Jan Svankmajer, the startling Czech surrealist has created a bizarre world merging live-action with stop-motion footage and including imaginative puppetry and claymation. A series of strange and magical encounters lie in wait for his 'everyman', plucked off the Prague streets to enter the world of Mephistophiles. Although the film does not serve to accurately portray the Faustus legend, it utilizes the legend in a rather imaginative way, borrowing and blending elements from the story as told by Goethe, Marlowe and Gounod with traditional folk renditions, having a distinctly Modernist, Absurdist, Kafkaesque feel. The tone is dark but humorous. The voice in the English version was provided by Andrew Sachs. Superb.