Faust

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Cast & Crew

Petr Cepek
Faust
Voice

Jan Kraus
Voice

Vladimír Kudla
Voice

Antonin Zacpal
Voice

Jiri Suchý
Voice

Viktorie Knotková
Voice

Jana Mézlová
Voice

Miluse Straková
Voice

Josef Fiala
Voice

Martin Radimecký
Voice

Ervín Tomendál
Voice

Frantisek Polata
Voice

Josef Chodora
Voice

Karel Vidimský
Voice

Ernst Gossner
Director

Jan Svankmajer
Director

Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Writer

Christian Dietrich Grabbe
Writer

Christopher Marlowe
Writer

Jan Svankmajer
Writer

Karl Baumgartner
Executive Producer

Keith Griffiths
Executive Producer

Hengameh Panahi
Executive Producer

Jaromír Kallista
Producer

Svatopluk Malý
Cinematographer

Marie Zemanová
Film Editor

Jan Svankmajer
Production Design

Eva Svankmajerová
Production Design

Jan Svankmajer
Art Direction

Eva Svankmajerová
Art Direction

Petr Bruna
Set Decoration

Milos Chlustina
Set Decoration

Ruzena Bláhová
Costume Designer

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Critic Reviews for Faust

Audience Reviews for Faust

• Sep 02, 2014

  A complete surprise to first-time Svankmajer moviewatchers, a good relief to Svankmajer followers since his short-film days in the 60s, and an undecipherable enigma of sensory overload to those familiar only with Goethe's play, this completely free adaptation challenges mainstream moviewatching standards and refuses to be conventional. If there is something valuable about the style of the renowned Czech artist is his visual composition. The editing is merciless. The shots change every second. Close-ups emphasize the unimaginable details, including those of the human body. Everything becomes alive, even the "most inert" objects, if we could assign degrees to the state of inertia. Secondly, we have Svankmajer's consistent quality throughout the decades even if he keeps delivering exactly the same style with hundreds of different stories to tell. Aggressive, graphic, hyperactive... that's his animation style. Thirdly, this is his first feature-length effort to combine clay animation and stop-motion techniques with live action, but definitely the thousandth time he has done so considering his short-film body of work. This is not unknown territory to him. One of the greatest freedoms cinema gives you is artistic vision, assuming an idealistic world free of financial pressures, censorship and interests of studios. He is one of the most important examples in the industry. He envisions stories in a way few would... Actually, I'll take that back. He envisions stories in a way only he would, because if every person tried once in a while to exploit his/her imagination, I am pretty sure that equally fascinating stories could come out of it. However, it was a bold move to set the story in contemporary Prague, making the whole scenario to seem more tangible and menacing, like if it could assault you any day after leaving home. There is no need to talk about the story, but about a term I use a lot in bizarre cinema, and that is "passive viewing". Did that term already exist when I made it up? I don't know, and I haven't bothered to check, but "passive viewing" is watching a film from a purely subjective and artistic point of view without the need to consciously rationalize all received stimuli. The heart interprets what the mind cannot, and the mind is tranquil knowing that dissecting particular pieces of art are sometimes not its task, but that of the heart. Although not my favorite feature-length movie by this great poet, it is probably his most literarily ambitious, impactfully poetic and unexpectedly humorous, even if it questionably ridiculed the tragic tone of the original story, making the ending seem like an uninterested joke. Still, this remains as my third favorite cinematic adaptation of Goethe's immortal piece of literature. 85/100
  Edgar C Super Reviewer
• Jun 11, 2008

  Avant-garde animator Jan Svankmajer uses Claymation, puppet theater, stop-motion animation, special effects and live action to give the film a surrealistic look on the popular tale of a man who encounters a devil named Mephistopheles, with whom he makes a deal. Jan Svankmajer has again created a surreal work of art in Faust. <a href="http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/?action=view¤t=Faust.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/Faust.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
  El Hombre I Super Reviewer

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