Faust (2005)

Lugubrious and tiresome film from the usually-reliable Jan Svankmajer. There's really only enough material here for a short film, and Svankmajer seems to realize this, as his tendency towards formal repetition is used to pad out the length. (The nadir: An interminable sequence in which a wooden jester summons and banishes a demon for what feels like seventeen hours.) The shrill voice acting doesn't help matters, either. I'm sure there's a decent political metaphor behind all this (people sell their souls to the State in exchange for comfort and are turned into puppets for their trouble?), but political cinema should work as cinema first and this shit doesn't cut it.

Grade: D+