Faust - a German folk tale

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Movie
Original title Faust - a German folk tale
Country of production Germany
original language German (silent film)
Publishing year 1926
length 106 minutes
Rod
Director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
script Hans Kyser
production Erich Pommer
music Werner Richard Heymann (at the world premiere)
camera Carl Hoffmann
occupation

Faust - a German folk legend is a film by the expressionist director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau from 1926 .

action

Archangel Michael and Mephisto make a pact according to which Mephisto would own the earth if he succeeds in gaining the soul of the scholar Faust.

When the plague broke out in the city, Faust found no cure for the disease. In his desperation, he calls on the evil spirits. Mephisto, who started the plague himself, appears and offers him his help. Faust agrees to a contract - initially for a trial day - by promising his soul to Mephisto in return. Faust succeeds in healing a person suffering from the plague. But he cannot achieve any further healing because the sick person is holding a cross in her hand. The crowd wants to stone Faust, he escapes into his study.

Mephisto now makes the ideal of youth palatable to him and Faust young again. Both move to the court of Parma, where Faust seduces the Duchess away from her wedding party. While Faust is holding the Duchess in his arms, the trial day has expired and Mephisto is forcing Faust to accept her pact forever.

Faust cannot be satisfied with the intoxication of his youth, he is drawn back to his homeland. There he meets Gretchen at the church and falls in love with her. Mephisto's tricks initially help Faust to meet Gretchen in Marthe Schwerdtlein's garden - Mephisto “enjoys” the latter. Gretchen finally grants Faust access to her chamber. Mephisto ensures that the lovers are discovered. He lets his mother wake up with a wind and lures Gretchen's brother Valentin home from the inn. The mother discovers the couple in bed, Valentin places Faust on the run to fight. Mephisto insidiously kills Valentin, declares murder and thus forces Faust to flee immediately.

Gretchen is a prostitute on the pillory made and is an outcast. In winter she gives birth to a child by Faust who has to freeze to death because no one allows mother and child in. She is sentenced to death at the stake as a child murderer. A cry for help reaches Faust, he hurries to the doomed. On the way he curses the youth in the face of Gretchen's tragedy, whereupon Mephisto gives him back his old appearance. Only when she is on the burning pyre does Gretchen recognize her fist in the old man. They both die and go to heaven.

Mephisto lost his bet with the Archangel because he was defeated by a power he does not know: love!

Remarks

The shooting of Faust - a German folk tale found in the film studios of UFA place in Tempelhof, today's Berliner Union Film . “Buildings, landscapes and costumes” come from the two most important German production designers and film architects of the 20th century, Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig .

When the film premiered on October 14, 1926, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was at the height of his career: with Nosferatu, a symphony of horror , he had already made one of the most important films of the silent film era in 1922 . Three years later, The Last Man (1924) started Murnau's international career, which drew a reputation for Hollywood: In January 1925, on his first trip to the United States, he signed a contract with producer William Fox. But before Murnau finally moved to California, he made one last film in Germany - Faust with Emil Jannings as the main actor, who had already played the leading role in The Last Man . In the other leading roles he cast the Swedish theater star Gösta Ekman as Faust and the then unknown Camilla Horn as Gretchen. The actual cast of choice for Gretchen had been Lillian Gish , but she canceled after she couldn't get her desired cameraman from Hollywood.

Murnau's Faust - a German folk tale interweaves motifs from the folk book Historia by Doctor Johann Fausten - the widespread magician and black artist (1587) with elements from the dramatizations of this material by Christopher Marlowe and JW Goethe : Old Faust's search for wisdom, the offer Mephistus to give the aged scholar a life in eternal youth by means of a pact sealed with blood , as well as Faust's encounter with Gretchen with the episodes of seduction, duel with Gretchen's brother Valentin, pillory, pyre and redemption through love. And all this framed by the disputes between the archangel and the lord of darkness.

The “Prelude in Heaven” already shows one of the main characteristics of Murnau's Faust : his ingenious camera and trick technology, which gives him extraordinary visual power. In Faust, Murnau explores the limits of the use of cinematic possibilities, especially with visual effects - such as double exposures . The stage design maintains the balance between expressionism , which has existed since Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari ( Robert Wiene , 1920 ) determines German film, and - especially in the landscape shots - romantic painting , for example by Caspar David Friedrich and Lovis Corinth .

Film music

Originally, Giuseppe Becce was supposed to deliver an original composition for the film, but it declined for scheduling reasons.

The music illustration premiered in Ufa-Palast am Zoo presented Werner Richard Heymann using motifs from Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss together; it was performed by the UFA orchestra conducted by Kapellmeister Artur Guttmann .

In addition to Heymann's compilation, there was also one by Paul A. Hensel .

