Faust with live music score by The Invincible Czars!
Screen 1
THURSDAY, AUGUST 27 AT 7:00PM
General Admission: $22 | Loft Members: $20
Passes Not Accepted
In 2026, THE INVINCIBLE CZARS celebrate 100 years of F.W. Murnau’s 1926 silent masterpiece FAUST by performing their tastefully modern soundtrack live with the movie at theatres across the U.S. and Canada. Their brand-new electrifying score marries new and old elements of classical music, bossa nova and even a touch of heavy metal to bring the movie to life for contemporary audiences, and incorporates a mix of instruments like flute, violin and electric guitar.
ABOUT THE FILM
An elderly alchemist names Faust (Gösta Ekman) makes a pact with the demon Mephisto (Emil Jannings) to gain the power to protect his village from a plague. Faust soon succumbs to temptation and asks Mephisto to restore his youth and help him acquire all the hedonistic pleasures that Earth can offer. Eventually, his love affair with a young woman named Gretchen (Camilla Horn) leads to tragic and devastating consequences for them both.
Faust, from celebrated German filmmaker F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu), is the quintessential “deal with the devil” tale based on a centuries-old European legend. The legend inspired Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s 1808 play which is considered Germany’s greatest literary work. Virtually every “sell your soul” type story from the film Crossroads to songs like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” owes a powerful debt to Faust. (Dir. by F.W. Murnau, 1926, Germany, silent with English intertitles, 106 mins., Not Rated)
ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK
Austin-based band The Invincible Czar’s score for Faust is mostly original material inspired by film score composers like Bernard Herrmann and John Williams, peppered with cinematic metal ala Fantomas, and even a little Marcos Valle-esque bossa nova. The band keeps their tradition of incorporating music from Russian classical composers, revisiting their renditions of Mussorgsy’s Pictures at an Exhibition and A Night on Bald Mountain in particular for this soundtrack. Five players perform the score live on violin, electric guitar, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, glockenspiel, keyboard, and drums.
