I Watch Films: Doctor Faustus

 

Doctor Faustus

In 1966 Richard Burton worked with the Oxford University Dramatic Society to put on a stage production of Christopher Marlowe’s play The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus. This is a film version of that production, keeping the majority of the performance the same.

Doctor Faustus earns his doctorate to the cheers of the student body. Against the wishes of his friends he attempts magic, summoning a demon, Mephistopheles. They sign a contract in blood, that Mephistopheles will serve him for 24 years, in return for his soul at the end of the period.

Faustus is mostly interested in two things. One is the nature of the universe, especially the spiritual dimensions (heaven, hell etc) He’s shown the seven deadly sins at play. This leads to the second thing, which is women. He conjures his perfect bride, though Mephistopheles convinces him not to marry. You’ve got his soul, why are you trying to get him to sin more? At the court of the emperor he conjures Helen of Troy, notable for being Elizabeth Taylor, Burton’s wife, covered in silver. There’s also a fun scene where they invisibly spy on the pope and make farting noises, the last remnants of the mostly abridged comic scenes.

It's a little stagey, which of course is fine for an adaption of a play. It leans into the darkness; four hundred years after it was written it has few surprises. Unless you haven’t seen it of course.

Watch This: A dark adaption of the famous play – Possibly the only film adaption depending on how you class them

Don’t Watch This: By now you’ve seen all the other deals-with-a-devil films and what does this, stylised, neo-Elizabethan one have to offer?