Like "Alice in Wonderland", the story of Faust has been almost infinitely adapted to various interpretations based on the nationalist and socialistic concerns of the time, making it perfect material for Svankmajer to play with. In terms of Svankmajer's other work, this fits more closely to his 1970 short "Don Sanche", but overall it's the most populated movie of his I've seen thus far. Most of his shorts are rather hermetic, with story lines as splintered as his characters: "Alice" is kept entirely in the young girl's head, "Lunacy" is trapped in an insane asylum, and his shorts are either devoid of people or the very few characters that are there react to their absence. Here, he tries a little bit to provide a world populated with extras and background, but it isn't long before he removes the action (once again) to an abandoned theatre wherein he can get his puppets and claymation to work.
Instead of a straight-up adaptation, Svankmajer plays it loose and surreal, introducing multiple layers of narrative and letting them dance with each other. This approach to storytelling is matched by the mixed media he includes with life-sized puppets, stop-motion animation, claymation, and live action, sometimes at the same time, sometimes taking over each other, and sometimes giving the floor to another. It's interesting that the primary recognizable Faust narrative is contained in puppetry, meaning that even behind the metaphysical story of the fateful struggle over a man's soul are unnamed human hands authoring the tale. On one hand, an argument could be made that the story doesn't really even start until the second half of the movie, meaning it could have been cut to about 45 minutes in length; on the other hand, like any serious animator's work, it's really much more about movement, and it never really drags.
Of all of Svankmajer's work, this is one that seems like previous knowledge of him would be helpful going into. A lot of the symbolism, such as all of the food that gets eaten, the disembodied leg, the clay baby, and the close-ups of mouths are all much more easy to understand as shorthand to his usual concerns; I feel like had I not recognized them as such, I could have gotten bogged down trying to figure it all out and the movie would have been a bit more confusing. Remember that this story begins with a cracked egg.
There are, indeed, many amazing and memorable scenes. The scene in the dressing room where Faust converses to an always metamorphosing Mephistopheles is really where all of the imagery and themes come together in their smoothest and most actualized forms--AND it's enough to disturb for weeks. I especially like the little angels and demons coming out of the big angels and demons; that scene also reflects the "consuming" nature of a lot of the earlier imagery.
Anyway, definitely for die-hard fans of Svankmajer, though others might be a little put off, if not by its imagery, then by its pacing.
--PolarisDiB
Instead of a straight-up adaptation, Svankmajer plays it loose and surreal, introducing multiple layers of narrative and letting them dance with each other. This approach to storytelling is matched by the mixed media he includes with life-sized puppets, stop-motion animation, claymation, and live action, sometimes at the same time, sometimes taking over each other, and sometimes giving the floor to another. It's interesting that the primary recognizable Faust narrative is contained in puppetry, meaning that even behind the metaphysical story of the fateful struggle over a man's soul are unnamed human hands authoring the tale. On one hand, an argument could be made that the story doesn't really even start until the second half of the movie, meaning it could have been cut to about 45 minutes in length; on the other hand, like any serious animator's work, it's really much more about movement, and it never really drags.
Of all of Svankmajer's work, this is one that seems like previous knowledge of him would be helpful going into. A lot of the symbolism, such as all of the food that gets eaten, the disembodied leg, the clay baby, and the close-ups of mouths are all much more easy to understand as shorthand to his usual concerns; I feel like had I not recognized them as such, I could have gotten bogged down trying to figure it all out and the movie would have been a bit more confusing. Remember that this story begins with a cracked egg.
There are, indeed, many amazing and memorable scenes. The scene in the dressing room where Faust converses to an always metamorphosing Mephistopheles is really where all of the imagery and themes come together in their smoothest and most actualized forms--AND it's enough to disturb for weeks. I especially like the little angels and demons coming out of the big angels and demons; that scene also reflects the "consuming" nature of a lot of the earlier imagery.
Anyway, definitely for die-hard fans of Svankmajer, though others might be a little put off, if not by its imagery, then by its pacing.
--PolarisDiB