I enjoy foreign films very much because I feel like it's a good marker on what their culture is. As I type this I realise that this may be the dumbest sentence I have typed. Nevertheless I feel as if I gain an of insight on what kind of things people in other countries do based off of their movies. For instance I could say that in the silent film era Germans were trying to break the mold of what movies were. In France they were more into what could be shown on screen. Today I watched Faust which is a German horror film from the silent era, and it is less experimental than The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The movie is also very good and you can tell that by the number of remakes that tried to match the original. IMDB counts up to five remakes and reimaginings.
The movie was filmed in 1926 and can be found on instant stream. God and Satan are competing for the world and if Satan can sway Faust he gets Earth. Faust is a wise and holy man and everyone comes to him for help when the plague starts. Mephesto aka Satan gives Faust what he wants more than anything youth and love. Faust meets Gretchen and gets her to love him but then things go down hill very very fast. This movie is remarkable and to me felt modern in many ways.
I think the most modern scene is the opening in which the whole screen is taken up by the sheer size of the devil. also the special effects are quite good not as good as Sherlock Jr. but good nonetheless. The film shows us how far they could meld the feelings of the audience even during a movie from the silent era. This isn't the best movie of this month but so far it's one of my favorites and may be on my top ten list.
Ebert's score 4 stars
Tyler's score 4 stars
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