God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war over Earth.
Cinematography
Carl Hoffmann's floating camera and impossible shadows invented horror grammar.
Acting
Jannings' Mephisto: grotesque, seductive, still the definitive devil.
Practical Effects
Fire effects and flying shots that put modern CGI to shame.
Director
F. W. Murnau
Gösta Ekman
Faust
Emil Jannings
Mephisto
Camilla Horn
Gretchen Marguerite
Frida Richard
Gretchens's Mother
William Dieterle
Valentin
Werner Fuetterer
Erzengel
Yvette Guilbert
Marthe Schwerdtlein
Eric Barclay
Duke of Parma
Hanna Ralph
Duchess of Parma
Hans Brausewetter
Farmboy (uncredited)
Hertha von Walther
(uncredited)
Emmy Wyda
(uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Murnau made this immediately after Nosferatu as his final German film before fleeing to Hollywood; the Expressionist movement's last gasp before sound killed its shadows.
The flying scenes used an elaborate camera rig on a pendulum—Ekman actually soared above miniature villages, no green screen, 1926.
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