Faust et Marguerite

This is a pretty interesting attempt at telling the story of Faust by Melies. It appears as though Melies himself played Mephistopheles. And while the same director had already adapted Faust and Marguerite in 1897 (in a lost film of the same name), this Melies epic production is a lot more complex than that film probably was.

However, the print quality is atrocious. It looks like someone who worked for Melies took some black paint and painted the darks darker. This makes the film quality into a big, runny, spattered mess. I know they could make cleaner prints by 1904. Or maybe it's the film was rediscovered in horrible condition and the print quality isn't the fault of the camera.

The other thing is that Flicker Alley calls this a fragment and indeed the Star Film Catalogue number claims this was originally 13-15 minutes long. Yet I've looked at the description of this in Melies' Catalogue of Genuine and Original Star Films and little is indicated to be missing. I've evidenced that some bits and pieces here and there aren't here, but there's not enough evidenced missing to make up the rest of the original run time. The print available is only, like, 4 minutes!

I'm guessing the description I read is a description of a shortened print of the original. Still I wonder how the original was 15 minutes when what is here is very close to completing the description.

"Faust and Marguerite" is a rather straightforward narrative for Georges Méliès, better known for his wacky trick films and lively féeries (fairy films). Reportedly, Méliès was imitating operatic performances of the Faust legend with this film, especially the work of Charles Gounod. According to John Frazer ("Artificially Arranged Scenes"), Star Film's catalogue advised exhibitors to join "Faust and Marguerite" with Méliès's earlier Faust film "The Damnation of Faust" (1903) and offered a score to be played by an orchestra. Fortunately, on the Flicker Alley DVDs, we also get the narration.

Later the same year, in the United States, Edwin S. Porter produced a similar and longer effort of Richard Wagner's "Parsifal". In other ways, the serious treatment of "Faust and Marguerite" resembles the Film d'Art pictures made a few years later. Like these later films, Méliès was aspiring to imitate the "high art" theatre and opera as opposed to the more comical and childish theatre from which he usually found inspiration. Consequently, we get a boring filmed play, with the static camera framed at the proscenium arch that limits most of Méliès's films, minus the humor and playfulness that otherwise makes them worthwhile.

(Note: The "fragment" available of this film features direct cuts as opposed to the dissolves that Méliès usually used as transitions between scenes.)

Faust sells his soul in order to have wisdom and also Marguerite, whose he loves. Mephistopheles gets him his wish, knowing he has Faust's soul. Her brother, home from war, engages Faust, but with the devil's help, her lover kills her brother. She tries to pray but it is no use. Faust is taken off to burn for eternity and Marguerite is left behind, dead. But this tale takes care of her. Pretty good effort.

Faust And Marguerite (1904)

** (out of 4)

aka Damnation du Docteur Faust

Melies second attempt at telling the story of Faust. This time out Faust and his love Marguerite are sentenced to Hell where they are showed the torture that awaits. I loved Melies previous film on Faust but this one here just left me bored out of my mind. The film runs just over three minutes and features narration but none of it worked for me. I found the visuals to be rather bland and the entire story just didn't seem to click. The tombs of Hell weren't nearly as impressive as the director's The Damnation of Faust.