Svankmajer fuses Goethe's and Marlowe's classic plays with his own
unique vision in this reworking of the Faust story. Petr Cepek,
Svankmajer's protagonist, is drawn by mysterious provocateurs into a
world of strange visions, angels and devils, lust and confused
morality. As ever, the director's approach is hugely imaginative,
combining live action, scenes from the marionette theatres of Prague
and stunning animation to depict Faust's ultimately disastrous
pursuit of knowledge and power. Absurd but never arbitrary, dark but
laced with black humour, Faust towers in its invention over its
contemporaries.
