Sokurov's Faust

Sokurov always has something original in his films. This has a great feel to a mideval German town slightly surreal/bizarre. You wont see another film like this - guaranteed!

Where I live, in Paris France, we are still lucky to have hundreds of movie theatres, and playing not only the recent Hollywood blockbusters but also all kinds of "exotic" films and "cinéma d'auteur". So I just saw Sokurov's Faust, not on DVD, but "for real".Powerful film, powerful vision, between Tarkovsky (Sokurov studied with him) and Wojciech Has (the film's atmospheres, between day-dreaming and nightmare, evoked The Hourglass Sanatorium). Sets and costumes are breathtakingly imaginative. The story draws partly on Goethe's Faust (and Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus), excerpts of the original text are even used, and the costumes evoke the author's time, the early 19th century; but the action is situated in some sort of German medieval village or small town, with narrow, dark, filthy streets - an environment evocative of the late middle-Ages/early German Renaissance in which the action of Goethe's drama is supposed to take place. And never was I shocked by any semblance of contradiction; it is true that German culture nurtured for very long a kind of medieval fantasy, and, before they were bombed to ashes by the Allies' airforce, the German cities retained vivid traces of their medieval past.The universe depicted by Sokurov is hunger-ridden (to point to the burning demands of the flesh maybe), in a jawdropping opening scene (double-meaning not intended - but now it is) Faust is dissecting a human cadaver and doesn't find the soul, his apprentice the simpleton Wagner seems to have understood more things than his master, Mephisto is a pawn-broker and a usurer (money is the Devil), half-man half animal wearing his small traces of manhood in the back.Once in a while it is great to see true human mugs on the screen, faces that you can easily fancy are those you would have seen anytime in the past before our era of hygiene and phenomenal improvement in health conditions - or maybe these days still in Russia - rather than your blandly and anonymously handsome Hollywood star, young or old. It is like eating a real tomato, grown in the earth, not looking good, but tasting so rich. But Isolda Dychauk, the Russian-German actress who plays Margarete, seen through the eyes and camera of Sokurov, is of breathtaking, angelic beauty.There's a great sense of humor also, especially located in the character of Mephisto. Anton Adassinsky is phenomenal, a disturbing jester.Of course, just as there is litterature and airport litterature, there is cinema and there is entertainment cinema - a difference the French understand probably better than the Americans; in fact, they think they invented it. Faust is cinema. Like the films of Tarkovsky it is a film that takes its time to unfold, and that time is part of its very nature and appeal. It is a film that talks and talks and the talk is part of its very nature and appeal - plus, it talks in Goethe's language, and at times in his words.The cinematography, by the French cinematographer Bruno Delbonel, is phenomenal: my overriding impression was of monochromatic ochers, depicting, maybe, the mediocrity of this earthly life, except one scene, when Faust looks for Margarete in the Church, invaded with a blinding white. And the screen size: square, 1.33, evoking the early days of cinematography, as if one was watching a Murnau film shot today.Now, what the film is "about", I don't know. Sokurov considers it the fourth and final pendant of his tetralogy on power and its corrupting effects. Maybe. I don't know. Sure Faust tries to ascertain his power over knowledge (fails) and over Margarete (succeeds). But really, that's not comparable with Hitler, Lenin or Hiro-Hito. That's what humans do, every day, not monsters thirsting for boundless power. I will not try to rake my brain too much and be content to consider it as a film on human desire, mankind torn between a lust for knowledge and lust for the flesh, and maybe it is the same lust.I haven't tried to write a very coherent review (and if I did, I am aware that I failed), I'm just trying to convey the notion that it is a film that stirs complex, and powerful emotions.(PS from 25 February 2015: in a very similar vein, see my review of Alexei German's "Hard to be a God", Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's "Trudno Byt Bogom / Hard to be A God" An Aleksey German Film - NTSC DVD-R with English Subtitles.

You would think that one of the many benefits that selling your soul to the devil will bring would be getting to hang out with the man... I mean, with the Devil, himself. Surely the Devil must be a wise-cracking bully, of the type Al Pacino played in Devil Advocate, no? Nope, not this film's Devil. Hanging out with this one -- and this is what Dr. Faust does for most of the screen time, is like spending time with one's senile grandpa for whom outward appearances and impressing others is no longer a concern. And yet this one, unlike an average resident of a retirement home, will take you on a walk of a lifetime, through the mysterious landscapes you didn't know had existed. Hypnotic.

I am so disappointed that I could not watch this DVD. I do understand this is a 2010 Russian production, and was prepared to read English subtitles. I assumed they had distributed this movie so that it may be viewed by those in the USA.When I put the DVD into my dvd player, my dvd player said, "Wrong Region." I have no way of seeing this movie I guess? I will have to return this DVD.I am so disappointed as I wanted to see this deep story and try to understand what Goethe was saying.

While it portrays the negativaty of the legend, it ignores the romantic reinvention of the myth of the 18th century.

