Faust
Jan 10 - Jan 16, 2014
(Aleksandr Sokurov, 2011, Russia/Germany, 135 min)
There have been more than thirty film productions based on the legend of Faust, dating from the earliest days of cinema (in the 1890s), up to Aleksandr Sokurov's contemporary re-working, which features his trademark poetic imagery, spiritual allusions, large-canvas themes, and long takes.
In the classic tale, Faust is an ambitious seeker of wisdom, craving power and incapable of being satisfied with the limitations of human understanding. After being temped by the Devil, Faust signs away his soul in exchange for knowledge and power.
Sokurov's enigmatic, challenging and unforgettable Faust creates a cinematic work heaving with life in all its clutter, chatter and carnality, offering us in the bargain an allegorical coda to his recent film trilogy of historic tyrants (Moloch's Hitler, Taurus's Lenin, The Sun's Hirohito).
"Maybe Sokurov got a little gassed on the witchy German mythology of Faust. . .It almost feels like 1970s-era Werner Herzog, all earthy humor and bizarre digressions" —Seattle Weekly
"Faust, which is not easy to understand, is a pleasure to watch. . .there is great beauty in this ugly world." —The Stranger