Customer Reviews

Faust [VHS]

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Wonderful blend of real-time and stop-motion storytelling by a master of the surreal. An apparently ordinary everyman is led by curiousity into a dilapidated building which turns out to be a strange cross of theatre, a puppeteer's workshop, and an alchemical laboratory. Suddenly, he finds himself becoming the legendary character Dr. Faust, selling his soul to the devil to gain magical powers.
Jan Svankmajer is the real sorcerer here and blends stage sets with real settings, seven foot puppets with live actors, and makes magic of it all.
The film has been dubbed for English audiences, but I have never seen a less obtrusive film dub. The voice performances are excellent and actually add to the surreal quality of the film.
Just one caution: This is not a "family" film. There is some adult material, so don't confuse this with Bass and Rankin style claymation.

The thing about Jan Svankmajer is that he makes you rethink how you view reality. When dealing with the supernatural, this plays perfectly.

I need not go into the details of the story of Faust (this takes from 2 of the legends of Faust). What I will say is that it does what a great thriller film should do... scare without disgusting. The problem with modern horror is the intent on lots of blood and gore. That's not to say that is absent here, but it's used in such a surreal way that goes beyond the concept of hollywood. The use of Puppets (marionettes are used a lot) makes this unique. In fact, the puppets look so worn down, it adds to the atmosphere that something evil is lurking here.

There are many elements that don't make sense while watching this. However, when the end arrives, you will understand everything that happened. No loose ends are left for the imagination, but at the same time, everything is left to it as well. Brilliant.

This is, to an extent, an "Arts" film for the US, especially since it's foreign. Don't let this disuade you from checking it out, and don't give up on it early because it's wierd. Sit it out, and you should be pleasantly suprised in the end.

Jan Svankmajer was during the 70's the headmaster of the black theater of Prague and actually the mind of the surrealist group in this same city. Black humor, hermetist thought, shocking analogies, traditional czec puppets and different animation techniques are the common elements in his films that normally work like a deformed mirror of human behaviour using fine irony and caricature to show us the absurd of social conventions and its repressive effects, and the thin border that separate man and automaton in mechanizied societies.

Goethe's and Marlowe's Faust, an opera of french composer Gounot and dark alchemy are the inspiration of this surreal, original and disturbing film, where he transfers to the famous myth his anguish about human alienation, blending live-action and human puppets with cool stop-motion animation and combining much of the ingredients and techniques of his previous films. In my opinion this film and his Jabberwocky, a free adaptation of Lewis Carrol's absurd poem, are two excellent examples of the posibilities of imagination and cinema .

This was simply the most visually and conceptually mesmerizing film I've seen in many years. It seamlessly melds the classic "Faust" story (a man selling his soul to the devil for a lifetime of earthly powers but who desperately regrets it at the end of his days) with modern-day capitalist society seen from the arresting perspective of Prague, The Czech Republic---where communism fell only recently, in 1989, and where people are still adjusting to the monumental cultural shift therein.

Even though the film is mostly silent, it's hard to take your eyes off the screen. Svankmejer is almost never predictable, and the surrealism and magic realism he infuses the film with keeps you constantly guessing what's coming next, and usually finding yourself unable to do so correctly. Much of it reminds me of "Alice in Wonderland"---you are transported into a parallel universe where all sorts of bizarre inexplicable things keep happening, it all makes no sense yet it does make sense. Of course, Svankmejer's famoust clay-mation plays a HUGE part in creating this surreal otherworld (he did the clay-mation for a couple of Peter Gabriel's videos, most famously "Sledgehamer"). After a while you simply give up and just sit back and just EXPERIENCE the film without trying to put it into any sort of predictable logical structure---which is exactly how you later start to see one emerging.

Truly, cinematic artistry of the highest order.

This is a very good retelling of the FAUST legend, borrowing evenly from Goethe & Marlowe's versions...but it is also a unique entity in itself, in that it mixes in the Surreal--yes, but not just any surrealism but a surrealism with a distinctly CZECH flavor...This film certainly pays indirect homage to Franz Kafka, and has a wry, dark, very Czech sense of humor to it all throughout. This film made me laugh out loud with wicked laughter more than once. If you've ever read/liked Hasek, Hrabal, Kundera, Monikova, et. al. you will love this movie.

I must state in conclusion that my review is biased; I'm positively in love with most all of Svankmajer's works, and with Czech writers/literature/cinema in general. But his version of FAUST is by far my favorite. (That someone could give this film only 1 star blows my mind; That's verging on slander, IMHO)

Here, Svankmeyer basically juxtaposes a staged showing of the play FAUST with the story of the man who is kidnapped into playing Faust. As the film rolls on, the character's story and the actor's story become more and more indistinguishable. 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. I still don't understand the significance of the theater sets versus real scenery, or why Faust sometimes appears in his costume and sometimes in his regular trench coat. But I'm glad I don't completely get it--I like a movie to provoke thought rather than explain everything outright.

Also, man, what's with the other comments saying this is an art-house flick, or only pretentious snobs will enjoy it? Sure, FAUST is not for everybody, because not everybody likes unusual or even minorly challenging movies. Don't let the reverse-snobs scare you away

Are you sick of Hollywood slick 2 hour commercials? I am, So I have started watching the films of European Artists, I say Artists because thats what they are as opposed to Hollywood cash hounds, except for maybe David Lynch, Tim Burton and a few other visionaries. Faust is Svankmeyers version of Goethe's tale of a deal with the devil for answers to the enigmas of the universe.
Played out in a surreal marrionette show in some parts, with cool stop motion and claymation, that is way cooler than CGI (Ray Harryhausen anyone?) European cinema's budgets are way lower than USA's but I think that keeps them more handmade like a painting as opposed to a computer made image (advertisement) If you like a film which you have to figure out the mysteries of symbolism, then you will enjoy Faust, its a movie you can watch again and again and see new things. If you are a fan of surreal or visionary cinema like City of Lost Children, Brazil ,Eraserhaed, Dr. Caligari, Santa Sangre, Suspiria, Nightmare before Christmas, etc. thn you will probably dig this.

I've seen this movie about 4 times now.... and I'm more drawn in and engulfed by it every time. I usually don't like to throw words like 'genius' and 'masterpiece' around, but, I'm beginning to wonder about Jan's vision and construction of this film. The more I see this work, the less fault I can find with it. It's a brilliant venture into surreality with the classic story of Faust set as the dreamy backdrop, the outline to a strange nightmare that is as much humorous and odd as it is eerie and frightening. I highly recommend this film to any fan of the surreal... if you like Lynch's stuff for example, you should enjoy this. It's one of those movies that keeps you flashing back to it the day after.

This is such a wonderfully imaginative blending of various Faust stories, a kind of commentary on Faust as cultural icon. Amazing that such a thing could appear in the late Twentieth Century when few could reference all the references, when even the Faust phenomenon is fading. The use of puppets and stop-motion--the imagery overall-- is exceptional. This is Svankmajer's "Late Quartets" or "Missa Solemnis"--a grand uncompromising statement by a great artist. Recommended to those who have the patience, maturity, and good fortune to be able to appreciate such complex and demanding works of art.

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. Faust is sometimes an ordinary man playing the role of Faust, sometimes a puppet and sometimes Faust himself. 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 for nothing else, then for the visual side by itself Faust is well worth seeing. If you're a fan of Svankmajer, or are interested in classic animation and puppetry, buy Faust now.