Rating: 
Summary: "We had FACES then - we didn't need words"
Review: Absolutely! Words are totally superfluous - this is a prime example of CINEMATIC ART.It is CAMILLA HORN who shines in this production. She rose out of relative obscurity to star this version of "Faust". Her acting is fresh, timeless, and on a par with Louise Brooks work. Fotunately, Lillian Gish [icon though she is] due to various "artistic requests" did not star, leaving us with this sensitive, untainted performance. Ms. Horn is contemporary, desirable, sensual and moving. [She's a young Bridget Fonda!] Also worthy of mention is the virile Wilhelm Dieterle as Ms. Horn's doomed brother. Costumes, lighting and set design, are superbly executed. One wonders what F.W. Murnau could achieve today with all of our "technological superiority". The special effects are memorable, especially the duel between good and evil, Jannings as Mephisto towering over the little hamlet, and the invocation sequence at the cross roads: The appearance of Mephisto as the sinister peasant (?) with glowing eyes! How about the fire-rings surrounding Faust? [Coppola's "Dracula?"] TIMOTHY BROCK'S original score is an excellent echancement to this work - in digital stereo [great in "surround mode"]. This is a must for the serious film student / collector. Trivia: Doesn't Ed Harris look like F.W.? See the production stills...... [A fresh alternative to "Star Wars"]
Rating:
Summary: Great silent film adaption of a classic story
Review: As is to be expected of a great director, (F.W. Murnau, "Nosferatu", "The Man Who Laughs"), "Faust" delivers a brilliant adaption of this classic story concerning the perennial subject of good versus evil. Though, not apparently the first telling of this story, (IMDB lists 5 previous films with this title), it's perhaps, (to my knowledge) the oldest surviving version available. Its brilliance deserves preservation.
In a world struggling against pestilence, famine, and disease Mephisto decides he can attempt a hostile take-over through a real estate deal. The Archangel Michael agrees, that if Mephisto can win Faust over to his side, he gets the kit and kaboodle. Faust is a tired old doctor/alchemist who is disappointed at his inability to offer healing to those with the rampant-running plague. Soon, he calls on Mephisto and strikes up a deal with him. Mephisto gives him youth and pleasures of the world, until Faust falls for a simple girl.
This film is brilliantly done, with fantastic effects and brilliant storytelling. Some scenes are downright eerie, like Mephisto standing over the town with ravens wings. Emil Jennings plays a brilliant Mephisto, somewhere between the brilliant humor of mythical Loki and the dark evil vision of Zarathrustra's Angra Mainyu. Gösta Ekman is brilliant as Faust as well, from withered old man to young libertine, he shows talent rarely seen on the screen in recent time.
Though there aren't a lot of features on this disc, (including a nice photo gallery, a link to Kino's website, and scene selection), the print is beautiful for its age, and the music recently recorded and very appropriate. The price is a little high, but your not purchasing a sad copy for a few bucks, but a masterpiece both in original content and painstaking preservation. This film is worthy of being in any collection interest in great filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: This is why we have movies today!
Review: Do you know that many older people dream all or in part in black and white? Our dreams (and perhaps that is what movies are) were framed by our visions of movies and TV. Murnau's, "Faust" is one of those visual images that sets in your mind and comes forward when you reflect on movies. It is that good, it is that powerful. Like his later movie, "Sunrise," Faust is a visual feast that is more colorful in black and white than it could possibly be in color. (I ALWAYS maintain that Kurosawa is more colorful in b-&-w than in color)
The story is simple. It is the story of Faust, a man who sells his soul to the Devil. The movie does slow down in the middle. But the imagry of the beginning and the end are worthy of the finest film crafting of all time.
I taught histoy for many years and an important facet of history is getting and understanding of where the world of today came from. We have cars because 100 years ago people grew fond ofr cars. We have airplanes because 100 years ago people grew to want planes. And we have movies because 100 years ago people made them part of their lives. Faust is one of those beautiful works of art that people love then and can still admire today.
Praise goes to Kino for producing a clear well scored DVD of a work of art for us to study and admire.
Rating:
Summary: This is why we have movies today!
