FAUST - (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

Gosta Ekman and Camilla Horn.

Faust (1926) F.W. Murnau

Faust (original German title: Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage ) is a 1926 film written and directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. It was the last film Murnau shot in Germany and the last of his films that can be attributed to Expressionism. On the occasion of the Berlin premiere in 1926, the film was accompanied by orchestral music composed by Werner Richard Heymann. This edition of Faust is instead accompanied by the original soundtrack by Cinestesia

The plot is inspired by the famous History of Dr. Faust, well-known magician and necromancer (1587) by Johann Spies, into which Murnau weaves elements from the plays of Marlowe and Goethe. Far more than literary references, artistic ones take on greater importance. As a scholar and art connoisseur, Murnau draws inspiration from Flemish and Italian painters in composing his frames; it is possible to catch references to famous works in Faust : the feet of the plague victim reminiscent of those in Mantegna's Lamentation of Christ , and the resemblance, in these scenes, between Gretchen and Bernini's famous Ecstasy of Saint Teresa .

However, what gives the film the appearance of a pictorial masterpiece is, above all, the use of chiaroscuro, which Murnau learned from Caravaggio and Rembrandt to transfer it to cinematography.

Eric Rohmer wrote about this: "If Faust is the most pictorial of his films, it is because the conflict between shadow and light constitutes its subject." Light thus becomes the key to reading this work in every aspect, both aesthetic and symbolic.

Still from

FAUST (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926).

" 'If Faust is the most pictorial of his films, it is because the struggle between light and shadow constitutes its very subject.' These few frames alone are enough to prove Eric Rohmer right.