Faust (1994 film)

Film directed by Jan Švankmajer

Faust

Film poster

Directed by| Jan Švankmajer
Written by| Jan Švankmajer
Based on| Goethe's Faust
Produced by| Jaromír Kallista
Starring|

* Petr Čepek
* Jan Kraus
* Vladimír Kudla
* Antonin Zacpal

Cinematography| Svatopluk Malý
Edited by| Marie Zemanová

Production
companies

* Athanor
* BBC
* CNC
* Pandora Filmproduktion

Distributed by| Lucernafilm - Beta

Release date

* 10 September 1994 (1994-09-10)

Running time

| 97 minutes
Countries|

* Czech Republic
* France
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Germany[1][2]

Languages| Czech
Latin
Box office| $2.1 million

Faust (Czech: Lekce Faust, lit. 'Lesson Faust') is a 1994 live-action/animated film directed and written by Jan Švankmajer. An international co-production between the Czech Republic, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, the film merges live-action footage with stop-motion animation, including puppetry and claymation.

Produced by Jaromír Kallista, the film does not relate the legend of Faustus accurately according to the original, instead borrowing and blending elements from the plays by Goethe (1808–1832), and Marlowe (c. 1592–1593), with traditional folk renditions. It has elements of modernism and absurdism, and has a Kafkaesque atmosphere, enhanced by being set in Prague. The tone is dark, but humorous. The film was selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

The story begins on the streets of Prague on a grey morning busy with commuters. A colourless figure (Petr Čepek) emerges from a metro station. On his way home, the man encounters two men handing out flyers. It is a map of the city with a location marked. He shrugs and discards it, returning to his lodging. As he opens the door, a black cockerel runs out. The man sits down to eat, cutting himself a slice of bread. He discovers an egg concealed inside the loaf. He cracks it open but it is empty. Suddenly the lights go out and the wind rises. Objects are thrown about the room. The commotion ceases; the man goes to the window and looks down to where the two men from earlier are staring up at him. One of them holds the cockerel. The man closes the blind and returns to the table, where he finds the map and traces out the location marked using his own map of the city,.

The next day, he goes to the spot indicated and enters a dilapidated building just as a man rushes from it in fear. He continues into the interior and descends to a dressing room, where he finds a charred script, a robe embroidered with sigils, greasepaint, a wig with a beard and a cap. Sitting down, he addresses himself as "Faust" and speaks to himself (the first words spoken in the film) Faust's opening declaration of intent to follow black magic.

As the opening curtain is signalled, Faust finds himself on a stage, a performance about to begin. Ripping off his costume, he breaks through the stage backdrop into a vault where an alchemist's laboratory is revealed; with the aid of a book of spells, he brings to life a clay child which grows horrifyingly into his own image before he smashes it. Warned by a marionette angel not to experiment further but encouraged by a demon to do as he pleases, he is sent by a wooden messenger to a café meeting with the two street-map men, identified as "Cornelius" and "Valdes", who gives him a briefcase of magical devices. Returning to the vault, he uses these to summon Mephisto, offering Lucifer his soul in return for 24 years of self-indulgence.

At another café, Faust is entertained by Cornelius and Valdes, who provide a fountain of wine from a table-top. He watches as a tramp, carrying a severed human leg, is pestered by a large black dog until he throws the limb into the river. Faust finds a key in his food, uses it on a shop-front shutter, and is dragged back on stage by waiting stagehands. He mimes a scene from Gounod's opera, in which Mephisto returns and the pact with Lucifer is signed in blood. After the interval, Faust visits Portugal to demonstrate his supernatural powers to the King: when a requested restaging of the David and Goliath contest is poorly received, he drowns the entire Portuguese court.

