FAUST (1926) (1926)
F.W.MURNAUKARL FREUND
Plot
Murnau's version of the story of the man who sold his soul to the Devil in return for youth is visually extraordinary but uneven in terms of dramatic effect. Certainly, its opening scenes (the prologue between an Angel and Satan, and the temptation of Faust, after which Mephistopheles takes him on an astonishing, beautiful journey through the skies) easily hold the attention, but a long central section, portraying Faust's courtship of Marguerite, sits awkwardly with what has preceded it. The finale finds Murnau returning to form and one is left merely marvelling at the way he and cameraman Carl Hoffman have imitated the old Dutch, German and Italian masters, and the German romanticists.