Goethe’s Faust
A Tragedy Then. A Tragedy Now.

I wanted to make the story of  Faust flow. Some translations try to keep the meter and rhyme. The story, sentiments and profound observations, I think, get mangled in the process. I preferred to make the story as comprehensible as possible. However, I wasn’t satisfied with my first attempts and eventually reshot the early scenes of Part 1 after most of the rest of Part 1 was done, when I had developed a routine that worked for me. I didn’t trust again my improvisational skills. With help from six or more translations I wrote out the script and memorized it.

The process in production was to shoot the parts of the play first. These scenes were shot outside in Colorado near my home. This is challenging . There were countless delays and reshoots because of capricious wind. The documentary components, such as the “Many Loves of JW Goethe” were shot primarily in the studio of Mark Tachna, Colorado Springs Video. Mark had a green screen and a teleprompter. The teleprompter seemed like cheating: memorization not necessary. The green screen allowed me to use my personal photographs of Colorado to try to match the emotional color of what I was saying. 

Part 2 was a most challenging story to tell. Goethe described Part 1 as objective and Part 2 as subjective. Acts 2 and 3 of Part 2, which are dream scenes, are laden with Greco-Roman mythological references. The relationship to the main story line can be obscure. I think my telling and explanation are reasonable.

The cinematography was completed by Mike Huxley of  Braveworld Productions at the Gibson Mansion in Canon City, Colorado, which is owned by Brendan Pardue. It has a unique decor which includes life sized sculptures of Michael the Archangel in full battle array.  Mike also filmed the “Sons and Brothers “ in concert, which is integral to the movie.

Mark Tachna, performed successfully the daunting task of taking the three different camera formats and finding a common editing process. Closed captioning followed and then came the process of abridging the original 8 hour documentary into the shorter version. Take a look at the trailer to get a taste.

Measure of a Man,
Lyrics by Sons and Brothers

We were holed up on Black Mesa
Near a wash that had no name
Straining and seeking shelter from the sun and pouring rain
Three days of  hunting mavericks on a god forsaken ranch
There was plenty ventured boys, but nothing gained

I was moaning and complaining about the life that I had led
I said Jim there must be better ways for a man to get ahead.
And if it ain’t cold and freezing then it’s hot as hell instead
Jim just fixed a level gaze at me and then he said:
It’s times like these that takes the measure of a man
It’s times like these you choose to run or make a stand
Oh the dark night of your soul is here to help you grow
And you will find that you come to treasure all the times,
you met the measure of a man.

Blooper Reel

“Tongue of Toad” is one of those George Carlin expressions that you just hardly hear or say and pretty soon it doesn’t make any sense!

Father Eugene

Father Eugene’s classes were models of precision and organization. First, there was oral testing on vocabulary. Then we were frequently assigned to create a conversation with a classmate using recent grammar lessons and a long list of  German idioms. Those conversations were heard. Homework was collected. Then we had a grammar lesson. Then Father Eugene played his reel-to- reel tape deck and we listened to his cherished recording of  “Faust,” which was recorded in Germany. We followed along on our mimeographed text sheets. (Anyone not remember the heady aroma of fresh mimeograph ink?) Certain lines were marked for memorization. Assignments were given. The class concluded with Father Eugene at the piano leading us in singing of German songs.

Father Eugene had a profound respect for Goethe’s contribution to the German language development. He would say: “If you were learning German on Herr Goethe’s knee, he would teach you that…” I was struck, when he told us how “Faust” was a work of Goethe’s entire adult lifetime. Goethe would work on it, put it away and then sometimes years later resume work. Certainly he himself changed in these interims, yet he kept all the pieces written at different times together in the play.

   This admiration transferred to me in part because I recognized a special quality in Father Eugene. He ran like a Swiss clock. He was recognized for his own musical talents. He was asked to sing acapella at a large open ceremony in New York City. His face was deeply creased by the lines of his perpetual smile. He coached the award winning Glee Club. He did all this while dealing with his own personal devil, multiple sclerosis. My friendship with him continued throughout college and medical school. I would understand better what he had to battle to maintain his smile and energy level.

One of our teachers at St. Benedict’s advised us: “ Question everything. That way, what you hold onto will truly be your own.”

In the following decades I was curious to see what light Herr Goethe’s “ Faust” might throw on the process.