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Faust
review by Shade Rupe Jan Svankmajer's presence in current popular culture can be felt in many places, including videos by Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and the opening credits for the remake of The Haunting of Hill House. Creating several short subjects, Svankmajer has produced a couple of delightful feature films, including his telling of Lewis Carroll's tale, Alice. In Faust, his wild and imaginative, dark and surreal combinations of puppets, claymation and people, bears his trademark antique marionettes, bizarre configurations of living clay creatures and his penchant for putting humans in situtations they know little what to do with, or where to go. It can be rough when a few lumps of clay sprout eyes and make their way across the floor to plop away outside the window. Faust (played by famed Czech Petr Cepek) begins as an everyday fellow who leaves his usual subway station to be handed a map that directs his future. He crumples it up and tosses it away, only to find the exact textless map in his mail. Following signs he finds an decrepit theater, and a copy of Goethe's Faust. As he reads, he invocates a command to raise a fierce demon, who, following the classic tale, offers him immense earthbound happiness in exchange for his immortal soul. The film then takes amazing turns as Faust is shown possible realities for his wishes. An amazing sequence shows Faust's temptation by many summoned demon marionettes, and his own guardian angel marionettes fight a losing battle with them, ending up raped and bloodied by the dark wooden creatures. Mesmerizing and fascinating, Svankmajer succeeds yet again in creating a phenomenal world of impossible happenings, made flesh by animating simple objects, and using wooden armaments to create a more frightening reality for our hapless hero. Image's DVD is presented in English. OFFICIAL WEB
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