Faust

I think I would have enjoyed looking at stills from FAUST more than I did watching the actual movie.

F.W. Murnau made FAUST in 1926, four years after NOSFERATU. It's aesthetic has more in common with 1920's THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, however. Buildings lean one upon the next in menacing fashion, light and shadow play to highlight real people in unreal settings, and the whole proceedings looks, well, fabulous. The problem is, I couldn't keep my eyes open.

Really, I couldn't. I was well-rested when I sat down for FAUST but I fell asleep twice - count it, twice - while watching. The pacing was painfully slow, the hero too vapid to believe, and the villain, well, Klaus Maria Brandauer's 1981 portrayal walks all over Emil Jannings's Mephistopholes. [Note: Brandauer played an actor playing the role of Mephistopheles in the 1981 film of the same name. The scenes of Brandauers character in, well, character are dazzling.]

I should've just googled some screencaps.