Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Faust (1926)

The devil claims the earth as his own. A dazzling archangel declares it is not and never will be so. The devil proposes a wager for possession of Earth. If he can corrupt but one man, Faust, all the earth will be his. If he loses, he must leave back to Hell. The devil hovers over Faust’s village.

Plague, death, panic, frustration, resignation. Faust is pious, but cannot call upon God successfully to lift the veil of death. In a moment of false revelation, Faust is tempted to call upon the devil. The wry devil manuevers Faust into accepting dark powers for a day. Faust cures some of the plague, but is outcast when he cannot bring himself to touch a crucifix.

Not realizing his new powers have already failed the test, he accepts the devil’s temptation of youth. The devil has his way. Slowly, all Hell breaks loose (so to speak).

Faust falls for the pure Gretchen, but under the guidance of the devil Faust corrupts Gretchen. She struggles through the birth of their child and its death. But amidst all this suffering, which the devil is really enjoying, something happens to redeem the tragic situation.

Emil Jannings’ performance as the devil in Faust (1926) is both charming and mirthful. Under F.W. Murnau’s direction, Jannings expertly hits dramatic poses that look as though they are modelled after a stylized illustration. But can it be something other than posing that Jannings, a truly great actor, brings to the role? Some modern critics make Jannings out to be nothing more than a pompous overactor. We say that Jannings’ Faust role must be taken as a visual device at director Murnau’s control first and as characterization and a plot device a distant second.

Gösta Ekman as Faust has far more to do with his character and his performance. All characters and situations revolve, like a medieval concept of the solar system, around Faust. Faust is the one who changes during the course of the film. Camilla Horn is lovely as Gretchen, in her first real film role.

But what of the overall effect of the film on viewers? Murnau does depart from the text of plays and legends. The film cannot be considered a faithful adaptation of the Goethe play. But isn’t it something more? Something representative of a new art? At its most shallow assessment, the film is nothing more than stylistic eye candy.

A more sympathetic and enthusiastic assessment of the film places it as one of greatest achievements of German silent cinema and of the UFA studio in particular. Murnau had carte blanche access to UFA resources to help bring his vision to celluloid. Faust is a triumph of art direction, costume design and makeup. Texture, light and shadow, and movement within the frame are all of upmost importance.

Nearly every shot is framed dynamically; either centered to indicate the balance of divinity, otherwise framed in strong angles, tilted framing, and dynamic composition. Nearly every shot indicates the deliberate visual design of director Murnau. Faust features some of the most striking images committed to film, and it is nothing short of a stylistic masterpiece. Our own first encounter with Faust was of jaw-dropping awe.

We find ultimately that the film serves the viewer first as a rich Germanic fantasy, and second as a special-effects extravaganza.

— Carl Bennett

This combination Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition contains the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung’s high-definition restoration of the original German release version of the film on Blu-ray Disc (still frame above), as well as a supplemental DVD (still frame below) of the longer alternate cut of the film prepared by the UFA Studios in 1930 for distribution in the U.S. The DVD in this set is identical to the USA release version from Kino’s 2009 DVD edition.

The BD presentation features a piano score by Javier Perez de Azpeitia, adapted from the original 1926 orchestral arrangement, and an optional emsemble score by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. It is noted that Kino has not provided the 5.1 surround sound option for the Mont Alto score as was available on their 2009 DVD edition. The 1995 orchestral score by Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, accompanies the USA release version.

Much of the supplementary material is identical to Kino’s 2009 edition noted below.

This is our recommended home video edition of these film versions. Of course, we prefer the German release version for its extra image detail.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A BD / Region 0 NTSCDVD edition from Amazon.com. Support Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A BD / Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Support Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by optional music scores including a piano score by Javier Perez de Azpeitia, adapted from the original 1926 orchestral arrangement, and a music score by harpist Stan Ambrose. The 1995 orchestral score by Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, accompanies the USA release version.

Supplemental material includes audio commentary by David Ehrenstein and Bill Krohn; the documentary “The Language of Shadows” (53 minutes); a discussion of the film by critic Tony Rayns (20 minutes); video comparisons of the German and export versions; and a 44-page insert booklet with an essay by Peter Spooner, a new translation of excerpts of Éric Rohmer’s treatise on the film, and an image gallery.

North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region B/Region 2 dual-disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Richard Siedhoff.

