Gorski's 1960s film adaptation of Goethe's “Faust I” captures the tragedy from the Hamburg Schauspielhaus on the big screen, with an outstanding Gustav Gründgens as Mephisto - to this day, it is considered one of the best interpretations of the deepest human dilemmas between good and evil! “The task of this film adaptation must be to find the exact middle ground between filmed theater and pure film,” said Gründgens. The play should “neither be photographed nor softened by cinematic showmanship.” Theater film is thus neither a filmed stage nor pure cinematic art, yet it follows the camera beyond the horizon of experience of a theater visit. The color and lighting design sketches a dark world, while at the same time resolutely distancing itself from mysticism and blurriness in order to rely entirely on the expression of the actors.

Loan of the film print with kind support of DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum.