Faust - Jan Svankmajer

FAUST
1994

Jan Svankmajer's long-awaited follow-up to his acclaimed Alice is an equally astounding version of the Myth of Dr. Faustus. Merging live action with stop-motion and claymation animation, svankmajer has created an unsettling universe presided over by diabolic life-size marionettes and haunted by skulking human messengers from hell.

Svankmajer's Faust (movingly incarnated by one of the Czech Republic's finest actors, Petr Cepek) is an ordinary, inquisitive everyman who, upon exiting a Prague subway station, is handed a map that draws him to his doom. Led to an abandoned theater he finds a copy of Goethe's Faust, begins to read aloud, and unwittingly summons up a devil who offers him everything his heart desires in return for his soul. With breathtaking rapidity Faust's journey takes him to the tops of mountains, drops him in the middle of lakes and sends him out onto the unsuspecting streets of Prague. Peopled with shape-changing demons and puppet-versions of Goethe's character, Svankmajer's tour-de-force is alternately hilarious and shocking, always unique, and ultimately unforgettable.

Technical Specifications

Nr Discs: 1
Screen Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital 2.0
Region: Region free
UPC/EAN: 8809151411176

Cast

Petr Cepek – Faust
Jan Kraus –
Vladimír Kudla –
Antonin Zacpal –
Jirí Suchy –

Crew

Director: Jan Svankmajer
Writer: Christian Dietrich Grabbe, Christopher Marlowe, Jan Svankmajer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Producer: Karl Baumgartner, Keith Griffiths, Michael Havas, Jaromír Kallista, Hengameh Panahi
Photography: Svatopluk Malý