Of all Faust stories this film is the beautiful one: no demonetization of either devil or human. Every one in film are very human in their needs and their deeds. Devil gives the youth to Faust, not to have his earlier youth but any youth with which Faust can live his unlived life. Devil here is the defender of man, the one heavenly body that knows what it is to be old, near dying, weak and soft in head. Devil has pity of man that God never had, God only had plans. This message is deliberating and gives beauty to life, any life, but certainly to that new youth Faust has in this story. He really sees why his life went unlived and he knows - thanks to Devil himself - how to live it now. Gerard Philipe is great and convincing in the role of Faust: one believes that that youthful charm, energy and elan is intellectual, too. He might have been a Nietzsche of his days, in Medieval Time, full of attitude and vital in intellect! A great movie, real antidote to those German versions of Faust where Faust is just a bad dream of commerce.
Review of Beauty and the Devil
