Camilla Horn

German director F.W. Murnau cast the inimitable Emil Jannings as Mephisto, to whom the aging Faust sells his soul for renewed youth, wealth and power. Channeling Goethe, Murnau creates a phantasmagoric vision of the struggle between good and evil. In one of the most famous sequences in film history, we see Mephisto born as a primordial creature from the heavens and sent to the netherworld. This was Murnau's last German film before moving to Hollywood.

This European fantasy features excellent and surprisingly imaginative clay animation combined with live-action to tell the story of a man who sells his soul to Satan without the benefit of a lawyer.