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Faust (1926)
German Expressionist Folktale Silent Horror Fantasy.
The demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man’s soul.
Until Metropolis (1927) debuted a year later, this was the most expensive German film.
Director F.W. Murnau wanted Lillian Gish to play Gretchen, but she insisted that the film be shot by her favorite cinematographer, Charles Rosher.
Murnau instead cast newcomer Camilla Horn, who he had met on the set of Tartuffe (1925), where she was a double for Lil Dagover.
Faust (1926) was Murnau’s last German film, and directly afterward he moved to the US under contract to William Fox to direct Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
At the time of release Faust was considered a “financial flop”. German critics disliked the adaptation from its source texts and Gösta Ekman’s performance.
In later years, the film is now recognized as one of the finest examples of German Expressionist cinema.
| Directed by | F. W. Murnau |
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| Written by | Hans Kyser |
| Produced by | Erich Pommer |
| Starring | Gösta Ekman Emil Jannings Camilla Horn Wilhelm Dieterle Frida Richard Yvette Guilbert |
| Cinematography | Carl Hoffmann |
| Music by | Werner Richard Heymann (in the premiere) William Axt (US, uncredited) |
| Distributed by | Ufa (Germany) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA) |
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Release dates
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Languages | Silent film German intertitles |
| Budget | 2 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €8 million in 2021) |
| Box office | 1 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €4 million in 2021) |
