Movie for April: FAUST

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uncletor
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Movie for April: FAUST

Post by uncletor » Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:08 pm

A Halloween movie for the springtime.
FAUST (1926) F. W. Murnau directs. Murnau was the guy behind NOSFERATU, the first unauthorized adaptation of DRACULA...of course he didn't PAY to do it, and Stokers' widow wanted all copies of THAT one burned. But it survived and became a gothic, expressionistic horror masterpiece. Hey, I could even buy a t shirt of it if I want to.
FAUST is better.
Ever see those illustrations from antique books where at first glance you think it's a photo until you look REAL close and it turns out to be this incredibly detailed illustration? It's what the WHOLE MOVIE looks like. Rich rich photography. The use of light, and shadow is awe inspiring.
It's the old story of evil vs. good, Satan vs. God, but this time you have this eerie feeling it's FOR KEEPS. That you are watching an age old turf war that predates any concept of man's.
The guy playing the devil character has the intense look of a serial killer. The eyeballs stick out and the mouth drools in this barely surpressed rage that threatens to spill out during the whole movie.
By the way, the guy who played GRETCHEN'S brother, William Dieterle, went on to Hollywood to make THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER, the movie THE SIMPSONS is making fun of in the tree house of terror episode called THE DEVIL AND HOMER SIMPSON.
But first, FAUST...

tomanderson
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Post by tomanderson » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:11 am

Oh yeah! I was lucky to see a screening of Faust about two years ago, a restored print that some people had been working on for some time. It really did look nice and the movie is a "built" movie that is designed from top to bottom. It looked like it was expensive to make.

I just got an inexpensive copy of Nosferatu, also--in one of those multi-movie sets. I had not seen this in quite some years and it was fun, and a little creepy, to revisit.

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