The restored film received new symphonic music in 2001 from the composer Marco Nola . The world premiere took place on June 23, 2001 as part of the “Erbhof Festival Thedinghausen”. The Bremen Philharmonic State Orchestra played with the choir of the Goethe Theater Bremen under the direction of Gabriel Feltz . Further performances took place in 2002 in Bremen, Gera, and Schwäbisch Gmünd. In 2017 the "Faust" composition will be performed again at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven .

In 2013 the composer and conductor Bernd Wilden created another piece of music for the film. The world premiere took place on November 7, 2013 in the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle in Bielefeld , the director's birthplace. The Bielefeld Philharmonic played with the choir of the Bielefeld City Music Association under the direction of the composer.

Film music for organ was - often as improvisation - a. a. Created by Pierre Pincemaille , Nils Henrik Asheim , Juan de la Rubia and Paul Kayser .

Reviews

When it was released in Germany, the film received only mediocre reviews, and German film critics often accused Murnau of a lack of understanding of Goethe's Faust and its philosophical depth. However, Murnau's work is not to be understood as a film adaptation of the Goethe work, but is rather an “independent, suggestive work”. In the meantime, the film has received mostly positive reviews in Germany too, for example the lexicon of international films : “Murnau's version of Faust, a mixture of the old folk tale and Goethe and Marlowe variations, leaves the metaphysical struggle between good and bad at the turn of the ages from the Middle Ages Irreligion appears and Faust interprets it as the first modern person with free will decision and a commitment to the omnipotence of love. In his last work for UFA, before he went to Hollywood, Murnau (1888-1931) designed the classic material as a play of light and shadow, which suggestively savored the perfection of German silent film cinema once again: A film full of playful joy in the fantastic. "

Internationally, however, Murnau's film has received excellent reviews since its release, with Rotten Tomatoes it has a positive rating of 94%. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote about Faust in his Great Movies column : "FW Murnau (1888-1931) made two of the greatest films of the supernatural," Nosferatu "(1922) and" Faust "(1926)." Ebert particularly praises Murnau's "bold visual imagination" and his impressive camera work and image compositions.

literature

  • Herbert Birett : Silent film music. Material collection . Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin 1970.
  • Ilona Brennicke, Joe Hembus : Classics of the German silent film. 1910–1930 (= Goldmann 10212 Goldmann Magnum. Citadel Filmbücher). Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-10212-X .
  • Christiane Mückenberger: Faust. A German folk tale. In Günther Dahlke, Günter Karl (ed.): German feature films from the beginning to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 135 ff.
  • Maik Bozza: Metaphysics and Romance. Murnau's fist. In: Maik Bozza, Michael Herrmann (Hrsg.): Shadow images - light shapes. The cinema by Fritz Lang and FW Murnau. Film studies. transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-8376-1103-8 , pp. 99-115.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Silent Film Concerts - Faust. In: stummfilmkonzerte.de. Retrieved May 16, 2018 .
  2. Faust. In: deutsches-filminstitut.de. Retrieved May 16, 2018 .
  3. YouTube video: Title sequence "Faust - a German folk tale" www.youtube.com from December 27, 2012, accessed February 3, 2016
  4. like: Before Castorf's Berlin “Faust”: A warm-up of the fists. In: welt.de . March 3, 2017, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  5. so at filmhistoriker.de
  6. cf. Birett, silent film music pp. 131 and 132.
  7. so filmhistoriker.de  ; Universum Film presented "Faust - a German folk tale" in the FW Murnau box (deluxe edition) on a DVD, it contains the music version by Paul Hensel, cf. Peter Schrandt at film-blog.tv July 30, 2014
  8. Spectacle in a stylish ambience
  9. Audience entranced by the premiere , Weser-Kurier from June 25, 2001
  10. Star-clear and unforgettable , the daily newspaper of August 19, 2002
  11. Kitchen garden becomes a big stage
  12. ^ "Faust" on the Münsterplatz
  13. ^ Pierre Pincemaille - Saint-Ouen de Rouen - Improvisation sur le film FAUST de MURNAU. In: youtube.com. 2014, accessed August 17, 2018 .
  14. FAUST (Murnau) w Nils Henrik Asheim, organ - pt 1/3. In: youtube.com. 2013, accessed August 17, 2018 .
  15. ^ Juan de la Rubia Improvisación sobre Faust, de W. Murnau. In: youtube.com. 2014, accessed August 17, 2018 .
  16. ^ Faust von Murnau - Organ improvisation by Paul Kayser (excerpt). In: youtube.com. 2010, accessed August 17, 2018 .
  17. http://www.wissen.de/lexikon/faust-eine-deutsche-volkssage
  18. Faust - a German folk tale. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 29, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  19. ^ "Faust" at Rotten Tomatoes
  20. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-faust-1926