Faust

Rating:
Summary: jan's best!
Review: I have yet to see jan's "lil otik" but out of all his others "faust" is by far the best of his vivid,imaginative works.new fans will want to see "alice"(his stop-motion take on alice in wonderland)first to get a real feel for his stuff.then buy "faust" if you like alice.the story is actually based off of a play,and includes live actors,string puppets,claymation,and such awesome scenery!fans of david lynch's "eraserhead" should not miss this.

Rating:
Summary: Not a fan
Review: I like animation and the Bros. Quay as much as the next guy, but when I saw this in the theater I found it overly long, self-indulgant, and the dubbed voices obnoxious. It reminds me of the sort of movie you'd see on Sunday morning on TV before the local stations got their network feeds: kind of dreary, outdated, and more farty than arty. Consider that this guy is now a sacred cow and reviewer-proof before you buy this DVD.

Rating:
Summary: The cover did it. ..
Review: I walked by the movie at a store and the cover caught my eye, I rented it and watched it that night, I fell in love with it instantly. The somewhat hard to follow plot made my mind wander about the movie, which made me watch it time and time again. The marrionettes roles, the actors, the places all fit together so perfect, that the movie just spun into greatness.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Faust it
Review: If you like movies that don't make a lot of sense, you can't go wrong with Faust. This is the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil... and pays the consequences. Of course, Svankmajer tells it in his own, special ways, via strange going-ons and unpredictable twists. Some of the things done are somewhat amusing, if not rather interesting approaches. But while Svankmajer is well-known for his creepy animation, Faust doesn't have much animation in it. It's mostly live action and puppetry. Again, it's an original piece, no doubt, but Alice is much better work. Faust just didn't have the same magical, sardonic feel. -- There is a scene where the main character makes love to a puppet. While not explicitly, it is too disturbing for its own good. Perhaps that's what tipped the scale so.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating visuals and surreal atmosphere
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating visuals and surreal atmosphere
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Jan Svankmajer's masterpiece
Review: 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 , traditional czec puppets and different animation tecniques are the common elements in his films that normally work like a deformed mirror of human behaviour using irony and caricature to show us the absurd of social conventions . Goethe's and Marlowe's Faust , an opera of french composer Gounot and alchemic thought are the inspiration of this surreal , original and disturbing film , where he mixed live-action with puppets and stop motion animation , combining much of the ingredients and technics 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 .

Rating:
Summary: unsettling yet oddly inviting
Review: Jan Svankmajer's films are beyond classification. Each film mixes stop motion animation, cartooning and live action brilliantly. Unlike modern movies, Svankjmajer's films have no musical scores to "guide" the viewer into the expected mood of a scene. This leaves the viewer to decide for themselves what the intonations for a scene are. Such an atmosphere can leave the viewer drained and uneasy. His films are the most original movies I have EVER seen. Never have I witnessed any which compare. Each Svankmajer film is a treasure which few have bared witness to. You will be pleasantly surprised at any of his film's surrealist view of the world. END

Rating:
Summary: Jan Svankmajer's FAUST
Review: Surreal, nightmarish, artsy, intellectual and worth seeing. If you are the creative type, you will enjoy this film. Personally, I love it, so I'm buying it right now.