In HD! Faust (Murnau, 1926) DOMESTIC version+FITTING Brock-score+English intertitles | SPECIAL EDIT

Now, my special edit, finally in HD!!, and with added intertitles in English!
Watch the spectacular result of an experiment I did to find a way to combine the 'domestic cut' of Murnau's Faust with Timothy Brock's brilliant score, written for another version of this film, the so-called 'export version'. Let me explain a little bit further what I've done and how and why I did this. F.W. Murnau's masterpiece-film 'Faust' was released in 1926 and there are seven known versions of the film. The most well known version is the so-called 'export version' with english titles, that premiered in december 1926 in the USA. That export-version is 10 minutes longer than the newly discovered 'domestic version' a couple of years ago, the domestic version being the original 'German print', the one with German titles that was shown at the time in German cinema theatres. The export print is slightly darker and softer, lacking the detail and clarity of the domestic version. Incidentally, the differences between the export and the domestic version are considerable. There's no difference in terms of the overall structure of scenes and storyline, but the pacing and lengths of scenes often vary and occasionally there are differences in the order and in the composition of shots. Timothy Brock's orchestral score, written for the Faust-export version, is a masterpiece, a fantastic accomplishment, perfectly keeping with the operatic and epic nature of the film. The way Brock uses operatic- and leitmotif-storytelling and storydeveloping techniques in his music for the export version of the film is absolutely stunning. But, as soon as Brock's score is played with the domestic version, picture and sound are almost everywhere out of sync, that is, numerous details and leitmotifs of the score then miss the point, lose their iconic meaning and strength and simply can't work as they do so perfectly in the export version. Isn't it possible then to combine Brock's music with the greatly cut and clear print of the domestic version? The answer is 'no' when you play the music along with the domestic film in its original speed. The answer is 'yes' (that is, in my opinion) if you manage to adjust the speed of numerous sequences of the domestic version. Only when countless sequences are manipulated in terms of duration the music is able to work once more on the pictures (and vice versa) as it does in the export version. Now, I took it as a challenge to try to make Brock's music work as well in the domestic cut version of Faust and with this aim in mind I've edited the complete domestic Faust. I think the result of my editing is quite interesting and after the changes I made in the duration of countless sequences - a time consuming job that requires precision and a lot of patience - I personally think this brilliant music now also works very well for the complete domestic version. For me the result has been quite spectacular. I've tried to keep the duration manipulation of sequences within reasonable measures, in order to maintain as much as possible the natural look, tempo and feel of the unaltered domestic Faust version. I use all of Brock's score and all of Murnau's film, there's no material left out by me. Enough said. I hope you'll find this experiment as fascinating and enjoyable as I do.
Pieter de Rooij / August 2011 - revised: July 2012 / revised July 2020

[@osborn.illustration]

The guy who plays Mephisto is acting his ass off in this role! So, so good! Almost 100 years later & his performance still jumps right off the screen.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Yes, he's fantastic.

[@opal7558]

Thats correct,sweety.

[@barbarafschadomsky]

I cannot thank you enough for accomplishing this enormous task.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks!

[@telephilia]

The posthumous score here is the best I've heard for this movie and does justice to this silent film classic.

[@leloupdessteppes3228]

This movie is so beautiful I'm in tears.

[@DutchWestFilms]

Timothy Brocks music 🎵 is great. I can't believe they replaced it on the blu ray edition. He also did a music score for "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"

[@valsantos8984]

Wonderful film, it’ll forever be a favorite of mine

[@stevielennox4089]

Trawled online in the hope someone might have done this with the score with English subtitles. Tonight's viewing is sorted - thanks so much!

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks! Enjoy watching!

[@pkmcburroughs]

Absolutely love this film. I believe I'm on my fifth or so viewing by now. It's visually wonderful.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Yes, amazing, isn't it?

[@pkmcburroughs]

@@PieterdeRooijHolland It really is.

[@EjwiiiMoviesLowvilleNY]

Excellent upload, thank you. We're still watching.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks. Enjoy!

[@piergiorgiomei3648]

Film immortale! Capolavoro assoluto ! Tutti superbi, Jannings sopra tutti!!!

[@neileardley1907]

Thank you Will savour a Television evening watching this

[@Rem1Gnova]

What a fantastic labour of love! Thank you Pieter for putting this together. It’s stunning!

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

:) Thank you, Simon!

