Vintage Poster Archives
Goethe's Faust 1926 | Murnau UFA Silent Film Poster
Goethe's Faust 1926 | Murnau UFA Silent Film Poster
Couldn't load pickup availability
A red-cloaked devil grins over the shoulder of young Faust, one clawed arm pointing across a dark interior toward a lit stone archway. In the archway stands Gretchen, teal-gowned and clutching a small red prayer book, her face turned back toward the two figures. The composition is high-contrast and deliberate: Mephisto and Faust occupy shadow; Gretchen occupies light. The yellow hand-lettered title arcs across the top; the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer script closes the base. J.H. Tooker Print Co. of New York produced the sheet.
This is the US release one-sheet for F.W. Murnau's 1926 UFA production, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Murnau drew on Goethe's 1808 Faust as well as earlier folk versions of the legend, casting Emil Jannings as Mephisto and Goesta Ekman in the title role. The film was the most expensive UFA production until Metropolis the following year; Murnau prepared a separate cut specifically for American audiences. The poster artwork reflects the illustrative style American exhibitors favoured in the mid-1920s, translating Weimar Expressionist shadow-play into a warmer, more figurative hand suited to US lobby display.
Murnau left Germany for Hollywood almost immediately after completing Faust, signing with Fox and directing Sunrise (1927), which won the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production at the first ceremony in 1929. Faust represents the end of his German period and the beginning of a transatlantic reputation that would shape cinema's visual grammar for decades.
A poster at the crossroads of two film industries and two continents. Reproduced from an archival source and printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper.
