Doktor Faustus

This may not be the perfect adaptation of Thomas Mann's great, long and complex novel, DOKTOR FAUSTUS--it's been too long since I last read it--but it stands as a powerful film nonetheless. Memorable characters and scenes are there and there is an overarching sense of doom about the whole thing. This was Mann's retelling of the Faust legend with a musician as the protagonist, a man who bargains with Satan for success as a composer. His price: never to experience love for another human being, not just for a woman. The two objects of his love (non-romantic, a close friend and a very young nephew) are tragically taken from the world, when he betrays the bargain. In the end, there is a parallel made between this composer's fate and that of Nazi Germany. Jon Finch, the excellent British actor who had to be dubbed for this German production, seems ideally committed to the lead role and the rest of the cast is without exception very good.