Faust

Saw Faust (thanks, Chris!) It was a film by the Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer. Naturally, I loved it. The protagonist is a man who receives a mysterious flier directing him to an isolated courtyard in his home-city. He goes and discovers the backstage of a theater, all set up for a production of Faust. The character of Faust he at first jokingly and then increasingly naturally begins preforming. There is an unbelievable amount of meta-business going on. Theater, puppetry and stop-motion (not film specifically, but the metaphor easily extends) are all closely linked with the film's version of 'magic.' When Faust sells his soul, it is to a stop-motion version of himself. He soon after dons a wooden puppet head and enters more fully into the play. His first bit of magic is to make a horrible stop-motion golem and, fleeing from stage-hands, he escapes into a hole in the backdrop. He later drowns a court of puppet-royalty with cardboard waves. Between the waves, we see the puppets are truly sinking into actual water.

At one point Faust is establishing in a conversation with Mephistopheles that words are "mightier then we." Fumbling for words, he grabs the script to recall his next line (he is just preforming the play!) The demon assures Faust that he will serve him like a slave. At this moment, the stage-call rings and Faust hurries off like a good servant. It is he who is the slave of the theater and therefore of the demons of unreality.

So, we link the specific artificiality of theater to the other-worldly. It seems, though, that Jan is firmly on the side of the demons. He toys with the viewer more than he instructs or uplifts them, playing tricks and elaborate hall-of-mirrors games. There is much tail-chasing to be done and perhaps a chance at an insight into the magic of film (which would provide salvation from this glorious mess) but I doubt it. I think Jan is far more content being a bewildering and entrancing devil than a moralizing saint. We must, ad-hoc, save ourselves.