Chapter 5 - Cinematic Fausts

Summary

Chapter V traces the fortunes of Faust as he thrived in European, British, and American films. In its analysis of cinematic treatments of the Faust legend, this chapter distinguishes between adaptations and appropriations, defining adaptations as films that make explicit reference to the Faust legend, featuring a character named Faust and a Mephistophelian figure, and appropriations as films that are not explicitly based on the Faust legend, but nevertheless contain most of the characteristics of the traditional Faustian format. This chapter analyzes the following cinematic adaptations of the Faust legend: Murnau’s silent film Faust (German, 1926), René Clair’s The Beauty of the Devil (French, 1952), Nevill Coghill and Richard Burton’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (English, 1967), Jan Svankmajer’s Faust (Czechoslovakian, 1994), and Sokurov’s Faust (Russian, 2011). The chapter also discusses the following British and American cinematic appropriations of the Faust narrative: The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Alias Nick Beal (1949), Damn Yankees (1958), Bedazzled (1967), Oh, God! You Devil (1984), Crossroads (1986), Angel Heart (1987), and a remake of Bedazzled (2000).