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FAUST
Directed by Jan Svankmajer
Czech Republic/UK, 1994 97 minutes In Czech and Latin w/ English subtitles
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"The world is divided into two unequal camps... those who have never heard of Jan Svankmajer and those who happen upon his work and know that they have come face to face with genius." - Anthony Lane, The New Yorker SECOND FILM IN THE BIJOU'S ANIMATION SERIES |
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FILM SUMMARY
Avant-garde animator Jan Svankmajer uses claymation and live action to render a surrealistic, modern-day treatment of the Faust legend. Svankmajer’s Faust is an ordinary, inquisitive Everyman who, upon exiting a Prague subway station, is handed a map that draws him to his doom. Led to an abandoned theater he finds a copy of Goethe’s Faust, begins to read aloud and unwittingly summons up a doppelgänger Mephistopheles who offers him everything his heart desires in return for his soul. Svankmajer’s tour-de-force is hilarious and shocking, and utterly unforgettable.
Preceded by BONUS SHORT: The Quays’ masterpiece, STREET OF CROCODILES is adapted from a short story by Bruno Schulz, and was their first film shot on 35mm. A museum keeper spits into the eyepiece of an ancient peep-show and sets the musty machine in motion, plunging the viewer into a nightmarish netherworld of bizarre puppet rituals among the dirt and grime. Cited by filmmaker Terry Gilliam as one of the 10 Best Animated Films of All Time. FILM LINKS
* Jan Svankmajer: |
SHOWTIMES
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