Series/Themes: Music

Genre: Classics, International

Film Year: 1926

Locations: Germany

Film Length: 85 min.

Director: F.W. Murnau

Featuring: Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard, Wilhelm Dieterle, Yvette Guilbert

Murnau’s iconic adaptation of Goethe’s Faust echoes the dreamlike surrealism of his silent films like Nosferatu. Pious alchemist Faust despairs over his failure to stop a vicious plague sweeping over the land. Locked in a battle against God for Faust’s soul, Satan sends the clever Mephisto to tempt Faust with a cure and a day’s return to youth. Faust falls to temptation, trading his soul for eternal youth and Mephisto’s servitude. He pursues a love affair with an innocent, beautiful woman that thrusts them both into damnation after she kills the infant born of their affair in a moment of madness. Their redemption hangs in the balance, a pawn in the games of unearthly spirits both below and above.

With live musical accompaniment composed by John D’earth and the Free Bridge Quintet

Note: This event is presented by the U.Va. McIntire Department of Music, and as such, Virginia Film Festival ticket vouchers, donor and sponsor benefits, and badges cannot be redeemed for tickets.