MOVIES & OPERA: Faust

SILENT FILM SCREENING WITH LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT

Based on the works of Christopher Marlowe and J. W. Goethe, FAUST tells the story of the scholar of the same name, who is tempted by Mephisto. In a wager with the archangel Gabriel, Mephisto has claimed that he can lead any human being away from God. To tempt the ageing Faust, Mephisto unleashes the plague upon the land. As dying people turn to the scholar for help and his prayers to God go unanswered, Faust seeks counsel from the Devil. In order to win him over, Mephisto promises Faust eternal youth and all the treasures of the world. Faust accepts the pact, thereby surrendering his soul to the Devil. From then on, Mephisto must fulfil his every wish.
One day, Mephisto and Faust return to Faust’s hometown, where Faust falls in love with the innocent Gretchen. At night, he enters her room to seduce her, while Mephisto challenges and kills her brother Valentin, who has just returned from the war. To make matters worse, Gretchen’s mother discovers Faust in her daughter’s room and dies of grief. Gretchen is rejected by those around her. Alone and abandoned, she gives birth to a child in winter, and when the baby dies from the cold, she is sentenced to death at the stake. Faust learns of her fate, renounces his eternal youth, and sets out to ask Gretchen for forgiveness. He climbs onto the blazing pyre beside her, and at the moment of death, Gretchen recognises her beloved in the old man. Together, they go to their deaths. Mephisto believes he has achieved his goal. But Gabriel denies the Devil his triumph: the pure, genuine love between Faust and Gretchen has thwarted Mephisto’s evil plan.