JAN SVANKMEJER'S FAUST Movie Review

Faust

Admirers of Jan Svankmajer's short animated films should be aware that much of his modern adaptation of the Faust legend is actually live action, complete with real, photographed human beings. But don't be put off by that; Faust is as strange and disturbing a film as Svankmajer has ever made, and one of the most nightmarish movies to come out of Europe in years. There's a decidedly Kafka-like flavor here, as well as a touch of Lewis Carroll; the man who will be Faust (the late Petr Cepek) exits a subway in Prague, and is handed a map that directs him to a bizarre theatrical setting. Needless to say, he goes. Once there he encounters a puppet/marionette gallery that begins to come to ominous life after he starts thumbing through a thoughtfully placed copy of Goethe's Faust. The puppets—acting out portions of the Faust story, and repeating the creepiest scenes over and over—are operated by hand, by string, and by animation, and all with the shocking and unexpected logic of a dream. The puppets and marionettes were carved by Svankmajer, and are as integral to his vision as the filmmaking process itself. If Faust isn't completely satisfying, it's difficult to imagine how anything this personal could be; after all, nightmares are not written by committee (at least not yet), and do tend toward asymmetry.

NEXT STOP … Faust (1926), Alice (Svankmajer, 1988), Conspirators of Pleasure

1994 87m/C CZ GB D: Jan Svankmajer, Ernst Gossner; W: Jan Svankmajer; C: Svatopluk Maly. VHS KIV