The Last Faust (2019)

Interesting facts

• Based on: Faust and The Last Faust (Gesamtkunstwerk)
• Filmed in: London

The Last Faust is a 2019 feature art film written and directed by the German artist Philipp Humm. Set in 2059, it is a contemporary interpretation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1808 Faust and the first film directly based on both parts of the tragedy. It stars English actors Steven Berkoff and, Martin Hancock (Faust). Its music is based on Richard Wagner with tracks from Swiss electronic music duo Yello.

Production

The film was part of a bigger project – Humm's Gesamtkunstwerk (also called The Last Faust), a total works of art with over 150 artworks, including an illustrated novella, and a collection of fine-art photos, sculptures, pencil drawings, and paintings. Originally, Humm envisioned to only produce a fine-art photo collection. It then evolved organically to a full-length feature film.

The core script telling the story of Dr. Faust. Humm used the English translation by Martin Greenberg of the original text from Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, which Humm edited and shortened. The script was structured in 37 chapters or scenes, which Humm felt were the most relevant.

A narrator script, which guides the viewer through the 37 scenes and tells the story of Faust's successor - Dr. Goodfellow. This part was written by Philipp Humm and Ellen Elkin.

The scenes were visualized by Humm into 37 large scale pencil drawings, which later became the storyboard for the film and a foundation for the fine-art photos.

Following the structure of the script, the film was shot in two parts over 20 days with three days of rehearsals.

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