Black and white cinematography seems to have been redefined in Faust: this is a film shot in darkness and light. Lotte Eisner's elegiac description of the opening shots set the mood for one of the most beautifully crafted films of all time, starring Emil Jannings as the subtly mischievous Mephistopheles, and Swedish actor Gosta Ekman as Faust: "This film starts with the most remarkable and poignant images the German chiaroscuro ever created. The chaotic density of the opening shots, the light dawning in the mists, the rays beaming through the opaque air, are breathtaking. No other director, not even Lang, ever succeeded in conjuring up the supernatural as masterfully as this. The entire town seems to be covered by the vast folds of a demon's cloak (or is it a gigantic, lowering cloud?) as the demoniac forces of darkness prepare to devour the powers of light. Carl Hoffmann's camera gives the terrestrial part of this film extraordinary modeling and has the power of impregnating everything, down to the cloth of a garment, with diabolism..."