Faust is distracted from repentance by Helen of Troy, whom he seduces before realising she is a wooden demon in disguise. Lucifer arrives earlier than expected to claim his soul, and Faust rushes in panic from the theatre, meeting a newcomer in at the doorway as he bursts into the street. He is felled by a red car, and Cornelius and Valdes watch in amusement as a tramp carries away a severed leg from the scene of the accident. A policeman checks the car, but it is without a driver.

## Cast

[edit]

* Petr Čepek as Faust
* Jan Kraus as Cornelius
* Vladimír Kudla as Waldes
* Antonin Zacpal as Old Man
* Jiří Suchý as Kašpar
* Andrew Sachs as All Voices In The English Dub

## Production

[edit]

The film is Švankmajer's second feature. It was shot in the Old Town of Prague.[4]

## Reception

[edit]

Faust received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 73% score based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 6.80/10.[5]

### Accolades

[edit]

The film was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival,[6] and at the 4th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival where it won the Award of Adult Audience.[7] It also won the Czech Critics Award for Best Animated Film, and three Czech Lions, while it was nominated for four more. At the 29th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, it was nominated for the Crystal Globe and won the Special Jury Prize.

## See also

[edit]

* List of submissions to the 67th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Czech submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Brennan, Sandra. "Faust (1994)". AllMovie. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
2. ^ "Faust (1994)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
3. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
4. ^ Lekce Faust (1994) – Filmový přehled (in Czech), retrieved 31 July 2023
5. ^ "Faust". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Faust". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
7. ^ 4\. Kecskeméti Animációs Filmfesztivál 1. Nemzetközi Animációs Játékfilm Fesztivál Archived 13 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Kecskeméti Animáció Film Fesztivál. 1996.

## External links

[edit]

* Faust at IMDb
* Faust at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Works based on Faust

Folk legend|

* Faust
* Johann Georg Faust
* Deal with the Devil
* in popular culture
* Simon Magus
* Theophilus of Adana
* Erdgeist
* Mephistopheles
* Pan Twardowski
* Stingy Jack

Seminal works|

* Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587 chapbook)
* Doctor Faustus (1592 play)
* Cenodoxus (1602, play)
* Goethe's Faust (1808 play)
* Faust, Part One
* Faust, Part Two

Prose|

* "Bearskin"
* "Daniel and the Devil"
* Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
* "The Devil and Tom Walker" (1824)
* St. John's Eve (1830)
* Auriol (1844)
* Chasse-galerie (1892)
* The Sorrows of Satan (1896)
* Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician (1898)
* The Master and Margarita (1929–1940)
* Mephisto (1936)
* "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1937)
* None but Lucifer (1939)
* Doktor Faustus (1947)
* The Devil in Velvet (1951)
* The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954)
* Gimmicks Three (1956)
* The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (1956)
* That Hell-Bound Train (1958)
* For a Breath I Tarry (1966)
* The Damnation Game (1986)
* Eric (1990)
* The Devil's Own Work (1991)
* Jack Faust (1997)
* Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (2009)
* The Last Faust (2019)

Plays|

* Gretchen (1879)
* Damn Yankees (1955)
* Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955)
* The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon (1965)
* Temptation (1986)

Operas|

* Faust (1816, Spohr)
* La damnation de Faust (1846, Berlioz)
* Faust (1859, Gounod)
* Mefistofele (1868, Boito)
* Le petit Faust (1869, Hervé)
* Faust and Marguerite (1855, Lutz)
* Faust up to Date (1888, Lutz)
* Doktor Faust (1916–1925, Busoni)
* Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938)
* The Rake's Progress (1951, Stravinsky)
* Reuben, Reuben (1955)
* Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1994)
* Faustus, the Last Night (2006)

Ballets|

* Faust ballets

Classical music|

* Gretchen am Spinnrade (1814, Schubert)
* Faust Overture (1840, Wagner)
* Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges' 2nd movement "Quasi-Faust" (1847, Alkan)
* Scenes from Goethe's Faust (1853, Schumann)
* Part II of Symphony No. 8 (1906–07, Mahler)
* Faust Symphony (1854–1857, Liszt)
* Mephisto Waltzes (Liszt)
* Gothic Symphony (Brian)
* Bagatelle sans tonalité (Liszt)

