Jan Švankmajer’s second feature, a heady mixture of live action and multiple forms of animation, is much indebted to his earlier puppeteering work on Emil Radok’s beautiful short film Johanes Doktor Faust (1958) as well as to prior treatments of the venerable Faust legend in other art forms by Marlowe, Goethe, Grabbe and Gounod.

Švankmajer’s adaptation, however, is very much a product of his own sensibility, featuring a gormless Prague Everyman (Petr Čepek) who may not have any real power to influence his fate, no matter what Mephistophelean pacts he makes.

CaSFFA is delighted to be presenting a digital restoration of Faust with its original Czech soundtrack in partnership with the Melbourne Cinémathèque.