Review: Do you know that many older people dream all or in part in black and white? Our dreams (and perhaps that is what movies are) were framed by our visions of movies and TV. Murnau's, "Faust" is one of those visual images that sets in your mind and comes forward when you reflect on movies. It is that good, it is that powerful. Like his later movie, "Sunrise," Faust is a visual feast that is more colorful in black and white than it could possibly be in color. (I ALWAYS maintain that Kurosawa is more colorful in b-&-w than in color)
The story is simple. It is the story of Faust, a man who sells his soul to the Devil. The movie does slow down in the middle. But the imagry of the beginning and the end are worthy of the finest film crafting of all time.
I taught histoy for many years and an important facet of history is getting and understanding of where the world of today came from. We have cars because 100 years ago people grew fond ofr cars. We have airplanes because 100 years ago people grew to want planes. And we have movies because 100 years ago people made them part of their lives. Faust is one of those beautiful works of art that people love then and can still admire today.
Praise goes to Kino for producing a clear well scored DVD of a work of art for us to study and admire.
Rating:
Summary: Epitome of an Epic
Review: For all intents and purposes, this is THE silent film to own, if one can own just one. It has everything. Drama, special effects, comedy, allegory, myth, good vs evil. Murnau is a director par excellence and displays his visionary propensities to splendid effect in this classic Goethe tale. The inimitable Emil Jannings plays a hearty, red-blooded Mephisto. Jannings as a silent screen actor invokes in one look, or a singular movement, what some contemporary actors could not hope to capture within a fete of endless dialogue. Camilla Horn plays a heartbreaking Gretchen, and the scene in which she wanders the snow with her dying baby is as evocative as it gets. Grab a hankie and do not feel shamed to find yourself swept along for the ride, of which there is a most splendid one included in this film, where Faust and Mephisto glide above a world in miniature. Amazing, exhilarating, absorbing. You shan't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Epitome of an Epic
Review: For all intents and purposes, this is THE silent film to own, if one can own just one. It has everything. Drama, special effects, comedy, allegory, myth, good vs evil. Murnau is a director par excellence and displays his visionary propensities to splendid effect in this classic Goethe tale. The inimitable Emil Jannings plays a hearty, red-blooded Mephisto. Jannings as a silent screen actor invokes in one look, or a singular movement, what some contemporary actors could not hope to capture within a fete of endless dialogue. Camilla Horn plays a heartbreaking Gretchen, and the scene in which she wanders the snow with her dying baby is as evocative as it gets. Grab a hankie and do not feel shamed to find yourself swept along for the ride, of which there is a most splendid one included in this film, where Faust and Mephisto glide above a world in miniature. Amazing, exhilarating, absorbing. You shan't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous film but leave the sound off
Review: For the most part I have little to add to what others have written - it's a beautiful film, essential viewing, and it looks great on this DVD.
BUT, as regards the newly composed score, although the composer has done a fine job matching the drama (perhaps a bit too closely at times) -- it receives an truly poor performance (by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra??!?) -- the strings especially are not able to play the music with any reliable degree of accuracy, which makes for many painful moments. (Some parts sound ok -- woodwinds, and solo harp especially.) This is really an unfortunate, even embarrassing mark against an otherwise fine release -- unless the goal was to recreate the sound of an under-rehearsed cinema orchestra sight reading a score circa 1926, in which case it succeeds.
