User reviews

The review by PlanecrazyIkarus hits the nail on the head - a good adaptation that loses effectiveness as it (over)reaches.

Good acting, but a little too over-the-top at times. Faithful to the text, but decidedly modern. Various forms of high-contrast lighting on plain sets (and a few technical gimmicks) provide a stark, stylish vision that holds initial attention but fast becomes tedious.

Sure to inspire good after-screening conversation, worthy of a few bonus points for its weirdness!

Final Grade: 6/10.

Worth a look.

Well, first let me say that I don't really like Faust (the play), so I'm not going to comment on the merits of the plot and dialogue. They stick to the book. (In case you don't know, the story is about an old scholar who makes a pact with the devil after realizing that he wasted his youth without achieving any enlightenment, and then he is turned into a young man again, falls in love etc. Needless to say there is a tragic outcome)

This adaptation includes even those scenes that Goethe cut out, because they were too tasteless. I'm talking about the full Walpurgisnacht witch festival on the Blocksberg, including multiple dialogue references to sex, even with children. Also, it is rather free in the adaptation of one other scene, where Mephistopheles has a monologue while masturbating. I remember the words from the play, but the fact that he was masturbating (including a brief display of his devillified penis with extra fur attached to make it look more wicked) must have skipped my mind while reading the play.

Apart from being rather mature in its contents, it is a good adaptation, sticking to the text and having good acting. The Faust/Gretchen Marte/Mephisto scene in the garden was quite well done.

A bit tasteless, but complete, and useful if you need to know Faust for school. It fulfills that purpose - otherwise, it is rather too rude in my opinion.