Themes: Self-Destructive Romance, Redemption, Innocence Lost
Main Cast: Petr Cepek
Release Year: 1994
Country: DE/CZ/UK/FR
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
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. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
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. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Cast
Petr Cepek - Faust
Andrew Sachs - [English version]; Jiri Suchy; Jan Kraus; Vladimir Kudla; Viktorie Knotkova
Credit
Bedrich Glaser - Animator, Daria Vobornikova - Choreography, Ruzena Blahova - Costume Designer, Jan Svankmajer - Director, Marie Zemanova - Editor, Alan Brett - Editor, Karl Baumgartner - Executive Producer, Keith Griffiths - Executive Producer, Michael Havas - Executive Producer, Hengameh Panahi - Executive Producer, Colin Rose - Executive Producer, Ivo Spalj - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jirina Bisingerova - Makeup, Vaclav Frank - Makeup, Jan Svankmajer - Production Designer, Eva Svankmajerova - Production Designer, Svatopluk Maly - Cinematographer, Jaromir Kallista - Producer, Ivo Spalj - Sound/Sound Designer, Jan Svankmajer - Screenwriter
