Faust MGM Film – A German Folktale (German: Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage) is a 1926 silent film produced 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. Murnau’s film draws on older traditions of the legendary tale of Faust as well as on Goethe’s 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 film.
Faust was Murnau’s last German film, and directly afterward he moved to the US under contract to William Fox to direct Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927); when the film premiered in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin, Murnau was already shooting in Hollywood.
Murnau’s Faust was the most technically elaborate and expensive production undertaken by Ufa until it was surpassed by Metropolis the following year. Filming took six months, at a cost of 2 million marks (only half was recovered at the box office). According to film historians, Faust seriously affected studio shooting and special effects techniques. Murnau uses two cameras, both filming multiple shots; many scenes were filmed time and again. As an example, a short sequence of the contract being written on parchment in fire took an entire day to film. Reference: Wikipedia
Below are some examples of promotional material which features the film Faust, including a rare Goethe’s Faust MGM insert and some promotion negatives of silent films.
Faust (MGM, 1926). Insert (14″ X 36″). One of Germany’s most important directors during the 1920s, F. W. Murnau was a cinematic genius. Best known as the director of Nosferatu (1922), he also filmed an early version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) and the brilliant character study Der Letzte Mann (1924), as well as this, a stunning adaptation of the Faust legend. With Gosta Ekman as Faust, an aged seeker of knowledge and pleasure who turns to dark forces to satisfy his longings, and Emil Jannings as Mephisto, the demonic servant who answers Faust’s summons. Also featured was the lovely Camilla Horn as Gretchen, the woman with whom Faust falls in love. After a staggering six months of production and two million marks, Murnau’s Faust is one of horror’s most visually stunning cinematic nightmares, an archetypal tale of love, power, morality, temptation, and redemption that sizzles with passion hotter and redder than the Devil himself. This was the film that won Murnau a contract with Fox Studios in Hollywood and is voted by critics today as one of the best horror films of all time. This exceedingly rare insert is in remarkable condition given its age. Only tiny tears in the bottom border and small creases in the bottom left section can be detected. Rolled, Very Fine-.
Sold for $3,750 at Heritage Auctions in 2012
(Lot of 10) Metro Goldwyn Mayer MGM silent film era publicity negatives, including ”The Hypnotist” MGM-11537; Lon Chaney in ”The Hypnotist” MGM-11817; Goethe’s ”Faust” with Emil Jannings; MGM-14073 Nov.15.1927; MGM-5626 Jan.3.1927; MGM-479; MGM-1305 May.7.1926; MGM-14000; MGM-12520; MGM-9314 May.27.1927; each Eastman Kodak acetate negative 8” x 10” note: London After Midnight aka ”The Hypnotist” is a lost film, perhaps the most famous of all missing films, and it has become the Holy Grail of archivists and film collectors throughout the world, the last known record of the film existing was in the mid-1950’s
Sold for $250 at Clars Auction Gallery in 2012
