The pact with the devil

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Movie
German title The pact with the devil
Original title La Beauté du diable
Country of production France , Italy
original language French
Publishing year 1950
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director René Clair
script René Clair,
Armand Salacrou
production Salvo D'Angelo
music Roman Vlad
camera Michel Kelber
cut James Cuenet
occupation
synchronization

Beauty and the Devil , also known as The Beauty of the Devil (Original title: La Beauté du diable ), a Italian - French film adaptation of the Faust material from the year 1950. Directed by René Clair are Michel Simon and Gerard Philipe in the lead roles to see.

action

Despite decades of research as an alchemist , the aging professor Heinrich Faust has still not succeeded in coaxing nature's greatest secrets. Dissatisfied with himself, he begins to question the meaning of his deprivation-filled existence. One day he is followed by a mysterious voice on the way home. In his house, the strange being first grows into Faust's image and then takes on the form of a young student. It is Mephistopheles , a servant of the devil, who promises the unfortunate Faust a new life full of youth, knowledge and contentment, if in return he sells his soul to the devil. To convince him of his power, Mephistopheles transforms the professor into the young student.

Confused, Faust leaves his house and wanders the streets. In doing so, he comes across a group of gypsies, among whom he finally realizes that he is no longer old and frail, but young and vital. After years of loneliness, he was immediately taken with the pretty gypsy girl Margarethe. Since he is no longer recognized as Professor Faust due to his changed appearance and his servant Antoine considers him a thief himself, he decides to join the gypsies and move from town to town. Meanwhile, Antoine turns to the authorities with concern, having seen the alleged thief in the house that evening when the professor disappeared without a trace. Suspected of having removed the professor, Faust is arrested at a fair. In court he wants to proclaim the truth about his diabolical transformation when suddenly Mephistopheles appears in the form of old Faust and the charges are dropped again.

While Mephistopheles continues to pretend to be a professor and gains access to the Prince's court with the promise of being able to make gold from sand, the young Faust has to work hard as a day laborer. When one day the beautiful princess drives past him in a carriage, he no longer wants to be penniless, but he continues to reject Mephistopheles with his seductive words. He then devises a new plan. He made Faust his assistant and used him to produce huge amounts of gold for the prince. In recognition of his services, Faust was named count. A little later at a ball he sees the princess again, whose heart he desperately wants to win over. Having received knowledge, fame and fortune from Mephistopheles' youth, he now wants to perfect his happiness with the love of the princess. So shortly before his destination, Mephistopheles seizes the opportunity and lets Faust wake up again penniless in the gutter. Realizing his predicament, Faust finally accepts the pact of Mephistopheles and signs the contract with his blood. In exchange for his soul, Mephistopheles must from now on fulfill his every wish.

Back at his stately home, Faust lets drunken Mephistopheles show him his future in a mirror. When he sees in the mirror how the happiness he believed to be safe with the princess turns into a nightmare - he betrays her and becomes a power-obsessed ruler who plunges his country into ruin with war - he regrets it from the bottom of his heart, his soul to have sold to the devil. He runs away and finally returns to Margarethe. When Mephistopheles discovers her, he also wants to get hold of Margaret's soul. Faust, however, demands that the artificially produced gold be turned back into sand throughout the country. When the angry people threaten to storm the palace of the prince, Margarethe is accused of witchcraft. In order to appease the mob and his jealous wife, the Prince wants to have Margarethe burned at the stake. When Mephistopheles visits her in her dungeon to buy her soul and holds his contract with Faust in front of her nose, Margarethe knocks the contract out of his hand. The document falls through a window into the hands of the angry crowd. The people now see Mephistopheles as the real culprit for their misery, whereupon he - cornered - falls out of a window into his death. The contract signed by Faust immediately goes up in flames, whereupon the latter gets his soul back and leaves with Margarethe and the gypsies.

background

The shooting took place in the Cinecittà film studios in Rome .

The pact with the devil premiered in France on March 16, 1950 . On April 22, 1950, it was published in German cinemas. On July 8, 1967, the film was shown for the first time on German-language television on DFF 1 .

Reviews

According to the lexicon of international films , the adaptation of the Faust material by director René Clair and screenwriter Armand Salacrou is “full of wit and profundity”. Together with the “playfulness of the main actors Michel Simon and Gérard Philipe”, this ensures that “the philosophical thoughts of the devil's pact are weightlessly transported”. It is an "extraordinarily dense film" that has to offer "first-rate intellectual pleasure".

Cinema said that Clair's Faust film "[t] snot serious morality [...] is one of the best". The fact that Simon and Philipe swap roles in the film is the "highlight of the classic". In short, the result is "amusing, clever and beautiful". Prisma found that René Clair "skillfully staged the Faust legend". The film is full of "philosophical statements, brilliant satire and Clair's dry humor" and thus becomes a "devilishly funny piece of cinema history".

Awards

In 1950 the film received the Nastro d'Argento of the Association of Italian Film Journalists, the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani , in the categories of Best Foreign Actor (Michel Simon) and Best Set Design (Aldo Tommasini, Léon Barsacq). In 1951, The Pact with the Devil was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film , but ultimately had to admit defeat to Joseph L. Mankiewicz 's Alles über Eva .

German version

The first German dubbed version was made in 1950 by the International Film Union . Georg Rothkegel was responsible for the dubbing and the dialogue . In 1967 the ZDF commissioned a new dubbing, which was realized by the Hamburg studio.

role actor Voice actor 1950 Dubbing actor 1967
Mephistopheles / old Prof. Heinrich Faust Michel Simon Ludwig Linkmann Alf Marholm
young Heinrich Faust / young Mephistopheles Gérard Philipe Peer Schmidt Stephan Schwartz
Margarethe Nicole Besnard Ellen Schwiers
Princess Simone Valère Annemarie Cordes
Prince Carlo Ninchi Gert Tellkampf

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The pact with the devil. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. cf. cinema.de
  3. cf. prisma.de
  4. cf. synchrondatenbank.de ( Memento of the original dated November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de
  5. cf. synchrondatenbank.de ( Memento of the original dated November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de