Faust (2011 film)
Encyclopedia
Faust is a 2011 Russian film directed by Alexander Sokurov
. Set in the 19th century, it is a free interpretation of the Faust
legend and its literary adaptations by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Thomas Mann
. The dialogue is in German. The film won the Golden Lion
at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
.
, and the world that gives rise to his ideas.
in Moloch
from 1999, Vladimir Lenin
in Taurus
from 2001, and the Japanese emperor Hirohito
in The Sun
from 2005. Producer Andrey Sigle said about Faust: "The film has no particular relevance to contemporary events in the world – it is set in the early 19th century – but reflects Sokurov's enduring attempts to understand man and his inner forces." Beyond the themes within the actual film, the project also had a political dimension. Sigle said: "The film is a big Russian cultural project and for Putin
that is very important. He saw it as a film that can introduce the Russian mentality into European culture; to promote integration between Russian and European culture."
's Faust
and Thomas Mann
's Doctor Faustus, was announced by Sokurov in 2005 as "a very colourful, elegant picture with a lot of Strauss music and a smell of chocolate." The eight-million euro film was produced by the St. Petersburg-based company Proline Film and received support from the Mass Media Support Fund of Russia.
Filming started 17 August 2009 in the Czech Republic, where it continued for two months. Locations included the castles of Točník
, Lipnice nad Sázavou
and Ledeč
, as well as the town Kutná Hora
. Studio scenes were shot at Barrandov Studios
in Prague. Photography also took place in Germany. In October the team moved to Iceland for several days of filming.
. Three days later it was screened in the Masters section of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival
.
: "Forget Marlowe
, Goethe
, Gounod
and Murnau, or rather, lay them aside, since the idiosyncratic helmer adds his own spin on the classic legend, and an over-familiarity with Faust's previous incarnations will likely hinder understanding." In a reservation, Weissberg wrote that Sokurov's "established fans" will be "the only audience for this largely impenetrable though undeniably impressive indulgence". Regarding the visuals, he noted the unexpected collaboration between the cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel
and Sokurov, and wrote: "[W]hile the stillness that marks the first films of his quartet (self-lensed) is little in evidence, visuals here are striking in their mottled gray tonalities. ... The influence of Flemish and Dutch painting on Sokurov's work has never been clearer than in Faust, with its deep debt to the witchcraft paintings of artists such as David Teniers
and Herri met de Bles
."
At the closing ceremony of the Venice Film Festival, Faust was honoured with the festival's highest prize for best film, the Golden Lion
. The jury president was the American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky
, who said when he presented the winner: "There are some films that make you cry, there are some films that make you laugh, there are some films that change you forever after you see them; and this is one of them."
Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a semi-documentary, Russian Ark , filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust , which was honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival.- Life and work...
. Set in the 19th century, it is a free interpretation of the Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
legend and its literary adaptations by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
. The dialogue is in German. The film won the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
68th Venice International Film Festival
The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, took place from 31 August to 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Film-maker award on 4 September,...
.
Plot
The film depicts the instincts and schemes of FaustFaust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
, and the world that gives rise to his ideas.
Cast
- Johannes Zeiler as FaustFaustFaust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
- Anton Adasinsky as moneylender (MephistophelesMephistophelesMephistopheles is a demon featured in German folklore...
) - Isolda DychaukIsolda DychaukIsolda Dychauk is a German actress of Russian descent.- Career :Isolda Dychauk was born in 1993 in Surgut and moved to Berlin in 2002 with her mother. In addition to her native language Russian, she learned to speak German accent-free. In 2003 she was admitted to the Berlin based acting school...
as Gretchen - Georg Friedrich as Wagner
- Hanna SchygullaHanna SchygullaHanna Schygulla is a German actress and chanson singer. She is generally considered the most prominent German actress of the New German Cinema.-Life and career:Schygulla was born in Königshütte, Upper Silesia,...
