two halves create a dialectical web opposing drama to comedy, darkness to light, repression to sexuality..." 08/01/2006 p.96 Entertainment Weekly
"[Y]ou'll be knocked out cold by Murnau's indelible images, haunting use of shadows, and trippy, dreamlike expressionist sets." -- Grade: A 03/20/2009 |
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