Doctor Faustus (1967 film)
- Richard Burton: Doctor Faustus
- Andreas Teuber: Mephistopheles
- Ian Marter: Kaiser
- Elizabeth O'Donovan: Empress
- David McIntosh: Lucifer
- Jeremy Eccles: Beelzebub
- Adrian Benjamin Pope
- Elizabeth Taylor: Helen of Troy (silent)
Doctor Faustus is a British feature film directed by Richard Burton from the year 1967. The film is an adaptation of the play premiered in 1589 Tragic History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and was produced for Nassau Films, Oxford University Screen Productions and Venfilms.
Action
The scene is initially the University of Wittenberg, the time the 16th century. The aging Doctor Faustus has achieved the highest academic honor, but his hunger for knowledge and power has remained unsatisfied. Mephistopheles offers him a deal: if he can sell Lucifer Faust's soul fist should be given for 24 years in lust.
Faust signs the contract with his blood, is again to the young man and does, accompanied by Mephistopheles, in search of wisdom and beauty. Mephistopheles obedient leads him the seven deadly sins before, makes him so he can stir up a meeting of the Pope and his cardinals, invisible, and travels with him through time to the court of Alexander the Great. To entertain his students, Faust conjures up Helen, forfeited her magic but then himself. He is her lover and follows her when his time is up, go to hell.
Criticism
" The Urfaust by the English poet, the processed motifs of medieval folk art, is available either in its historical significance still in his current compensation; the charm of the film is mainly based on its prominent ensemble of actors. "
Production and reception
The film was made as a "permanent " version of a stage production of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in the year 1966. During this stage version at the University of Oxford, Richard Burton, had been on for a long time the last time as a stage performer. In 1976 he joined Equus on again.
Burton, who has studied in Oxford itself, occupied the roles with Oxford drama students. The filming of those produced in Technicolor and 35mm film took place in Rome in September and October 1966.
Doctor Faustus was first performed in the UK on 10 October 1967, and in the U.S. on February 6, 1968. The film was the first commercial flop of the film pair Taylor / Burton. In the U.S., he played only $ 500,000, and the criticism slating him throughout.