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Jul 07, 2017Nursebob rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Director René Clair’s cheeky adaptation of the Faust legend stars legendary Swiss character actor Michel Simon (a Gallic version of Monty Woolley) as the boisterous demon Mephistopheles who comes to Earth seeking to buy the soul of unhappily aging Professor Faust (also played by Simon). Told with much humour and diabolical subterfuge, Clair’s film belongs squarely to Simon whose blustering presence and good-natured evil carries everyone through the occasional dry spell---his overly confident Mephistopheles both the instigator of chaos and its collateral victim. The rest of the cast, notably Gérard Philipe as the young Faust and Nicole Besnard as his gypsy love, put in fine performances aided in large part by a musical score of choral arrangements and Michel Kelber’s grandiose cinematography which spins between 18th century cobblestone streets, pastoral countrysides, and the royal palace itself. Blasphemy is rarely this much fun!