Lyrical Expressionism and the Reinterpretation of a Myth: Faust. Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926) by F.W. Murnau
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Abstract
The article begins by outlining the difficulties involved in defining the term “Expressionist cinema” (Elsaesser 2000). This does not preclude Murnau´s recognition as a pictorial filmmaker (Becker 1981). In fact, Murnau adopted his surname (as opposed to the original Pumpe) in honor of the place where Kandinsky and Münter executed their most significant Lyrical Expressionist paintings. The director spent part of his career in Germany and part in America (Lamarca Rosales 2022). He considered the cinema code to be essentially iconic, and so for him the ideal film was one that lacked words. Likewise, his reluctance towards sound films derives from this aesthetic position (Albrecht 1981). Faust. Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926), Murnau´s last film in Germany, with multiple references to the diverse literary visions of myth (Fernández- Cuenca 1966), is a total work of art due to the quantity of elements of other arts that introduces which are synthesized in the cinematic crucible.
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