Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of the Silent Masterpiece 'Faust' After 100 Years

On the centenary of the masterpiece by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, a leading filmmaker of the silent era, the publication of the book 'The Gospel of Faust' by Mobi Publishing reveals the behind-the-scenes secrets, images, and creative production methods of the costly film 'Faust', lost for a century. The film becomes available on the Mobi platform at the same time as the book's release.

According to Ambassador Arjan, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was one of the greatest filmmakers of the silent cinema era; An artist with a rare genius in creating beautiful images on the screen. His contemporaries said about him that "he has a camera instead of a head". This director, who made brilliant works such as the vampire film "Nosferatu" (1922) and the romantic melodrama "Dawn: The Song of Two Humans" (1927), died in 1931, at the age of 42; For this reason, his career hardly reached the era of talking cinema.

However, during his short career in silent cinema, Murnau made an impressive collection of films; Beautiful and in many cases frightening works in which he moves his camera among the changing perspectives of shadow and light and penetrates into the depths of the human soul. Perhaps none of his works had such features as the prominent movie "Faust"; A film that this month marks the 100th anniversary of its release and is based on Goethe's play about making a pact with the devil. Now, a new and impressive book has been published about how "Faust" was made, which is both a document of the production process of this cinematic masterpiece and, in a way, it is considered to be a result of the same production process.

At the same time, Murnau was one of the most mysterious cinema directors; He kept his working methods secret and stuck to his work with a rare obsession. Edgar J. Ulmer, one of his early collaborators, considered Murnau "a great perfectionist who worked in a kind of trance".

Murnau banned producers from the set and wouldn't allow studio executives to see unedited versions of his films. Except in a few exceptional cases, he also did not allow behind-the-scenes photography so that the secrets of his filming and special effects would not be revealed. This mysterious atmosphere has provided the basis for speculation that how much the success of his films was the result of Murnau's personal genius and how much was the result of the efforts of his creative and talented team.

The book "The Faust Bible: The Making of FW Murnau's Masterpiece" published images that were previously hidden from public view; Photos from the filming stages of one of the director's best works, which offer a unique look at the way different actors cooperated in making this film.

"Faust" was Murnau's last film in Germany before he left for Hollywood. At the time, this film was the most expensive and complicated product that Ufa studio had made until then. "Faust" is an adaptation of Goethe's tragedy about a scientist named Faust, whose role is played by Swedish actor Gustav Ekman. Faust sells his soul to the devil; The devil who appears in Mephistopheles, a black-clad demon with a sly smile, is played by German film star Emil Jannings.

"Faust" was a commercial failure when it was released, but today it is considered one of the great works of cinema history. Eric Romer, director of the new wave of French cinema and a fan of Murnau's works, wrote his doctoral thesis about this film. The book "The Bible of Faust" shows how Murnau and his team created some of the film's amazing shots and special effects. The book is also a completed reproduction of a memento that was created during the production of the film and, against all odds, survived the ravages of time to reveal its secrets.

In the movie, Faust has a thick leather-bound Bible that he throws into the fire in a moment of desperation. But this stage device was supposed to find a destiny beyond its cinematic role. Robert Herleth and Walter Roerig, the film's art designers, dug the book out of the ashes and pasted sketches, film stills, and behind-the-scenes photos onto its white pages. Their goal was to present this souvenir as a gift to the director at the end of filming.

Murnau left the book in his apartment in Berlin when he left for Hollywood; Unbeknownst to him, he will never return to pick it up. After his death, his brother kept his belongings in various basements in the city center; Places that were at risk of flooding. With the beginning of the bombing of Berlin during World War II, the risk of destruction of these monuments increased even more.

Film researcher and archivist Lotte Eisner went to Berlin in the 1950s to find Murnau's archives, but found no trace of the Bible. Finally, in the 1960s, Engelbert von Mallinckrodt, one of the German curators of the Berlin Academy of Arts, informed Henri Langlois, the director of the French Cinematheque, that he had bought some of Murnau's photo albums for a small amount from a restaurateur named Rolf Consciente; A man who had connections with the cinema industry.

Later it became clear that the Bible was also among these albums; However, no one knows how this relic came into the hands of Consciente. But the story became more mysterious when Mallinckrodt disappeared. His roommate took care of the book for decades. The book was wrapped in brown paper and was on the dresser.