- Antje Lewald as Gretchen's mother
- Florian Brueckner as Valentin
- Sigurdur Skulasson
- Maxim MehmetMaxim MehmetMaxim Mehmet is a German film actor. He inherited his Turkish surname from his Crimean Tatar grandfather. He lives in Berlin- Selected filmography :* NVA * A Hero's Welcome * The Red Baron...
as Valentin's friend - Eva-Maria Kurz as Faust's cook
Themes
The film is the final part in a series of films where Alexander Sokurov explores the corrupting effects of power. The previous installments are three biographical dramas: about Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in Moloch
Moloch (film)
Moloch is a 1999 Russian biographical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Yuri Arabov and Marina Koreneva. It portrays Adolf Hitler as a humanized figure, living life in an unassuming manner during an abrupt journey to the Bavarian Alps...
from 1999, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
in Taurus
Taurus (film)
Taurus is a 2001 Russian biographical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov, portraying Vladimir Lenin. It was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Leonid Mozgovoy as Vladimir Lenin* Mariya Kuznetsova as Krupskaya...
from 2001, and the Japanese emperor Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
in The Sun
The Sun (film)
The Sun is a 2005 Russian biographical film surrounding Japanese Emperor Shōwa during the final days of World War II. The film is the third drama in director Aleksandr Sokurov's trilogy following on the leaders of Russia and Germany's .-Plot:Towards the conclusion of the Second World War, Japan...
from 2005. Producer Andrey Sigle said about Faust: "The film has no particular relevance to contemporary events in the world – it is set in the early 19th century – but reflects Sokurov's enduring attempts to understand man and his inner forces." Beyond the themes within the actual film, the project also had a political dimension. Sigle said: "The film is a big Russian cultural project and for Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
that is very important. He saw it as a film that can introduce the Russian mentality into European culture; to promote integration between Russian and European culture."
Production
The project, loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
's Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
and Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
's Doctor Faustus, was announced by Sokurov in 2005 as "a very colourful, elegant picture with a lot of Strauss music and a smell of chocolate." The eight-million euro film was produced by the St. Petersburg-based company Proline Film and received support from the Mass Media Support Fund of Russia.
Filming started 17 August 2009 in the Czech Republic, where it continued for two months. Locations included the castles of Točník
Točník
Točník is a village and municipality in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. -References:*This article was initially translated from the Czech Wikipedia....
, Lipnice nad Sázavou
Lipnice nad Sázavou
Lipnice nad Sázavou is a village in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 700 inhabitants.It is where, at the Czech Crown Inn, Czech author Jaroslav Hašek wrote a substantial part of The Good Soldier Švejk before he died in 1923...
and Ledeč
Ledec nad Sázavou
Ledeč nad Sázavou is a town in the Vysočina Region, Czech Republic. It is located at around . The Sázava River flows through the town.- External links :* *...
, as well as the town Kutná Hora
Kutná Hora
Kutná Hora is a city in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic in the Central Bohemian Region.-History:The town began in 1142 with the settlement of the first Cistercian Monastery in Bohemia, Kloster Sedlitz, brought from the Imperial immediate Cistercian Waldsassen Abbey...
. Studio scenes were shot at Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios is a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.Several of the movies filmed there won Academy Awards...
in Prague. Photography also took place in Germany. In October the team moved to Iceland for several days of filming.
Release
The film premiered on 8 September 2011 in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival68th Venice International Film Festival
The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, took place from 31 August to 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Film-maker award on 4 September,...
. Three days later it was screened in the Masters section of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival
2011 Toronto International Film Festival
The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival, was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011.Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film was From the Sky Down, a documentary film about the band...
.
Reception
Jay Weissberg wrote in VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
: "Forget Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
, Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
and Murnau, or rather, lay them aside, since the idiosyncratic helmer adds his own spin on the classic legend, and an over-familiarity with Faust's previous incarnations will likely hinder understanding." In a reservation, Weissberg wrote that Sokurov's "established fans" will be "the only audience for this largely impenetrable though undeniably impressive indulgence". Regarding the visuals, he noted the unexpected collaboration between the cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel
Bruno Delbonnel
Bruno Delbonnel is a French cinematographer.Delbonnel was born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France and graduated in 1978 from the ESEC ....
and Sokurov, and wrote: "[W]hile the stillness that marks the first films of his quartet (self-lensed) is little in evidence, visuals here are striking in their mottled gray tonalities. ... The influence of Flemish and Dutch painting on Sokurov's work has never been clearer than in Faust, with its deep debt to the witchcraft paintings of artists such as David Teniers
David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist born in Antwerp, the son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV were also painters...
and Herri met de Bles
Herri met de Bles
Herri met de Bles was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter...
."
At the closing ceremony of the Venice Film Festival, Faust was honoured with the festival's highest prize for best film, the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
. The jury president was the American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
, who said when he presented the winner: "There are some films that make you cry, there are some films that make you laugh, there are some films that change you forever after you see them; and this is one of them."