[@MrBatti993]

Masterpiece!! I adore it

[@deckofcards87]

Wow, Murnau was a creative genius. I watched "Sunrise" recently and fell in love with it, and have just watched this.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Yes, Murnau was a great creative director. His contribution to the art of filmmaking is immense!

[@samantajk]

considering that this was made almost 100 years ago I am really impressed! I watched it full without skipping a part! I love literature and Faust is now definitely one of my favs alongside with The Divine Comedy. I'm in 11th grade it's my second year studying deep literature and I'm already loving it so much and wanting to learn more

[@pkmcburroughs]

If you're interested in good silent Murnau films, try checking out "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" and "Nosferatu". Well worth viewing. They're not the same thematically as "Faust" or "The Divine Comedy," but they're still wonderful. They should be on KZbin somewhere. Enjoy!

[@samantajk]

@pkmcburroughs yup, I found it on KZbin. It's definitely going on my watch list. I didn't think these kind of films would be so good tho. I'm loving them. Thanks for the recommendation

[@george8480]

Excellent work 👌

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks!

[@fourlightsorchestra]

This score is so incredible, it completely becomes a component of the story, as important as one of the characters. One of my favorites is at 21:14 when Mephisto arrives. It's so grim an triumphant sounding. I love how dirty and aggressively the orchestra plays. Like the horn at 21:25. The attack on it almost sounds like a rams horn. So apocalyptic!! Does anyone know anything more about this composer and this orchestra? If they've done other films?

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

I agree - this score is an absolute masterpiece. The composer Timothy Brock is famous for his scores for silent films. You can learn about him and his work via his website, see www.timothybrock.com/

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

And yes indeed, the orchestra, with composer Brock conducting, does an incredible job, delivers a fantastic performance.

[@fourlightsorchestra]

@@PieterdeRooijHolland thank you! I’ll definitely be checking out the link you sent. I had seen this film years and years ago, and being a film fan, always thought it was great, but I’m also a musician, and seeing it with this soundtrack is a completely different experience. It really grabs you and pulls you into it. The sheer amount of dissonant shrieking instruments, either loudly erupting in the foreground, or quietly slithering and pulsing in the shadows is so fantastic. I’m seriously blown away right now. It’s like I was missing a core component to an already great picture.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

@@fourlightsorchestra What can I say? Well said! - I totally agree with you!

[@tomchristie3199]

I hope someday they'll rerecord the Brock score to actually sync with the domestic cut. It's lazy how they just slapped it onto the domestic version on the official release, without tweaking it to line up correctly. There's some big emotional beats in the final stretch of the movie that flop completely because there's big music cues which play some 5-10 seconds out of time.

[@IAmJimRetzer]

Even at two and a half hours (agonizingly long for a silent film) Emil Jannings astonishing performance leaves the viewer begging for more.

[@sebastianarteaga9890]

Absolutely fantastic version with the amazing score and subtitles. Thank you so much for sharing this gem!

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks! :)

[@arthurwellesley3001]

Masterpiece ! I am grateful for your offer !!

[@wishcraft4u2]

Oh je hebt een HD versie geupload, danku!!

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

graag gedaan - my pleasure

[@ramiaj5700]

Thank you so much for this!

[@wilmalaclava]

Una grande realizzazione, ancora oggi suggestiva!

[@natfletcher1445]

a GREAT edit. Thank U Peter

[@EternalYorkieMom]

The fan edits of these sorts of movies are always the best

[@derwinadams3707]

Outstanding job! Cheers to you!

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thank you very much! :)

[@GRiNDWiZARD187]

Bravo! Very much appreciated with all you have done with this film! I salute you 🙌🏻

[@GRiNDWiZARD187]

The music is done perfectly..... thank you for your hard work .... plus the English subtitles .... thank you thank you thank you 🙏🏼

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

My pleasure!

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

@@GRiNDWiZARD187 Thanks!

[@ferociousgumby]

I saw another version of Faust on KZbin where the opening music did not appear while the phantom horses were galloping. It was essentially silent, then AFTER the horses were gone, the "galloping" music started. It seemed totally wrong to me. When I saw this version, I said, "AHA!" At last, this is how it is supposed to look and sound. And it is still one of the creepiest and most macabre scenes in film history.

[@Chesterton7]

Superb.

[@JohnSmith-cw1lf]

Appreciate what you've done here! Would be nice to have english captions for the title cards somehow Edit: I guess i could just play this and the export version at the same time, and the title cards should appear around the same time, and I just read the english off of export version... unnecessary work around though...

