David O'Connell
Jan Svankmajer's Faust
July 22nd 2008 23:43
Sadly, I have not read Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" nor Goethe's "Faust", the two books which inspired Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer to adapt the old story to a haunting film called "Faust". As a result, I feel wholly inadequate to judge this surreal tale of temptation and vice, packed with symbolism and haunting imagery.
Despite my ignorance on the subject, Svankmajer's "Faust" captivated me, especially the opening act, where the entire movie silently moves Dr. Faust to his eventual meeting with the demon Mephistophecles. It's totally absurd, but the darkness and grime of the film are unsettling, as if you can feel the story descending gently into one of the outer gates of hell.
Svankmajer is a famed surrealist, influencing our more popular figures in that field - Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, for example- and his work challenges those who watch it. There's a certain sense of revulsion watching "Faust", with the sense of decay and deranged seediness abounding, and, as Dr. Faust falls closer to his fate, the film grows increasingly frenetic.
This is not easy material for the light of heart. From an excellent essay on the film, by Jonathan Marlow, quoting Svankmajer on his vision:
"I am not interested in art. That is, art with a big A. But I am interested in certain artists, or more accurately certain works of art by certain artists but not because I consider them to be more ‘artistic’ than other works or because they strike my ‘sense of beauty’ but because they touch something more important which exceeds the concept of art – that is, the basis of life, in another words, a form of inner still-undefined imagination "
It's a beautiful phrase, 'inner still-undefined imagination', which seems to encapsulate the idea of surrealism. "Faust" devours this idea with glee, using the Czech actor Petr Cepek to play Dr. Faust, but also mirroring Goethe's Faust with dirty mannequins, controlled by hands high above the set, with heads rolling down mountainsides. What am I talking about? Oh, you'll have to see it for yourself:
A Faustian bargain, etched with a puppet's blood. The entire movie is this fresh, this alive, the opposite of the unbearable realism from the Chinese Sixth Generation, like Jia Zhangke and Li Yang, though both groups of filmmakers rely on muted colours in their frames.
While the last quarter of the movie feels like a runner doggedly determined to finish the act, dulling the imaginative wonders of the first half, the atmosphere of "Faust" is dark and foreboding, a sense of mystery even though, from the title of the movie, we know the ultimate end. Svankmajer's vision of this old story is, oddly enough, perhaps a more realistic version of the Hells that Dr.Faust must go through, a land that shifts and changes at will, where understanding has long been destroyed and figures manifest as if molded from clay.
I say: Disturbing, creepy and oddly beautiful, "Faust" is a real treat for the ignorant... I can only imagine that a viewer, familiar with Goethe's "Faust", would absolutely adore this.
See it for: The one scene of lovemaking manages to be simultaneously disturbing and knee-slapping funny.
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Comment by Damo
I must say that I did enjoy it.
Like watching Shakespeare it can be done in many ways and still be unique and enjoyable.
This was an odd comedy in the true sense excellent but not quite a classic.
For me Dr Faustus with Richard Burton was better a acted performance and more memorable despite being low budget.
Comment by Cibbuano
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This was excellent to begin with, but the lunatic dialogue at the end was simply too hard to understand...
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Somehow this one hasn't come by me till now, thanks.
Reminds me a little of the Dave Borthwick brilliant, dark and disturbing Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
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Svenkmajer also did a version of Alice in Wonderland... maybe you've seen that?
Comment by Damo
Doctor Faustus.1967.
Really Long Link
Richard Burton as Dr Faustus.
Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy. When she was a stunner rather than now.
Memorable quote:
"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Illium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!"
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