Faust

I think the plot was very engaging and drew my interest quickly, but did feel a bit underwhelming. I wasn’t expecting it to boil down so quickly into a simple love story, but I still think the themes and overarching story made it still entertaining. The characters are magnificently written, especially Faust, though I believe he was portrayed in a better light than he should have been. He is an old man, desperate to help others, but his selfishness gets a hold of him and he begins to throw his morals and other people away for the sake of his own pleasure. He obsesses over a woman and forces her to love him, then dies with her after causing her death. The whole struggle between good and bad is supposed to be broken by love, but he still only loves selfishly. The pacing was overall really good, but much too quick near the end. After the murder of Valentin, the whole thing ends rather abruptly, which doesn’t destroy what it has built up but gives less importance to it. The world building was very nice, I loved the overall aesthetic and think it was consistent throughout the movie, even during happy scenes it had a dark overtone. I thought the shapes of the houses and the clothing felt right for the time it took place in and the difference between the humans and the otherworldly beings such as the angel and Mephistopheles. The themes were the strongest part of the movie, how evil and greed can corrupt a perfectly good human being and how their fall doesn’t just effect themselves. Faust became the opposite of what he was as an old man, in his youth he enjoyed all the pleasures he wanted at everyone else’s expense, at the realization of his actions he dies, the only way to somewhat atone for what he had done. For the time, the cinematography is stunning, I love the effects in this movie, the innovation to achieve them is beyond impressive. The shots are all well framed and it’s clear much effort was put into them. This movie did great work in building empathy for the characters and just giving the viewer that feeling of tragedy. Mostly for Gretchen, who makes one mistake that she had no way of knowing would turn out bad, then her entire life is ruined. Her family is dead, her village despised her, she and her child are left to die, and when her child does, she is called a murderer. She has really done nothing wrong, but unfortunately happened to fall victim to a terrible man and the conceitedness of her village. I think this movie is very unique, other adaptations of Faust fall very flat and I think this one did a wonderful job making the story digestible for audiences. As someone who attempted to read the book, I found it incredibly uninviting and am so thankful I got to experience the story without suffering through the pain of the writing. I loved the dialogue and found myself shocked at how much emotion lay inside it. There were comedic elements, speech that showed each character’s true feelings for another. Mephistopheles has a shifty way of talking to Faust, never fully answering questions and implying he is always hiding something. I was also very impressed with the acting and found all the actors to be very believable. Overall, this was a wonderful movie and I’m very pleased to have watched it. I truly believe this is Muranu’s greatest work.  Plot - 9 Characters - 10 Pacing - 6 Worldbuilding - 8 Themes - 10 Animation or Cinematography - 10 Emotional Impact - 9 Uniqueness - 10 Dialogue - 10 Overall Enjoyment - 10 Total: 92%