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks, I'm aware of the subtitles-issue - I, for one, really enjoy the Gothic German captions ;). I've been thinking about adding english subs - will look into that.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

I'm working on the english intertitles - I've done the first 25 minutes already. It will be ready in a few days.

[@JohnSmith-cw1lf]

@@PieterdeRooijHolland yea the german title cards look awesome, I see the English subs now, nice work

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

@@JohnSmith-cw1lf my pleasure

[@andreymurravtsov5235]

Thanks!

[@user-pf3lo2yc1o]

So, Faust - to what end?

[@andrewholliday251]

I'm confused by this. Was the Brock score issue a problem years ago? Because there's a MOC blu ray release (2014) that has both the domestic (107 min) and export (115 min) versions on it - and both have Timothy Brock's score (the 107 min version also has two other scores as options) - and it doesn't seem out of synch for either.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Thanks for your interesting response. If you read my comments above, you would understand that I made this version in 2011 already (but I 'upgraded' it in 2020 to HD) and I am referring to the situation as it was in 2011. I do own a two dvd-release, with the two versions as described in my comments above, one with the 'export' version, the version Brock wrote his score for, and one with the 'domestic' version. On the two dvd-release The Brock score is also being played with the domestic version and is completely out of sync- which is logical, because of the difference in duration. I'm not aware of developments after my effort, such as the Blu Ray release from 2014 you are referring to. It seems to me that sync problems cannot be avoided if the complete music is played to another version with an eight-minute difference in duration. So I wonder how they managed to do this on the Blu Ray release. I'd be interested to find out what measures they took on the Blu Ray release to get rid of the sync problem. Dit they do something similar as I did earlier, or did they leave out excerpts from the score? I'm curious and would love to know about it.

[@andrewholliday251]

@@PieterdeRooijHolland Short answer - I have no idea. I haven't seen it in years - and wasn't aware of this issue until I read your post. I'm soon to watch it again (I came to YT re another 'issue', namely I was wondering if there was a tinted/toned version out there (given 80-90% of silent films were originally tinted, and Murnau's earlier films were tinted, plus the fantastical nature of this film, makes it a good bet it wasn't originally BW), and instead discovered there's a problem with syncing Brock's score. When I do get to watch it again I'll do some comparisons between versions, including yours and let you know (of key scenes; I'm not watching three times back to back! Although, having had a (small) dabble in the fanedit space I'm pretty sure you spent a LOT more time than that fixing this! It's great work). .....UPDATE!! I've had a look at the crossroads sequence as it seemed a sequence where syncing would be obvious - and it is! I'm confident the blu ray domestic version is the same 'out of sync' cut as the DVD one you've seen. Both the export version and yours do a much better job. When I get round to watching the whole thing again - I'll be watching yours! Cheers

[@jihon3363]

I command your effort but the quality of the video is still far inferior to the current remastered version of the film. What software did you use for the video editing? Wouldn't it have been simpler to edit only the soundtrack instead of slowing down the video?

[@pkmcburroughs]

We, the viewing public, eagerly await YOUR edit of the film. Good luck.

[@jihon3363]

@@pkmcburroughs I wasn't talking about the quality of his editing. I'm talking about the source he used. There's a far superior HD version to this one. If he updates it, that would be a great improvement. The recent HD is crispy and sharp, this one is blurry.

[@huntingfashiondolls3307]

Who is the guy who performs as young fausto?

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Both young and older Faust are played by Gösta Ekman. Makeup can do remarkable things, and they knew how to use it in those days already, and it's really quite an achievement here in Murnau's masterpiece.

[@huntingfashiondolls3307]

@@PieterdeRooijHolland gosh, im so impresed by the film, is touching, you did great! I laughed and cried , im sad i didnt watch this before.

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

@@huntingfashiondolls3307 It's a masterpiece, in its essence dealing with the choice every living human being is facing: 'the choice between good and evil' -> kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3WugGSjmrqZhdk

[@ThatOldBlackMagic_YouAppear]

n o t t i n

[@ranamustafa9595]

Ahh actress name PLz

[@PieterdeRooijHolland]

Camilla Horn as Gretchen (Frida Richard as Gretchen's mother, Yvette Guilbert as Marthe Schwerdtlein, Gretchen's aunt).

[@ranamustafa9595]

@@PieterdeRooijHolland thnx

[@shaunwilson2537]

Is good. Dune 2 ,not as good. Hans Zimmer, not as good.