Faust et Méphistophélès (1903) User Reviews

Busy but confusing

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 5 May 2009]

I suppose you need to know the story of Faust to understand what's going on in this busy French film from female pioneer Alice Guy. My recollection of the tale is sketchy to say the least, despite seeing the silent German version a few years back. A doctor and a pact with the devil, I seem to remember. This is reminiscent of Melies - with whom Guy was no doubt attempting to compete with - because of its use of trick photography. To be honest, the only trick in Guy's bag is stop-motion and she uses it with abandon - I lost count of the number of times a character changes appearance following a tap on the head. The film's in fairly good condition, so it's easy to see what's going on even if it's not too easy to understand.

Not bad for 1903

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 5 February 2010]

Because of the use of stop-motion as a form of trick film making, this film is very reminiscent of the films of Georges Méliès--though it lacks the artistic touches that a Méliès film usually has. Instead, it comes off as a bit frenetic.

Alice Guy has managed to tell, in a thoroughly confusing manner, the entire story of Faust in about two minutes!!! I laugh at this because the original story consisted of 25,000 lines of non-rhyming German verse. How anyone expected to adequately address this complex story so quickly is beyond me. To try, Guy often stops the camera to make things seem to magically appear. However, unless you are very familiar with the original story, the whole thing is a confusing nightmare--and it STILL wasn't easy for me to follow even though I had read this dreadfully dull story.

Not bad for 1903, but a confusing film nonetheless.

You know what this is about

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 October 2017]

"Faust et Méphistophélès" is a French film from 1903, so this one will have its 115th(!) anniversary already next year, which of course means it is a black-and-white silent movie. The director is Alice Guy, who was around the age of 30 back then, but still far from a rookie. Here we have her take on the famous Goethe novel and as I realize that as someone with close to zero interest in literature. The action looks like stage performance recorded by Guy and honestly from what we see, it also could have been by Méliès. The problem is that this was doomed from the beginning as it is of course impossible to fit this tale into 100 seconds. It's certainly nowhere near Guy's best efforts and it's really only worth seeing for big Faust fans for curiosity reasons as they should not expect a lot here. The medium film wasn't ready for the material yet at this point, that much is safe. A thumbs-up for Guy being brave enough to try, but a thumbs-down for the film. Don't watch.

A Weak Early Faust

[gavin6942 · 19 July 2011]

There is not much to report about this film. It is short, with the story hard to follow if you do not already know it. Scenes are choppy and the film quality is below average.

I would suggest seeing this if you wanted to compare it to F. W. Murnau's "Faust", but the sad truth is that there is very little to compare. Murnau's film exceeds this one in every possible way, and Alice Guy's interpretation of Goethe is little more than a historical curiosity now.

While this film may be worth your time if you like horror or cinema history, it is hardly memorable. But being such a short piece, if you have the chance, you may as well give it a viewing and decide for yourself.