The Age of Commercialism

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I was watching this because my brother is a huge fan of German expressionism and recommended it to me. I quite like this movie and Nosferatu. I don't think either of them are as good as Metropolis but each are worth watching. The plot is that Satan wagers with an Archangel that if he can corrupt the kindest soul he can find into being a selfish, callous bastard then he can have The Earth to do what he likes with. He chooses Faust and at first he succeeds by having Faust sell his soul for the ability to perform Jesus miracles to a plague set up by Satan but it quickly catches on that Faust's miraculous power of healing people isn't God's work and they attempt to stone him to death, he wishes his way out of it in the name of Satan and Satan then decides to play the card of he tried helping others and it failed so why not be a selfish man by asking for youth, women, whatever he wants. He accepts but starts to loosen his grip on Satan after falling in love with a goodhearted catholic. Things go out of control thanks to Satan wanting an iron grip on what happens and it ends with the archangel declaring Stan has lost thanks to the power of love. The effects for the time are brilliant, maybe not Metropolis jaw-dropping but it for the most part holds up even today (you probably have to look twice to see that the man playing Faust was 30 because of the old man make-up) and I quite like the story even if the love part feels forced. I don't really like the acting of the silent era and with this movie it's no exception. While I don't mind the ending I feel as though it's been done a million times since (or maybe even before as well) and today, just comes across as a bit cheesy and I thought in places it was a little bit slow. I would say this is well worth the watch if you're a fan of silent cinema. It may not be as good as Nosferatu or Metropolis but it's pretty damn close.

The demon Mephisto (Emil Jannings) wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul. Apparently, director F.W. Murnau wanted Lillian Gish to play Gretchen, but she insisted that the film be shot by her favorite cinematographer, Charles Rosher. Murnau instead cast newcomer Camilla Horn, whom he had met on the set of "Tartuffe" (1925), where she was a double for Lil Dagover. Now, I would much rather have seen Gish or Dagover in this role, but Horn holds her own and makes a mark on German film history.The imagery is what sells this film: from the beginning with the creepy four horsemen, to Mephisto unleashing the plague, and beyond. The story is a classic (I mean, this is Goethe we are talking about) but it is even more classic because of the way Murnau was able to present it in 1926, a time when special effects were in their infancy.The only unfortunate this is that Karl Freund had to drop out, as this would have been yet one more classic film to put on his resume.

For me, along with Metropolis, The Gold Rush and The Passion of Joan of Arc, this is one of the finest movies of the 1920s. In design and direction especially, Faust is a masterpiece. It has a great story with a strong operatic feel, and the characters are great, Mephistopheles is especially memorable.F.W.Murnau's direction is superb. This is especially true in the duel between Faust and Mephistopheles which defines the term epic in every sense, and part of the reasons why it works so well is the wonderfully malevolent atmosphere that Murnau, Robert Herlth and Walter Rohrig create. The music fits amazingly well and the story despite one or two scenes in the middle that drag just a tad is compelling.The acting is very good. Gosta Ekman does a fine job conveying his character complete with a believable transformation from decrepitude to youth, while Camilla Horn is suitably pure. As the imposing demon Mephistopheles, Emil Jannings with a magnetic appearance and presence steals the film, while he does keep some of his comedic qualities there are times where he is quite terrifying.Other than Jannings' performance and Murnau's direction, what makes Faust such a masterpiece are the expressionistic images which inspired by Casper David Frederich's paintings are amazing, with excellent cinematography and sculptures of smoke, light and steam to compliment them. All in all, a brilliant film and one of the best of its decade. 10/10 Bethany Cox

To fans of early horror, director F.W. Murnau is best known for 'Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens,' his chilling 1922 vampire film, inspired by Bram Stoker's famous novel. However, his equally impressive 'Faust' is often overlooked, despite some remarkable visuals, solid acting, a truly sinister villain, and an epic tale of love, loss and evil. The story concerns Faust (Gösta Ekman), an old and disheartened alchemist who forms a pact with Satan's evil demon, Mephisto (Emil Jannings). As God and the Devil wage a war over Earth, the two opposing powers reach a tentative agreement: the entire fate of Mankind will rest on the soul of Faust, who must redeem himself from his selfish deeds before the story is complete.Relying very heavily on visuals, 'Faust' contains some truly stunning on screen imagery, most memorably the inspired shot of Mephisto towering ominously over a town, preparing to sow the seeds of the Black Death. A combination of clever optical trickery and vibrant costumes and sets makes the film an absolute delight to watch, with Murnau employing every known element – fire, wind, smoke, lightning – to help produce the film's dark tone. Double exposure, in which a piece of film is exposed twice to two different images, is used extremely effectively, being an integral component in many of the visual effects shots. In fact, aside perhaps from Victor Sjöström's 'Körkarlen (1921),' I can't remember double exposure being used to such remarkable effect.It's often difficult to judge performances in a silent film, but I've certainly got a generally positive attitude towards the acting in 'Faust.' I was particularly astonished by Gösta Ekman, whose character, given limitless evil control, is transformed from a withering old man to a handsome youth. Despite my impression that two different actors had been used, it seems that Ekman convincingly portrayed both the old and young man, which is a credit to both the actor and Murnau's make-up department (namely, Waldemar Jabs). Emil Jannings plays Mephisto with a sort of mysterious slyness, always one step ahead and always up to no good. Whilst I wasn't completely blown away by young actress Camilla Horn as Gretchen – the woman with whom Faust falls in love – her acting is adequate enough, and she certainly shows some very raw emotion in the scene's final act, when her forbidden romance with Faust sends her life in a downward spiral.'Faust' was F.W. Murnau's final film in Germany, his next project being the acclaimed American romance, 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927).' At the time, the film was the most expensive ever made by the German studio, UFA (Universum Film AG), though it would be surpassed the following year by Fritz Lang's classic science-fiction epic, 'Metropolis.' Notably, there were five substantially different versions of 'Faust' produced, several of these by the director himself: these include a German original version, a French version, a late German version, a bilingual version for European audiences, and an American cut compiled by Murnau especially for MGM in July 1926. Each of these altered particular scenes and camera angles, and often included material that would be more relevant to the target cultural audience (for example, the US version reportedly contains a joke about the American Prohibition era).At the heart of 'Faust' is a love story between the corrupted title character and his doomed love, Gretchen. I felt that the scenes when Faust is trying to coax Gretchen into loving him were the slowest parts of the film, much less exciting and invigorating than the darker and more effects-driven sequences that preceded and followed it. Nevertheless, F.W. Murnau's 'Faust' is an absolute gem of 1920s silent horror, and anybody who doesn't look out for it is very surely missing out on something special.