Faust (2011 film)
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| Directed by | Alexander Sokurov |
| Produced by | Andrey Sigle |
| Written by | Alexander Sokurov Marina Koreneva Yuri Arabov |
| Based on |
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann |
| Starring | Johannes Zeiler Anton Adasinsky Isolda Dychauk Hanna Schygulla |
| Music by | Andrey Sigle |
| Cinematography | Bruno Delbonnel |
| Edited by | Jörg Hauschild |
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134 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | German |
| Budget | € 8 million |
| Box office | $2,121,258 |
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.
Heinrich Faust (Johannes Zeiler) is driven by his longing for enlightenment. He seeks to understand the very nature of life and how it makes the world go round. Driven by his burning desire for cognition, he even unearths corpses and rummages in their guts just to localize the home of the soul.
While he keeps on telling himself "in the beginning was the word", he gets to know the racketeer Mauricius (Anton Adassinsky), playing a worldly version of Mephistopheles, who eventually contradicts him: "In the beginning was the deed". In spite of being amorphic, Mauricius considers himself an Übermensch. Faust's obscure new friend takes him to the twilight zones of their small town.
In a bath, his attention is caught by the young Margarete (Isolda Dychauk), also known as "Gretchen". Later the two new friends are entangled in a pub brawl, Faust accidentally kills Gretchen's brother. Faust becomes obsessed with Gretchen, who appears to embody the beauty of blooming life. He indulges himself in thinking that studying her would be reasonable as a part of his research about what makes all the difference between life and death. When the aging Faust has become irreversibly infatuated with Gretchen, Mephistopheles offers him to let him have her.
Faust cannot resist the idea of spending a night with Gretchen. Yet Mauricius demands nothing less than Faust's soul in return. Faust even has to sign the contract with his own blood. Now living on borrowed time, Faust can hit on Gretchen, but he is haunted by penitence and fear. Finally Faust cannot bear Mauricius' nihilistic comments anymore. Overwhelmed with wrath, he buries Mauricius under rocks and finds himself lost in the middle of nowhere.
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 Hitler 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 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."
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