This is the Russian master’s first flick in German and his personal take on the “deal with the devil” of German legend. Expect a broke, money-hungry Dr. Faust, a rather sniveling money-lending Mephistopheles (not Goethe’s charmer), Fassbinder’s muse Schygulla as his wife and torrential dialogue that pushes along a breathless narrative. Ultimately Sokurov has given us a visually stunning existential epic that might owe as much to Flemish painting as to German literature – stunning enough to win a Golden Lion at Venice.
Faust| Directed by Alexander Sokurov (Germany 2011) with Johannes Zeiler, Anton Adasinsky, Isolda Dychauk, Hanna Schygulla. Starts January 19