Faust (2011 film)
Alexander Sokurov · 2011
Alexander Sokurov’s 2011 Faust is a Russian-German co-production, shot across the Czech Republic, Germany and Iceland, and set in an indeterminate 19th-century Europe. Johannes Zeiler stars as Faust, a scholar dissecting corpses in search of the soul, drawn into a pact with Anton Adasinsky’s moneylender — a grotesque, worldly Mephistopheles. Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography renders the world in Flemish-toned greys and ochres; Andrey Sigle’s score is sparse and resonant. The film won the Golden Lion at Venice and was lauded for its visual rigour and philosophical gravity, though its deliberate opacity divided critics.