Rating:
Summary: Immortal classic
Review: Goethe's FAUST means for german-speaking countries what HAMLET means to the English-speaking world: the terror of schoolchildren forced to write essays and memorize its most famous quotations. Murnau's silent screen version offers us the unique opportunity to enjoy all the suspense of the play without being bothered by the immortal lines of its famous author...the version that I have seen was restored in 1995 by Luciano Berriatua and offers everything a film fan can hope for: Masterly direction, awesome visuals (at a time when the sets were built, not painted with a PC!), and knock-out performances. The divine force (personified by a youth with swan-wings) and Mephisto (Emil Jannings as black crow with goat-horns) struggle over world-domination and open the competition over Faust's (Gösta Ekman) soul. Mephisto spreads his wings around the city, and the plague breaks out. Unable to find a cure for the disease, Faust conjures up the devil. Mephisto, now the prototype of middle-aged gluttony, appears and offers Faust a try-out contract for one day. This poor old fellow gets his youth back, but the devil is a pretty good psychologist: The very moment when Faust is about to seduce the duchess of Parma, the most beautiful woman on earth, his sands have run out. Of course, now he is eager to sign the long-term contract...With a filthy smile, Mephisto draws the curtains of the four-poster. Carnal desire, however, cannot satisfy Faust for long. Innocence is, what tempts him now. Back in his home town, he falls in love with Margarethe (Camilla Horn), who is on her way to the church. Mephisto (Jannings, his upper half dressed like a shogun, his lower half clad in a skin-tight hose) on the other hand, gets hear-ache from her pious singing. The seduction scene would barely pass today's censors. Among other things, Mephisto mixes a love-potion for Mararethe's cousin Marthe. Heated up, the poor woman starts to chase Mephisto in an undecent manner. Some scenes are of unearthly beauty, others shocking to an unbearable degree: Margarethe put in the pillory - the crowd rallies to gape at her. She drags herself along, her baby in her arms, during a snow storm - no one will help her. The devil deceives her once more with the illusion of a cradle: She puts her baby to bed - only to discover that she buried it under a blanket of snow. The vision of Margarethe's crying face follows Faust over chains of mountains... Ekman later was Ingrid Bergman's partner in the swedish version of "Intermezzo"; The other stars went Hollywood. Wilhelm became "William" Dieterle, the famous director. Camilla Horn was John Barrymore's leading lady in "The Tempest" and "Eternal Love", and Jannings, of course, was the first actor ever to win an oscar. When he returned to Germany, they rolled out the red carpet for him. He remained the most renowned german actor until his death. Sadly, he also made some propaganda films, one of them (the anti-british "Ohm Kröger") is still blacklisted.
Rating:
Summary: Visually stunning but flawed
Review: Having watched Nosferatu recently, I've developed a bit of a Murnau "thing", and Faust has done nothing to dampen this. In some ways it's a similar film - figuratively, Mephisto is not unlike Dracula, and the use of the plague metaphor for societal decay is used in both films. Over 115 minutes Faust is neither even nor coherent enough to be in the same league as Nosferatu, though. The individual set pieces, however, thoroughly outdo anything in Murnau's Stoker adaptation.
The special effects are rudimentary, but boy do they pack some bang for their buck. The camerawork and heavily shadowed lighting lends a sombre and dreamy air to proceedings, and there are certain images, particularly at the beginning of the picture, which are astounding: Murnau's representation of the plague and Faust's invocation of the Devil (it reminded me of the strikingly similar Robert Johnson legend) are especially memorable scenes. For all that, the middle of the film loses momentum badly. This is mostly not Murnau's fault: the Faust legend doesn't, when you analyse it, make for awfully good cinema. The dramatic impetus is done at the end of the first act. Once Faust has made his pact, it's game over; the rest of the story is just the slow revelation of the enormity of what Faust has done. Murnau has a go at modifying this to make for a better screenplay, but it doesn't work. The Faust/Gretchen love interest isn't enough to hold up the last hour of the film, and bizarrely (given the decidedly unsettling opening scenes) Emil Jannings plays Mephisto not for dread but for laughs. I suppose that's the only way the Faust story has any credibility - we can believe that a beguiling trickster might pull a fast one on the fundamentally decent Faust, but not a horrible Satanic Majesty. But I don't think that is an excuse to turn the Devil into Oliver Hardy. In his attempt to pull a happy ending out of the Hat (Goethe and Marlow don't have a happy ending, Faust scholars will note), Murnau eschews his slapstick for good old fashioned incoherence: Mephisto and Faust take leave of the screen altogether and Gretchen goes postal, things get very maudlin - to what point, your guess is as good as mine - and, rather abruptly (given how the last 30 minutes dragged) it's all over. Just as there is for the new edition of Nosferatu, there is a commentary track prepared by an Australian actor with a comedy baritone voice. It isn't quite so insightful, however. Well worth a watch, but you are left wondering what might have been.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning reproduction and photography, good art film
Review: I'm not a silent film buff. But the story of Faust was enough of a temptation. The black and white photography, alone, makes this worth watching. The textures, gray tones, and authentic and artistic style kept me a captive audience. The orchestral soundtrack is something you would expect from Wagner. All in all, an excellent viewing experience.
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