Germany 1960 | Director: Peter Gorski, | Gustaf Gründgens | Theatre, Drama | 128 Minutes | 35mm | OF

Monday, 17. February 2025, 7 pm

Blue Salon, Room 012, HfG Karlsruhe

Free admission, donation requested

Gorski's 1960s film adaptation of Goethe's “Faust I” captures the tragedy from the Hamburg Schauspielhaus on the big screen, with an outstanding Gustav Gründgens as Mephisto - to this day, it is considered one of the best interpretations of the deepest human dilemmas between good and evil! “The task of this film adaptation must be to find the exact middle ground between filmed theater and pure film,” said Gründgens. The play should “neither be photographed nor softened by cinematic showmanship.” Theater film is thus neither a filmed stage nor pure cinematic art, yet it follows the camera beyond the horizon of experience of a theater visit. The color and lighting design sketches a dark world, while at the same time resolutely distancing itself from mysticism and blurriness in order to rely entirely on the expression of the actors.

Gorski’s FAUST uses the deep blacks of its theater setttings to enhance the mystical atmosphere of the play and to position the characters effectively. Black, symbolizing mystery, death, and power, frames the central themes of hell, damnation, and Mephisto’s dark magic. This stark contrast, embodied by Mephisto’s mocking white mask, exposes the dualities within Faust’s character.

Supporting film: A Chairy Tale

Director: Norman McLaren

Kanada 1957 | 10 Minutes | 35mm | Original

The Kino im Blauen Salon, the student cinema of the Hochschule für Gestaltung, has been run by students since 2017 and has been a registered association since the beginning of 2024: https://kinoimblauensalon.de/de/news.

More about the film series in winter semester 2024/25:

Welcome to our new series CINEMA OF COLORS, in which we are dedicating ten films to the fascinating phenomenon of color in cinema: how does it come about, how does it work, what does it tell...? After all, apart from time, there is probably nothing more essential than light and color, which feed our lives and our projectors. While black and white dominated early cinema for decades, the introduction of Technicolor in the 1930s ushered in a new era for our viewing habits: Color sticks deep in our memory as an emotion. Who could forget the girl's coat in SCHINDLER'S LIST? Why can you immediately recognize a Wes Anderson film by its look, and what color is the MATRIX again?

Our program spans the entire winter semester like a rainbow and shows that the Blauer Salon is not resting on its monochrome reputation. Come along and immerse yourself in a colorful palette of classics and rarities from the international cinema landscape: 10 films of various genres from 10 different production countries and 10 decades will chase the grey season away from your eyes and hearts!

22.02.25 Aktwechsel - 35mm Workshop

03.03.25 The Love Witch (2016)