Faust

Director: Jan Svankmajer Jan Svankmajer

Overview

This European fantasy features excellent and surprisingly imaginative clay animation combined with live-action to tell the story of a man who sells his soul to Satan without the benefit of a lawyer. Initially, Faust does not rise to the bait presented by Mephistopheles' assistants who encode their offers in commuter-maps handed out at a Prague subway exit. Instead he accidently calls Mephistopheles himself. With the Devil's favorite minion, Faust agrees to sell his soul in exchange for 24 pleasure-filled years. The bargain is sealed, but Faust doesn't get what he bargained for. First he is turned into an actor, then he is turned into a puppet.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/17/2012
UPC:	8809151411176
Original Release:	1994
Source:	Imports
Language:	English
Sales rank:	33,992

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Petr Cepek	Faust/Mephisto
Stanislava Babicka	Dancer
Lenka Havrankova	Dancer
Hagda Horejsova	Dancer
Petra Hrstkova	Dancer
Vera Masopustova	Dancer
Josef Podsednik	Puppet Actor
Jaroslava Zelenkova	Puppet Actor
Viktorie Knotkova	Actor
Jana Mezlova	Actor
Miluse Strakova	Actor
Josef Fiala	Actor
Martin Radimecky	Actor
Ervin Tomendal	Actor
Frantisek Polata	Actor
Josef Chodora	Actor
Karel Vidimsky	Actor
Peter Meissel	Actor
Rudolf Ruzek	Actor
Milan Vyskocil	Actor
Pavel Marek	Actor
Dalibor Fenci	Actor
Robert Blanda	Actor
Michaela Tyllerova	Actor
Vendula Pecova	Actor
Berenika Strettiova	Actor
Zita Moravkova	Actor
Gillian Wood	Actor
Zuzana Drazilova	Actor
Karel Vild	Actor
Martin Kublak	Actor
Monika Chlustinova	Actor
Jiri Liska	Actor
Joseph Vedral	Actor
Vaclav Svankmajer	Actor
Pavel Valenta	Actor
Jan Kraus	Actor
Vladimir Kudla	Actor
Andrew Sachs	[English version]
Jiri Suchy	Actor

Technical Credits

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer	Director,Screenwriter
Karl Baumgartner	Executive Producer
Keith Griffiths	Executive Producer
Machael Havas	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Jaromir Kallista	Producer,Casting
Hengameh Panahi	Executive Producer
Colin Rose	Executive Producer
Ivo Spalj	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Jan Svankmajer's reinterpretation of Faust won't please purists and will confuse and annoy many others. For those tuned in to this uniquely gifted filmmaker's wave, however, Lekce Faust will be a thrillingly disturbing joyride into nihilism. As usual with Svankmajer, the visual is paramount; while he employs a considerable amount of dialogue, the film achieves its greatest power from the director's bizarre clay animation and puppetry designs. As in Conspirators of Pleasure, however, Svankmajer also makes greater use of location settings, including a stunning and frightening vista of rocks atop which Faust finds himself while summoning the devil. (That summoning sequence is itself a visual feast, full of shifting, unsettling images that draw their power from their very oddness). Svankmajer also does a marvelous job of finding the evil horror in the everyday; the minions that initially lure Faust to his encounters with Mephistopheles are both ridiculously common and frightening. The narrative, while willfully obscure in places, is one that is obviously very clear to Svankmajer, and that assurance is felt throughout the film. Faust is not without its flaws; some will find it too slow, others will find it entirely hollow. But even those who do not share Svankmajer's sensibility should be struck by its visual power.