FW Murnau

*****
5/5

Adapted from Goethe, Marlowe and folklore, this is as much a masterpiece of design as a triumph for the director and his international cast. Inspired by the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig brought all their Expressionist expertise to sculpting light, smoke and steam into the malevolent atmosphere that FW Murnau required for Faust's epic duel with Mephistopheles. Emil Jannings makes an imposing demon, Swedish star Gösta Ekman unassumingly transforms from decrepitude to youth and the untried Camilla Horn is suitably pure as the misused Marguerite (a role that was rejected by the great Lillian Gish).

(1926)
GER  B/W   116 mins