Supplemental material includes screen-test footage of Ernst Lubitsch’s abandoned 1923 USA production of Marguerite and Faust (11 minutes); and a 28-page trilingual (German, English and French) booklet with an essay by Stefan Drössler, and documents by Gerhart Hauptmann and Hans Kyser.

This is our recommended European DVD home video edition of the film. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 0 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .

Kino’s remastered DVD edition of Faust presents two versions of the film: the featured Filmoteca Española restoration of the German release version (with optional English subtitles — still frame above) and the previously-available 1930 U.S. release version (still frame below). The USA version is virtually identical to Kino’s 2001 DVD edition (noted below).

The set also includes the documentary, The Language of Shadows: Faust, on the making of Murnau’s film (53 minutes); a new musical score by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra presented in 5.1 stereo surround or 2.0 stereo, and a 2.0 stereo piano score performed by Javier Perez de Azpeitia for the German release version; recovered screen-test footage of Ernst Lubitsch’s abandoned 1923 USA production of Marguerite and Faust (11 minutes); an image gallery; and an essay by film historian Jan Christopher Horak.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by an orchestral music score.

The supplemental material includes a full-length audio commentary by David Ehrenstein and Bill Krohn, a 20-minute video essay by Tony Rayns, a 20-minute video comparison by R. Dixon Smith of the German and English lanugage versions of the film, a stills and promo art gallery, and a 20-page booklet including a new essay by Peter Spooner.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Purchase supports Silent Era.

The presentation of Faust in this Kino DVD edition is virtually identical to the 1996 laserdisc and videotape editions. A very-good 35mm print struck from the 1930 version of the film assembled by UFA was utilized for the video transfer, with some speckling, dust, processing inconsistencies, emulsion damage and scratches, has been utilized by edition producer David Shepard. The image framing appears to be generous, with no distracting or obvious cropping. The slightly-windowboxed video transfer is otherwise detailed with well-balanced greytones that hold image detail in deep shadows. There is so much smoke in this film, and smoke is so hard to render smoothly under MPEG-2 video compression, there are bound to be several opportunities to notice compression artifacts in the DVD edition. There is generally a flatness to the many greytones that make up moving smoke and some posterization of the subtle grey transitions can be noticed if you are looking for it. Otherwise, the video transfer appears to be flawless — that is, until reevaluated on high-definition equipment. Revisiting the disc now points up the flaws of the source material and the older, softer video transfer. We have chosen to lower our rating of the video quality to bring our evaluation in line with the quality of today’s DVD releases.

The print features the main titles in German. All of the film’s intertitles have been digitally set in English in the American Uncial typeface to make them look contemporary to the print, which we think is unnecessary if they are not the original intertitle cards.

Another fine orchestral score by Timothy Brock and The Olympia Chamber Orchestra accompanies the film. Brock manages to evoke musical images in a Germanic tone, and that ominous tone is always an appropriate mood setter for this film. We wish that all video editions of silent era films could afford this orchestral treatment.

The supplementary material includes an extensive photo gallery and a brief essay on Faust in the insert booklet by Jan Christopher Horak. We heartily recommend this edition of Faust as a fine example of what home video editions of silent films should strive to be, and as a tremendous surviving example of the great German films of the 1920s.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The presentation features an audio commentary track written by film historian Peter Spooner and read by Russell Cawthorne.

This out-of-print edition is not recommended after the releases of better editions noted above. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This South Korean DVD edition showed up for sale on eBay late in 2005 and is obviously mastered from the same David Shepard-production edition as the 2001 Kino edition reviewed above.

The presentation features the same Timothy Brock music score as other home video editions noted above.

Supplemental material includes a Murnau filmography and a stills gallery (41 images).

As there are better home video editions to be had, this disc is not recommended.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The presentation likely features the same Timothy Brock music score as other home video editions noted above.

Supplemental material includes a Murnau filmography and a stills gallery (41 images).

As there are better home video editions to be had, this disc is not recommended. North American collectors will need a region-free DVD player capable of outputting a region-independent NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 6 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Sight unseen, we do not recommend this out-of-print DVD-R home video edition. Note the short running time.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

There is no way that we can recommend this edition. Just don’t bother. Note the short running time.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Other silent era EMIL JANNINGS films available on home video.

Other GERMAN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.