Directed by Jan Svankmajer • Drama • With Petr Cepek, Jan Kraus, Vladimír Kudla • 1994 • 97 minutes
Jan Svankmajer’s Faust is a rendering of the infamous Dr. Faustus fable of temptation and damnation. Borrowing freely from both Marlowe and Goethe and ancient folktales and timeless myths, the story follows a lonely Czech businessman who sells his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of self-indulgence. A visually fantastic combination of live-action, claymation, puppet theatre, stop-motion animation, and other special effects, Svankmajer creates an unsettling universe presided over by diabolic life-size marionettes and haunted by sinister human messengers from hell.
Up Next in Czech Republic
-
Freckled Max And The Spooks
Directed by Juraj Jakubisko • Drama • With Gerhardt Karzel, Eddie Constantine • 1987 • 100 minutes
A bittersweet, slapstick cross between MONSTER SQUAD, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and the Island of Misfit Toys, FRECKLED MAX is a nostalgic Gothic fairytale from acclaimed Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko a...
-
The Golden Fern
Directed by Jiří Weiss • Drama • With Karla Chadimová, Vít Olmer • 1963 • 107 minutes
Czech director Jiří Weiss's breathtaking B&W fairy tale is one of the most unjustly neglected treasures of 1960s fantasy filmmaking with overtones of Cocteau's BEAUTY & THE BEAST. A handsome young shepherd (V...
-
Kapr Code
Directed by Lucie Kralova • Documentary • 2022 • 91 minutes
A Documentary Opera featuring the contradictory life of progressive composer and prominent communist Jan Kapr (1914-88), Stalin award laureate, later banned in socialist Czechoslovakia. While Kapr’s life escalates towards pivotal moment...
