Faust (Murnau, 1926) / DOMESTIC version + FITTING Brock-score (7) / edited by Pieter de Rooij

This video, a special edit prepared and presented by me, Pieter de Rooij, shows the seventh part of the domestic version of Murnau's Faust in a slightly different way than usual. It's the result of an experiment I did to find a way to combine the 'domestic cut' of Murnau's film 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 greatly and there are often striking differences in the order and in the composition of shots, the domestic version certainly being the superior of the two. 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 evrywhere 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 very 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 film. 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 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, hope you'll find this 'experiment' as fascinating as I do and I hope you'll enjoy this video. [Pieter de Rooij / August 2011]

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• F.W. Murnau
• Faust
• Timothy Brock
• Germany
• cinema
• film
• silent movies
• scores
• film music
• film scores
• United States
• USA
• domestic version
• export version
• soundtracks
• Pieter de Rooij