Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Johan Louwet Well I don't know if the movies stays truthful to the original story as I haven't read it. I have also heard there are several versions of the Faust story. I thought it started quite interesting enough with the plague and an old Faust trying to find a way to help the people. However when he seeks for help with the devil who offers him the joy to become and remain young the plague problems are forgotten and we follow Faust getting amorous, falling in love at first sight with some silly and way too long romantic sequences. The devil plays some evil tricks too. The further the movie the more I got a bad feeling in my stomach from silly to totally dark. Surely story-wise it's worked out better than Nosferatu and visually amazing but all in all rather messy and not really entertaining.

Ryan F I saw Faust last night at a special event at the Paramount theater in Seattle with live organ accompaniment. The hosts relentlessly hyped the movie, so when it started, I had high expectations. I was not disappointed. Faust wastes no time by explaining how portals from Hell opened up and wraiths are running free over the Earth. This is an instant hook, but then it gets better as a head angel makes a bet with the devil Mephisto. So what is there that could go wrong?This movie has world-class production design to complement that it takes place in an apocalyptic, post-biblical fantasy time. Personally, I'm not much a fan of the worlds typical to fantasy stories, but the one in Faust is original and creative.The story follows a young Faust chasing after women and happiness in his new, young body. He finally finds one girl who becomes his only goal. This is fine and tells a perfectly good story. My objection is that the beginning shows us angels, demons, the devil, and the plague. Then the story goes down to deal with small-scale issues, looking at Faust's corruption really close up. This isn't necessarily bad, and the story goes back to its large-scale issues at the end, which has plenty of emotional and physical violence to balance out with Act I. I found it distracting that the jump was made to smaller battles, but these smaller battles are on the emotional side, making them far more important and interesting.Though Faust isn't subtle with its themes, it tells a story that moves right along, despite being seen as "one of those old silent films." The acting can be appreciated without looking down on old styles or thinking them archaic. The movie is dark, but Satan himself is a source of humor in some scenes. I see a lot of people who don't want to watch anything pre-50's and 60's, but right back at the beginning of cinema, there's entertainment, emotion, sex, violence, and comedy present in the same movie. Thank you, Faust.

CountVladDracula I just watched the F. W. Murnau silent film version of Faust from 1926 and it was surprisingly good. It's from the director of Nosferatu and heavily based on the Goethe version of the Faust legend, not the Christopher Marlowe verison.Marlowe's Faust ends in a bleak and very hopeless kind of way whereas Goethe has Faust redeemed at the end with the idea that caring about others and love is the most powerful and most transcendent force in the universe and that, as it is the ultimate goodness, you cannot be damned if you can love.This silent film is heavily based on the more hopeful version of the story by Goethe, containing elements of both part 1 and part 2 of Goethe's Faust. I strongly recommend this for anyone who is a fan of Goethe's version of Faust. I sort of wish it would get a remake, still set in the fifeenth / sixteenth century and with the same ending (even if people do find the idea of love redeeming you to be saccharine). I think we need stories like this. And it is a shame the Goethe version of Faust isn't more well known in the English speaking world.

gavin6942 The demon Mephisto (Emil Jannings) wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul. Apparently, director F.W. Murnau wanted Lillian Gish to play Gretchen, but she insisted that the film be shot by her favorite cinematographer, Charles Rosher. Murnau instead cast newcomer Camilla Horn, whom he had met on the set of "Tartuffe" (1925), where she was a double for Lil Dagover. Now, I would much rather have seen Gish or Dagover in this role, but Horn holds her own and makes a mark on German film history.The imagery is what sells this film: from the beginning with the creepy four horsemen, to Mephisto unleashing the plague, and beyond. The story is a classic (I mean, this is Goethe we are talking about) but it is even more classic because of the way Murnau was able to present it in 1926, a time when special effects were in their infancy.The only unfortunate this is that Karl Freund had to drop out, as this would have been yet one more classic film to put on his resume.