Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with horror milestones from the silent era. Some of them I rate as downright brilliant and are listed high in my favorites of all times ("The Phantom Carriage", "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari") but quite often I also literally have to struggle to stay awake throughout these so-called indestructible masterpieces. Murnau's "Faust" is definitely unique, because I experienced these two opposite sentiments during one film! The opening sequences are breathtaking. Unbelievably and utterly breathtaking, in fact. There's the grim prologue that covers a showdown between the archangel and Satan, with horrid images of the four horsemen and brimstone storms, and subsequently the temptation of the titular character (who sells his soul to Mephistopheles in return for youth),which is nothing short of jaw-dropping! What comes next is truly one of the most genius moments in cinema, namely the evil Mephistopheles towering over a little town and symbolically unleashing a plague on it. I think I must have re-watched that particular 7 or 8 times, simple because it's so stunning. But then something strange and incomprehensible happened. The rest of the film suddenly became tedious, prosaic and unremarkable. The content of young Faust wooing the beautiful Gretchen, while Mephistopheles distracts her deeply religious mother, is honestly rather dull and uninteresting. All the mind-blowing aspects of the opening sequences, such as the special effects and the camerawork of Carl Hoffman, are pushed to the background in favor of the mediocre romance plot. The finale finds Murnau returning to great shape, but the powerful impact of the first 15-20 minutes cannot be reached again.

FAUST (1926) is another absolute classic of German silent cinema from F. W. Murnau, the man behind NOSFERATU. This is by far the best screen adaptation of the Goethe novel I've seen, as well as being the greatest 'selling your soul to the devil' storyline tale put on screen. It doesn't feel slow or creaky like many of the old silents, in fact it feels much like a modern Hollywood blockbuster, effects-fuelled and lavish to look at. The imagery is frequently stunning, it just looks that good. Despite a near two hour running time the story just flies along with regular bursts of truly creepy special effects; the early scenes with hellish figures hurtling through the air are, for me, more frightening than anything else cinema would throw at us for the next half-century. The channel 'Lumiere Factory' has this for free up on Youtube and the quality is excellent, so I thoroughly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet.

For me, along with Metropolis, The Gold Rush and The Passion of Joan of Arc, this is one of the finest movies of the 1920s. In design and direction especially, Faust is a masterpiece. It has a great story with a strong operatic feel, and the characters are great, Mephistopheles is especially memorable.

F.W.Murnau's direction is superb. This is especially true in the duel between Faust and Mephistopheles which defines the term epic in every sense, and part of the reasons why it works so well is the wonderfully malevolent atmosphere that Murnau, Robert Herlth and Walter Rohrig create. The music fits amazingly well and the story despite one or two scenes in the middle that drag just a tad is compelling.

The acting is very good. Gosta Ekman does a fine job conveying his character complete with a believable transformation from decrepitude to youth, while Camilla Horn is suitably pure. As the imposing demon Mephistopheles, Emil Jannings with a magnetic appearance and presence steals the film, while he does keep some of his comedic qualities there are times where he is quite terrifying.

Other than Jannings' performance and Murnau's direction, what makes Faust such a masterpiece are the expressionistic images which inspired by Casper David Frederich's paintings are amazing, with excellent cinematography and sculptures of smoke, light and steam to compliment them. All in all, a brilliant film and one of the best of its decade. 10/10 Bethany Cox