Faust (German title: Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage) is a silent film produced in 1926 by UFA, directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Gösta Ekman as Faust, Emil Jannings as Mephisto, Camilla Horn as Gretchen/Marguerite, Frida Richard as her mother, Wilhelm Dieterle as her brother and Yvette Guilbert as Marthe Schwerdtlein, her aunt. Murnaus film draws on older traditions of the legendary tale of Faust as well as on Goethes classic version. UFA wanted Ludwig Berger to direct Faust, as Murnau was engaged with Variety; Murnau pressured the producer and, backed by Jannings, eventually persuaded Erich Pommer to let him direct the movie.
The movie contains many memorable images and special effects, with careful attention paid to contrasts of light and dark. Particularly striking is the sequence in which the giant, horned and black-winged figure of Mephisto (Jannings) hovers over a town sowing the seeds of plague.
Faust was Murnaus last German movie, and directly afterward he moved to the US under contract to William Fox to direct Sunrise (1927.) when the film premiered in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo of Berlin, Murnau was already shooting in Hollywood.
Faust was the most complex and expensive production undertaken by UFA. Filming took six months and a cost of 2 million marks (only half was recovered at the box office), until it was surpassed by Metropolis the following year. According to film historians Faust seriously impacted studio shooting and special effects techniques. Murnau used two cameras, both filming multiple shots. Many scenes were filmed time and again, the short sequence of the contract being written on parchment in fire took an entire day to film.
The story involves Mephisto having a bet with an Archangel that he can corrupt a righteous mans soul and destroy in him what is divine. If he succeeds, the Devil will win dominion over earth.
The Devil delivers a plague to the village where Faust, an elderly alchemist, lives. Though he prays to stop the death and starvation, nothing happens. Faust then makes a trial, 24 hour bargain with the Devil.............