Eisner spent his entire life searching for Faust's Bible, but never got to see it in person. He died in 1983.

Now this book is kept in a safe place in Cinematheque France; The entity that bought it in 2017. This relic still stands and is a testament to the collaborative nature of Murnau's filmmaking methods; A subject that was once disputed.

This summer I went to Cinematheque to see the book. This work is truly magnificent in terms of dimensions; A pictorial notebook with an unparalleled magnificence. Laurent Mannoni, director of the Cinematheque's heritage department, and his team have restored it, and the book is in good condition despite being a stage prop that was made a hundred years ago and has been abandoned for a long time. The water damage has been repaired and only a few scratches remain; There are also dents on the leather cover, which were the result of a bold thief's attempt to remove the metal cross and metal parts from the corners of the cover.

"Every shooting day was a new opportunity to surpass ourselves in terms of creativity and innovation."

Inside the book, sketches of different scenes are placed in front of their corresponding still images from the movie. Flipping through these precious pages, one can see how Murnau and his talented cinematographer Karl Hoffman recreated on film the compositions designed by artists called "cinema architects". These compositions included exaggerated perspectives, contrasting arrangements of light and dark, sweeping shadows, steam, and flames.

Murnau encouraged the film's artistic designer to design not only the spaces and environments, but also the actors; In this way, the designs became more like storyboard-like images that depicted the scenes of the film in advance, rather than just a plan to make the set.

Herleth later wrote: "The plan was becoming something like a contract. [Mourneau] insisted that every line drawn with the pen be recreated word for word as the design was executed.”

This approach meant that not only did the sets have to be built exactly as planned, but Murnau and Hoffman also had to make extensive lighting changes to create the velvety, soft shadows that the director wanted.

Hoffman then moved through these illuminated spaces with bold and fluid camera movements. This technique, called "entfesselte Kamera" (entfesselte Kamera), was first used by the cinematographer Karl Freund when he collaborated with Murnau on the film "The Last Laugh" (1924).

Murnau drew inspiration from various visual sources to create his film images. He had a serious interest in alien sciences and his background was in art history. Albrecht Dürer's famous woodcut "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" directly influenced the opening scene of the film.

Herleth remembers the experience of working with Murnau as pleasant and humorous, although he was not easy to work with. Murnau had a cheerful spirit, but always ambitiously tried to create shots and camera effects that no one had achieved before. Group members spent long days and nights discussing and testing new ideas. "Every day on set was a new opportunity to outdo ourselves in terms of creativity and innovation," Herleth said.

By turning the next pages of the book, the designs and still images based on the contrast of light and darkness give way to playful collages; Pictures of actors and crew having fun behind the scenes. In one of the pictures, Murneau, who was known for being tall, is bent over and shows Yannings how to stare at others with a devilish, evil look.

Other pages are proof of the infinite technical genius of the producer group. One of the most famous moments of the film is the "Flying Around the World" (Weltflug) sequence; Where Mephistopheles sends Faust flying through the sky on his cloak and the world moves under their feet. The diagrams that remain in this book explain how this eerie flight simulation was created.

The secret of this scene was a short wooden platform that moved on a sloping plaster path. The idea of ​​making this device came to Herlth and Roerig's mind when they saw a truck being unloaded on the street.

The reproduced edition of the book has published the diagrams of the "Flying Around the World" sequence in wide-folding pages so that readers can easily explore the hundred-year-old secrets of cinematic techniques. This edition has also completely republished all of the illustrations from the original book, including explanatory captions, enlarged images, and quotes from the script; A screenplay written in concise, wise and almost poetic prose. Research articles and other drawings from the French Cinematheque archive are also included in this book.

We may never fully understand the workings of that enigmatic cinematic mind, Murnau, who was known as "the man with the camera for a head," or how he worked with his crew. However, this amazing relic brings us closer to a better understanding of his cinematic world.

The book "Faust's Bible: How Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Masterpiece was Made" is published by Mubi Editions on October 17 [25 Mehr 1405]. "Faust" movie will be available on Mobi platform from October 14 [22 Mehr 1405]. Also, special screenings of the film's 100th anniversary with live music will be held on October 17 in Paris, October 25 in Munich and November 1 in Los Angeles.