Other music|

| Albums|

* Epica Saga
* Epica
* The Black Halo
* Beethoven's Last Night
* The Black Rider

|

Songs|

* "Mephisto Polka" (1859–1885)
* "Cross Road Blues" (1936)
* "Friend of the Devil" (1970)
* "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975)
* "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (1979)
* "Faustian Echoes" (2012)
* "The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles" (2015)

Films|

* The Laboratory of Mephistopheles (1897)
* Faust and Marguerite (1900)
* The Damnation of Faust (1903)
* Faust and Marguerite (1904)
* The Student of Prague (1913)
* Rapsodia satanica (1915)
* The Student of Prague (1926)
* Faust (1926)
* The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
* Alias Nick Beal (1949)
* The Legend of Faust (1949)
* Beauty and the Devil (1950)
* Marguerite de la nuit (1955)
* Damn Yankees (1958)
* Faust (1960)
* Bedazzled (1967)
* Doctor Faustus (1967)
* El extraño caso del doctor Fausto (1969)
* Mephisto (1981)
* Doctor Faustus (1982)
* Oh, God! You Devil (1984)
* Crossroads (1986)
* Faust (1994)
* Bedazzled (2000)
* Faust: Love of the Damned (2000)
* Fausto 5.0 (2001)
* I Was a Teenage Faust (2002)
* Shortcut to Happiness (2007)
* Goat Story (2008)
* Faust (2011)
* The Last Faust (2019)

Television|

| Episodes|

* "Printer's Devil" (1963)
* "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" (2003)

|

Other|

* The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978)
* When the Devil Calls Your Name (2019)

Musicals|

* Damn Yankees (1955)
* Randy Newman's Faust (1995)
* Success! (1993)
* Faust (2003)
* Disco Inferno (2004)

Comics|

* Gods' Man (1929)
* Faust (manga) (1950)
* Doctor Faustus (comics) (1968)
* Faust (comics) (1987)
* Frau Faust (2014)

Art|

* Mephistopheles and Margaretta
* Paintings

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Jan Švankmajer

* Filmography

Feature films|

* Alice (1988)
* Faust (1994)
* Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)
* Little Otik (2000)
* Lunacy (2005)
* Surviving Life (2010)
* Insects (2018)

Short films|

* The Last Trick (1964)
* A Game with Stones (1965)
* The Garden (1968)
* The Flat (1968)
* Picnic with Weissmann (1968)
* A Quiet Week in the House (1969)
* Don Juan (1969)
* Jabberwocky (1971)
* Leonardo's Diary (1972)
* Castle of Otranto (1977)
* Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)
* The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope (1983)
* Meat Love (1988)
* The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (1990)
* Food (1992)

* v
* t
* e

Czech submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

* Faust (1994)
* Thanks for Every New Morning (1995)
* Kolya (1996)
* Forgotten Light (1997)
* Sekal Has to Die (1998)
* The Idiot Returns (1999)
* Divided We Fall (2000)
* Dark Blue World (2001)
* The Wild Bees (2002)
* Želary (2003)
* Up and Down (2004)
* Something Like Happiness (2005)
* Lunacy (2006)
* I Served the King of England (2007)
* The Karamazov Brothers (2008)
* Protector (2009)
* Kawasaki's Rose (2010)
* Alois Nebel (2011)
* In the Shadow (2012)
* The Don Juans (2013)
* Fair Play (2014)
* Home Care (2015)
* Lost in Munich (2016)
* Ice Mother (2017)
* Winter Flies (2018)
* The Painted Bird (2019)
* Charlatan (2020)
* Zátopek (2021)
* Il Boemo (2022)
* Brothers (2023)
* Waves (2024)

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* United States

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