It seems that Alexander Sokurov had to appeal to the highest authority in Russia to get the financial support he needed to complete his final installment in his great "Power" tetralogy. Vladimir Putin would seem an unlikely patron for Sokurov, who has long bucked authority ever since completing his studies at VGIK in 1979. But, after an hour's discussion at Putin's country retreat, Sokurov had his backer. Although Sokurov claims Putin was drawn more to the subject matter of the movie than to him, one can't help but think that Putin saw in Sokurov the international recognition he brought to cinema. After all, Putin is more a power player than an auteur.Whatever the case, we should all be thankful Sokurov got the opportunity to complete this marvelous film, which takes a whole new look at the Faustian bargain, seeing it more as a power game than a question of spirituality. This might put off some Faust fans, but I think most will be mesmerized by the way in which Sokurov explores his subject, portraying Faust not as some Romantic but rather as an exceedingly rational man obsessed with knowledge, and determined to understand the underpinning of the universal order.The film opens with Faust, as played by Johannes Zeiler, opening up the body of a man in search of his soul. An amusing dialog takes place between Faust and his assistant Wagner (Georg Friedrich) as to where the soul might be located. A disgruntled Faust has the dissected body carted away and goes to his father for a handout to keep him going, but his father shuns him, regarding his son's experiments as fruitless.The devil is less a Mephistopheles than a devilish little pawnbroker, played to great effect by Anton Adasinsky, who leads the good Dr. Faust around a labyrinthine Medieval village, tempting him with Margarete, played by the radiant Isolde Dychauk, and eventually getting the doctor to "autograph" a book for him in blood for the money he needs to carry on his research into the soul of man.There is virtually constant movement in the film, as in Russian Ark. Sokurov gives the viewer little rest visually or in following the cascading subtitles, as he presents the dialog like a stream of consciousness, pulling from the lines of the play, inserting his own subtexts and even providing an amusing cameo by Chichikov and his manservant Selifan on the road from Russia. There are many subtle role reversals as you wonder who is leading who in this existential quest.

Ein Meisterwerk mit vielen versteckten Symbolen, Zitaten, Anspielungen ….muss man mehrfach ansehen und entdecken.

Très bonne adaptation de la pièce de Goethe.

Il film di Sokurov non è sicuramente un film semplice, insomma, occorre una certa dedizione e varie visioni per poterne cogliere le innumerevolisfumature. Una singola visione non permette di comprendere a pieno ciò che si sta guardando poiché l'occhio e la mente saranno continuamente bombardati da situazioni, luci, lenti, filtri, dialoghi così diversi tra loro eppure così intimamente connessi da quel che è il progredire stesso del film. Le successive visioni risultano rivelatrici in merito all'importante legame tra i vari aspetti che stavano davanti agli occhi dello spettatore e dietro a quell'apparente confusione. Insomma, un film non semplice da comprendere ed apprezzare ma in grado segnare in maniera netta ed importante lo spettatore paziente e desideroso di scovare i vari aspetti di questo gioiello.

The old German tale is cautionary. Whatever soul may be (integrity, for example), it's something to be prized and protected. Once lost in life, it's irredeemably lost and may be lost in other lifetimes as well if they exist.Desire for earthly knowledge over that of the divine was the central theme of the original story. Here in this fine film version (Russian made, German dialogue) Faust mainly desires sex, not earthly knowledge. He is smitten by a young nubile beauty, the daughter of a coarse peasant who treats her daughter (known as Margarete) as a prized piece of property. Beauty such as hers must not be squandered. It must be used to acquire further property. And so the daughter, always dressed in tight corsets and cumbersome hooped dresses, is watched and protected. But lurking on the perimeter of social affairs in the village is Faust, a middle-aged professor of science and philosophy. Magarete notices this, her curiosity for him aroused. Bashful, modest and inexperienced she may be, but her innocence does not blind her to the ways of the world. She understands what Faust represents and wants.Their glances are furtive, their chances to speak slim, as Margarete is always chaperoned when walking outside. Much of what they communicate is done almost telepathically.In the local graveyard during a somber funeral and burial they stand next to one another in a small crowd. All eyes are on the coffin as it is lowered into the ground. Faust gently moves his hand toward hers. They touch. She looks up at him, a chaste smile on her beautiful, pure face. He looks straight ahead, not daring to be seen looking into her cheerful eyes.After this we know what must follow. Faust does too, but Margarete cannot be procured by orthodox means. There will be no courtship, no wedding bells for Faust, the penniless scholar, nor for his prized young beauty. So Faust consults Mephistopheles, the local moneylender, an emissary of Satan. Parchment, quill and candle are produced. Faust fitfully reads over the document and signs. Love can be satisfied, but he will have her for only one night. Those are the terms.The film asks no questions and gives no answers. It invites you, as all great art does, to do both on your own.I have a personal emotional stake in the story. I once loved a young Japanese woman more than 30 years my junior. It was pointless and mad but couldn't be helped: hopeless, impossible, ludicrous. But even now I would sell my soul for just one night with her.

これまでに、ヨーロッパのモノクロの作品群は観ていましたし、ゲーテの戯曲の翻訳は読んでいました。そのために勝手に自分自身の「ファウスト」像が出来上がっていたんですね。ですから、ソクーロフによる本作品を観たときには、ソクーロフ独自の「ファウスト」の表現なんだな〜と思いました。ファウスト博士は天才と呼ぶには程遠い己の欲望に生きる俗物人間だし、悪魔と噂される高利貸マウリツィウスも悪魔の美しさなど微塵もない。対蹠的に、マルガレーテの純真・無垢な驚異の映像美にはまいる。マウリツィウスとファウストの駆け引きは面白いし、マルガレーテの美しさに心奪われ、マウリツィウスと契約を結ぶファウスト。覚えている過去の作品「ファウスト」を忘れて、初めて『ファウスト』を観ていると思えばいい。冒頭、雲の中から舞い降りてくるような俯瞰シーンに続き、人間の解剖シーンが始まる。なんて奇抜なはじめ方であろうか。映画のあらすじは御覧になってください。独特な淡い色調と時として鏡などをもちいたであろう歪んだ画面、そして、中世絵画の世界をそのまま持ってきたような美しいシークエンス。非常に贅沢な画造りである。ファウストの運命は決まってはいるが、悪魔との契約とは言いながら結局は自分の心の深層にある悪魔との心理的葛藤ともいえよう。流石、各賞に輝いたアレクサンドル・ソクーロフの傑作である。これは、必見であろう。なお、本作品も８月にWOWOWで放映される。お薦め！